James,
I have purchased a Koa dash from Randy at Prestige and am extremely pleased
with it. While it was a bit of sticker shock at first, I have to admit it
was well worth it in the end. Randy is a great guy and loves these cars and
truly cares about the quality of the end product. The glossy dash is not
"cheap" looking by any means and in fact highlights the grain of the veneer
on the dash. Just think of the dash on the older Jaguars or Rolls with the
burled walnut gloss dash.
Randy says that he makes dashes for many of the big three and I believe they
are the satin finishes as well as the glossy.
I actually ordered standard walnut dashes from all three and was not pleased
with the look of any of them before ordering from Prestige. I think the
issue is that the original dashes were European walnut veneer and the
replacements are American walnut veneer. They are much different in color
and grain. Don't take this as gospel, that's just my impression from looking
at original dashes and replacements. The originals age to a golden brown
color where American walnut ages to a much different medium brown to reddish
brown. There is nothing wrong with the replacement dashes from the big
three, and in fact all of them were of better quality than the original. The
three I received were all plain, even grained, American medium brown walnut
veneer and were not especially "pretty". In fact, they were so plain, I
thought they looked cheap.
Prestige doesn't advertise because he seems to have too much business
already without it. He makes them in batches so there is always some delay
between order and delivery. It's worth the wait.
I'll send you a picture offline.
Kirby Vaughan
'74 TR6 French Blue
'74 TR6 White
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-6pack@Autox.Team.Net [mailto:owner-6pack@Autox.Team.Net] On
Behalf Of James_ TR6
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2007 2:59 PM
To: 6pack@autox.team.net; triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: [6pack] Prestige Dashboards: Questions
Hello.
So my dashboard is messed up from a leaky W/S. ugh.
I want a Prestige Dash, but un-sure which one will be like original. Walnut
maybe?
Also, what finish? I personally dislike Super high glossy. looks like the
fake plastic type. IMHO.
Is there a guitar finish that is between light finish and high gloss? i seem
to remember
hearing something about three types of finish. I did try to call Prestige
(randy?)
i did beg for some pictures, but never got any. i understand though...he is
a craftsman
and not everyone has a digital camera or can afford time to document
everything.
hmmm, maybe i could fly out and help him document the dashes!
some time ago, some very nice folks emailed me pics of their dashes,
unfortunately Hotmail
deleted all my emails. Feel free to email any pics of dashboards. :-)
any insight is welcomed.
i plan to order one soon...if prestige is still around. the number was busy
a bit ago.
=== This list supported in part by The Vintage Triumph Register
=== http://www.vtr.org
|