There has been some comments on replacing vinyl dashes and also repairing
damaged wooden steering wheels recently. Here are some of my experiences.
My restoration is a GT5 which had a very damaged dash and a really bad
steering wheel.
Trying to keep it short the fix went like this.
Steering wheel is wood with two sections around a central metal core. rear
wood section is scalloped. With my beast, weather and time allowed rust to
expand the centre metal ring and push the timber sections apart. once this
started it was self sustaining. The result was the upper and lower timber
sections were quite fragile but still retained lots of old varnish. The fix
was to remove both timber sections, dont worry if they break into a couple
of sections, if you look closely they were made from two or more timber
pieces.. Next you have to remove all traces of varnish. Time consuming but
worth it. Now the metal core must have all traces of corrosion removed and
then treated with a good rust converter. When you are happy with all
components, including the separate parts of the timber, it is time to
reassemble.
Use a good epoxy glue, preferably suitable for marine use, Glue all sections
of timber to the metal ring and bind securely with lots of tape. Hopefully
you wont have many gaps. If gape filling is necessary, use the best marine
grade filler you can find. After much final fine sanding, you will need to
stain the wood as all color has gone. I used a good stain however I am not
happy with the final color. Now coat your new wooden steering wheel with a
marine grade gloss varnish, preferably with a spray system.
Burled Walnut Wooden Dashes
The later GT had Burled Walnut wooden dashes and it consists of a thin wood
veneer applied to the plastic Bakalite form for the dash. The Wood Veneer is
glued to the plastic dash but in my case only remnants of veneer was left.
The fix was very time consuming but rewarding. If you are starting with a
vinyl covered dash your problems are halved. Those with Walnut dashes have
to remove all traces of the previous veneer by careful sanding without
damaging the underlying bakalite plastic. New Walnut Veneer can be sourced
from good plywood suppliers however it comes in small sizes and is full of
irregularities. Once again dont worry, pick two pieces of the best grain
you can find (I needed two pieces for the full dash).
Make sure you have overlap when sizing the veneer for the dash and spend
some time making the join as small as possible , preferably above and below
the speedo. Gluing the Veneer to the base is very important, the Veneer is
quite fragile and not flat with many small imperfections. Use a good wood
glue and get a vacuum bag used to store blankets etc. When you glue the
Veneer to the dash, put it in the bag and suck out the air. With this method
you have a chance to get a good contact and a flat surface.
If the end result has some bulges you can carefully inject some more glue
and clamp the section with wooden blocks. You will also have to carefully
cut out the sections for the instruments and switches using a very sharp
cutter, you may still have some splitting from the Veneer. Keep the cutouts,
very important. The sanding dust from fine sanding of the dash as well as
sanding the cutout material will give you a very good filler (combined with
glue) to carefully patch up all imperfections in your genuine walnut dash.
When totally happy with the timber finish apply coats of Gloss Marine Grade
varnish with a spray system, brushing leaves an uneven surface requiring
more sanding. I actually applied over 9 coats of brush and spray before the
desired effect was achieved.
Steve Graham
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