MK1 Escort Wood dash trim

[BaileyMex]

Has anyone got any wood dash trim kicking about? 

I changed mine years ago for carbon fibre ones and sold all the wood - regret it now and toying with the idea of going back to wood. 

Photo just for attention....

Cheers

 

[Ray]

hard to get, very expensive in crap condition and very expensive to have restored properly

badly stored and the inner protective paint worn off, the glove boxes warp

[Rally Pack 2000]

I do like the look and cant blame you for wanting to go back it it but gosh I have seen the prices of some that dont even include all the bits and the prices take my breath away.

[Vista]

I think I have some bit of it in the garage but as Ray says, it will need restored. 

I used them as templates to have replicas made out of teak for some of the bits I needed to replace than had them stained & varnished to match

[BaileyMex]

11 hours ago, Vista said:

I used them as templates to have replicas made out of teak for some of the bits I needed to replace than had them stained & varnished to match

That was going to be my next suggestion, what would be a good quality thin wood that would have a nice grain? Teak you say?

Any pics of the ones you made?

[Rally Pack 2000]

18 hours ago, Vista said:

I think I have some bit of it in the garage but as Ray says, it will need restored. 

I used them as templates to have replicas made out of teak for some of the bits I needed to replace than had them stained & varnished to match

 

7 hours ago, BaileyMex said:

That was going to be my next suggestion, what would be a good quality thin wood that would have a nice grain? Teak you say?

Any pics of the ones you made?

I have seen a couple of people ask about these maybe you could pool together and get a batch accurately made and get a bit of a discount in the process?

[Xp197777]

There’s a couple of bits on eBay at the mo

[katana]

Please don't take this as a flipant comment but surely with the amount of smaller / DIY sized home CNC routers around it should be possible to CAD up the profiles and pieces to turn out many accurate copies? The use of Teak, whilst a probably 'suitable' wood, cannot be justified these days as rarely is it sustainably sourced, and those that do use it are tending towards using veneers to get the most from every log. Veneering has long been used for dashboard wood trims and if a decent stable baltic ply substrate was used, a good veneer finish over would easily outlast most owners! Even the alternative that Brewer found on 'Wheeler Dealers' that entailed a vinyl dip and lacquer finish in the All aggro episode, looked pretty good to me.

[Vista]

3 hours ago, katana said:

Please don't take this as a flipant comment but surely with the amount of smaller / DIY sized home CNC routers around it should be possible to CAD up the profiles and pieces to turn out many accurate copies? The use of Teak, whilst a probably 'suitable' wood, cannot be justified these days as rarely is it sustainably sourced, and those that do use it are tending towards using veneers to get the most from every log. Veneering has long been used for dashboard wood trims and if a decent stable baltic ply substrate was used, a good veneer finish over would easily outlast most owners! Even the alternative that Brewer found on 'Wheeler Dealers' that entailed a vinyl dip and lacquer finish in the All aggro episode, looked pretty good to me.

I agree re use of teak. When I had it done in about 2006, it was from an offcut left over from laying of a teak deck on a new build yacht project I was involved in. Purchase of teak is fairly tightly controlled these days.

[Ray]

the guy that runs the sporting escort owners club, Geoff Lane, used to make repro to order, not sure ifhe still does or the cost either, but imho it still needed re veneering to look anything like original

originally all the dash pieces were veneered in american cherry, except the glove box wich could have either been american cherry or walnut, whatever they had to hand, and were originally RS/MEX, the along came the 1300E, and they made door cappings to go with it, these were not veneered, and were 1300E specific

early wood appears to be of a light stain, almost golden in colour, but by November 73, this had changed to a very much darker shade

[BaileyMex]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it, just wished I'd kept mine now. But we live and learn.

Might look into having a go at making some over the summer if I get time.

Cheers all