I have a spare set of woodwork (trim) for my car I'd like to re-do. It's veneered in IIRC walnut, and I'd rather like a custom job like say maple. The door parts are fairly simple being flat, while the dash ones have a curve in one direction only. How easy a job is it and can anyone recommend a site to read up on it? I've found a couple with rather conflicting advice.
Its easy enough to do it ..if you can clamp and get a good match between the veneer and the dash.
I'd be inclined to make a female mould - doesn't have to be perfect - by wrapping the dash in clingfilm and e.g. pressing down into a bit of wet cement.
Then take the new veneer and soak it to hell in water and ammonia.
Put it in the female mould and push the dash down onto it and leave for a few days to dry.
Then remove the dash and the clingfilm, coat it with PVA and whack it down on the veneer..and leave for a day clamped up (use scrap bibles/Qurans etc etc. to weight).
Any edges hat show signs of lifting can be tacked down with CA.
================================ I think the clever way to do this is to use a vacuum bag. I've never tried it but it might be worth a quick 'google' to see if it produces any guidance.
Cic.
Flat Triumphs are easy, convex curves like door cappings are a bit harder and concave shapes (some dashboard ends) are a bastard.
Books: Tage Frid's first cabinetry book . Not cheap, but an excellent all-round book.
Technique uses hot hide glue (not cold) and a veneering hammer. Then you vacuum bag it, especially for convexes. An easy vacuum bag to find are some clothes-storage vac bags from Lidl and a vacuum cleaner. Or you can make your own with thick poly sheet and gaffer tape. You don't need anything resembling a vacuum, just a pressure differential. If you're veneering a thin panel over a framework buck then you don't even _want_ a vacuum, just a few psi difference - otherwise you end up with "starved dog".
Hot film glues only work if you have a heated press and a shape to match (i.e. flat). Dead easy if you have though - you can even make your own hot films with PVA glue.
Contact glue is a bad idea for veneering. It's easy, but it's awfully crude and the results usually disappoint. It might work if you vacuum bag and you're not fussy about positioning, i.e. you're not fussy about figure placement and you can trim generous edges afterwards.
Tools are a veneer hammer and a veneer saw. You can't buy either ready-made, but you can make your own. Hammers are easy enough (use a
3/16" brass edge and make it well rounded). Saws are most easily made by buying one (Axminster) and then stoning the sides until the teeth are a knife-edge along the length of the blade.As a finish for UK saloons, french polish is good. Not UV stable enough for foreigners, boats or convertibles though.
Either move the ignition switch off the dashboard or use Rustin's Floorcoat to finish. Nothing else is hard enough to resist keys banging against it. It's also good for door cappings.
You won't thank me, because they sell all sorts of wonderful tools that will leave you wallet thinner: Dick fine tools sells a German (#705689) and a French veneer hammer (#705688) and veneer saws Japanese and German, (#712703 and #703810).
, English available, icon bottom right, 9 EUR shipping to the UK on orders under 300.
Thomas Prufer
I buy plenty from Dick (and Dieter Schmidt) already. Why is it that the best place to buy Japanese stationery from the UK is to get it mail-order from a German woodworking toolshop?
The French veneer hammer they list is OK, but a crazy price. The German one has an iron working face and I've no idea how you use such a thing. Certainly I've never had the slightest success with that style. The iron face is prone to marking the veneer surface and the lower conductivity doesn't give the same chilling effect as brass.
The veneer saw they sell is a Kunz, a brand which is only one notch up from Anant. You can certainly buy one of these, but you'll still have to sharpen the edge on it yourself. Personally I prefer the handle shape of the French style one Axminster sell. I've never got on with the Japanese pattern one from Dick as it's too curved for veneer, although it's a handy little saw for some jobs (great for model boatmaking, according to my Dad).
Thanks for the tips, chaps. Trouble is as usual they range from 'I *think* I can do that' to 'far canal, I'll get it done professionally'.
Just to add, the door bits are flat veneer with a painted or whatever edge, and the dash ones a simple curve in one plane only again with a painted edge. There's no real pattern match either as the dash bits are small - no more than about 9" long by about 4" wide and separated by air vents, etc.
Ah, Dieter's the next bookmark on my list... Here's another one, may be useful to you for supplies, period hardware, odd stuff:
And iron could be nasty on oak veneer...
I think I have a Kunz, or it may be the one with the cherries. It was on sale at a ironmonger's closeout, and was much less that Dick's price, even without the closeout discount -- I think I may have paid a quid or so. And it is indeed blunt. No matter, I do very little veneering; and I'd let the cabinetmakers down the street do any I'd need. I keep their power tools working, they do my woodwork if it's something that needs experience. They'd be just as liable to use a sharp chisel than a veneer saw -- "easier to keep sharp, easier to find, quicker anyway" would probably be their reasons. (But they do have a long clamp/power saw thing for ripping veneer.)
Thomas Prufer
Just to put a perspective on this.....
Some 15 years ago, a colleague had the dashboard panel of his Bentley re-veneered and finished by their own operation.
The result was absolutely outstanding by any measure, which was good, because said colleague had lovingly restored the rest of the vehicle. Now it was in pink, (well he called it champagne) but he claimed it was original.
At any rate, the finished result was superb.
It cost him £2000 at the time......
Having said that.... to put another perspective on costs...... I recently looked in the windows of some designer shops in the St Germain area of Paris. In one, there were assorted designer radiators. One particularly caught my eye - a stainless steel production of low profile with a seat that would go in a conservatory. It has a price tag of "seventy nine ninety five euros". No there wasn't a decimal point.
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