Mike,
I don't think anyone is trying to put one over on you. I haven't seen
a ton of dashboards before but what you describe isn't uncommon when
working with veneer, especially on a woodworking piece that is larger
than a typical piece of veneer. When I was looking for a veneer that I
thought would look nice for my dash I only considered veneer that could
cover the entire dash. There were other pieces of veneer whose grain I
liked better but the piece wasn't large enough to cover the entire dash
without using two pieces of the same veneer and "butting" them up next
to each other. While I have done some basic woodworking before I do not
have extensive experience with all of the terminology. The New Yankee
Workshop is where I gained most of my education. Your explanation
sounds logical to me and makes sense. I can understand why he would
encourage you to repair the piece instead of replacing it. Assuming the
only damage to your dash is to the poly layer and not to the wood
itself then repairing the existing dash would make sense. The process
is pretty straightforward. Lightly sand the existing poly to smooth any
imperfections and make sure you do not have any poly that is flaking in
any way. Once the poly is sanded smooth apply some high quality
polyurethyene designed for exposure to the outside air and direct sun.
Apply one coat at a time, allow for sufficient dry time, sand smooth
and repeat until you have 4 or 5 good coats and you end up with a
finish you are happy with. The nice thing about poly is that if you
screw it up you can sand it and try again until you get it right. Hope
this helps. I am sure others will have good suggestions as well.
Aaron
Aaron Cropley
71 TR6 (Throttle Body Injection!)
http://www.triumphowners.com/108
Topsham, Maine
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Corbitt <Michael_Corbitt@ous.edu>
To: lang@isis.mit.edu
Cc: 6pack@Autox.Team.Net
Sent: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 17:02:53 -0800
Subject: Repairing Plywood Dashboard - What's a Bookend
Perhaps, I'm the uniformed one here, or someone is playing a joke on
me. When I
look at my dashboard, I see a thin vertical line in the middle of the
dash that
goes top to bottom. I always assumed a previous owner had attempted to
redo the
dash, but was told by Barry Nelson at the Portland All British meet
this last
year that this dashboard appeared in some TR250s and early TR6's.
Basically,
Barry indicated that a piece of veneer is split in half and then
unfolded like a
book so both sides of the dash have identical wood grain patterns. At
least
this is what I understood Barry to tell me. He said this is something
I should
try to repair as opposed to replace. Is my leg being pulled here?
Mike
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