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HybridZ

wooden dash?


Mack

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anyone ever made one for an S30 or an S130? just throwing it out there. might be interesting.

 

I have a 280ZX and i was kind of thinking rosewood with silver (looking) metal inlaid where the different peices of it would be joined together(waround gauge pods and instrunment cluster) with a grant GT wooden steering wheel and a wooden gear shift knob. Ive got a blue and silver 2 tone interior. kind of make it into a bit of a GT car as opposed to a sports car.

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I had this idea many years ago...it would look great but how do you make it without all the weight , and would such a complex shape crack. How does rosewood handle different climate conditions? Teak is preferred by boaters...isnt it?

 

And besides.....I realized I didnt have the skill set to whittle something that big! :)

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What do you mean bend the curves...I was assuming he would carve the entire dash out of a "solid" piece...

 

 

 

Teak would work well, it's light and fairly strong. It also forms easily when wet. It's a patience thing. Just bend the curves carefully and make sure you have the right tools for cutting.
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What do you mean bend the curves...I was assuming he would carve the entire dash out of a "solid" piece...

 

If the parts are thin enough, they can be steamed and bent into shape. The sides of acoustic guitars are made like this. I don't think you could form one piece into an entire dash this way, but you could definitely give some curvature to a multi piece assembly. Another option would be to build it up from a framework like a boat hull or airplane fuselage. Thin strips glued down onto a temporary frame could be made to conform to most curves while still being pretty light weight. Carving the dash from a solid chunk of wood would be pretty difficult I'd imagine. Like making a dugout canoe. Finding a piece of wood large enough within a reasonable budget would be hard, and if it wasn't properly stabalized the end product would probably warp badly as the wood adapted to environmental changes after carving.

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I had envisioned makming a multi peice dash out of several peices and joining them together using dovetails or biscuits as glue. then, sand off the rough edges to a final form. Kind of like building an octogon out of thin wooden peices? does that make sense?

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I had envisioned makming a multi peice dash out of several peices and joining them together using dovetails or biscuits as glue. then, sand off the rough edges to a final form. Kind of like building an octogon out of thin wooden peices? does that make sense?

 

For the most part you can do a plain edge to edge glueing with the correct glue. Biscuits would be ok to do, but you need a certain amount of wood to hold it and not crack. Dovetails would be a royal pain in the rear, but I could show you a device that does awesome dovetail work.

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Everyone is aware of rust issues with Z cars. You're next battle may be with termites.

 

HA!!! it would be sealed on both sides (finished and unfinished) with some heavy duty multiple layers of clear coat.

 

and Im interested Goldfish in that tool!

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