Woodworking advice needed: Building a wooden dash?

In reply to frenchyd :

I don't know... looking at the picture of the real dash in the first post, the dash looks like a lot more wood than gauges & controls.

While spraying usually does give a better finish, some of the modern poly's can be brushed on with surprising tolerance of brush strokes.

what I would do is a combination of your futon wood and ply. Use the real wood from the futon to make the "cap" across the top that frames the dash and some nice sapele for the part that actually handles the gages and controls. The real wood will stiffen the ply and give it a good base while the ply will keep the real wood from warping. Ply is also less likely to splinter and check along the gage and switch holes than real wood.

mad_machine said:

what I would do is a combination of your futon wood and ply. Use the real wood from the futon to make the "cap" across the top that frames the dash and some nice sapele for the part that actually handles the gages and controls. The real wood will stiffen the ply and give it a good base while the ply will keep the real wood from warping. Ply is also less likely to splinter and check along the gage and switch holes than real wood.

This is a fabulous idea.

[MY THREE YEAR OLD THREAD ABOUT BUILDING A DASH WAS RESURRECTED, PRESUMABLY BY THIS USER WHO i SUSPECT OF BEING A CANOE.  I JUST DESPAMIFIED THEIR POST. - JOEYM]

Wow, it's a really brilliant idea! I see you understand well woodworking and your sense of fashion is admirable! I'd like to ask you for advice. For such a project, you definitely need a good power tool. My father always said that if you want to do something of high quality, then the tools must be of high quality. Better yet, buy one multitasking machine and that's it, it will help you in any business. Well, for such machines you need good wood processing, and if you want some patterns. In general, some kind of wooden inserts in cars are always very beautiful and vintage looks like you are going back in time. Eh, nostalgia... I was looking to buy a saw from this list [SPAMIFICATION REMOVED] and I am totally lost in it. Does anyone have advice on how to choose?

Ian F said:

In reply to frenchyd :

I don't know... looking at the picture of the real dash in the first post, the dash looks like a lot more wood than gauges & controls.

While spraying usually does give a better finish, some of the modern poly's can be brushed on with surprising tolerance of brush strokes.

Poly's are plastic. Plastic does not like weather. Especially when the wood underneath is swelling and shrinking constantly due to humidity. 
   Use the shellac to seal the wood but shellac itself won't tolerate rain. 
  My recommendation is clear lacquer as a finish coat.  Buy a spray can and coat the shellac.  It will dry quickly and just before it's dry give it a second coat. Then install gauges, switches and controls. 

Hey Joey, did you ever get this done? 

No, not yet.   The oak to build this dash - scavenged from a futon - has been moved to my father-in-law's wood shop.  He's waiting on me.

There will probably be another temporary dash  before it is installed so I can try repositioning some dash components.  The current dash has the indicator lights for turn signals located too low; they are blocked by the wheel, and cannot be seen.  Unfortunately, the exhaust is loud enough that I can't hear the relays clicking.

I'd also like to change the position of the gauges.....I am thinking about having a single line of gauges at the top of the dash, with the top  of the gauges aligned.  We'd keep the larger spedo in middle, like it is now,  and try to move the switches over so they are under the smaller gauges on each side of the spedo.   That would open up real estate on the right side of the dash to accommodate the cigarette lighter/USB charger panel that I have.

Just to be different.

I recently had a friend show me how easy it is to  do a faux wood finish on metal. He uses a feather and a few tins of paint.

While I would want to practice a bit before I did the real deal, it certainly looked easier than making an entire wood dash.

Lots of YouTube vids on the subject

In reply to NOHOME :

well, that method would definitely be a lot more reistent to changes in humidity 

In reply to JoeyM :

P;is I hate wood..yet to find the proper flux that will let me weld back on the bits that I cut to make the piece too short.

NOHOME said:

In reply to JoeyM :

P;is I hate wood..yet to find the proper flux that will let me weld back on the bits that I cut to make the piece too short.

that would definitely make wood less annoying to use