Dashboard

[1938 P2 14]

Hi all now the weather is cheering up time to carry on with my much neglected restoration.

My dashboard did not come out in one piece the ends had rotted away 3" and I could not remove the Freewheel control.

I did manage to copy it onto a piece of MDF but I think this will not be suitable.

Has anyone on made their own dashboard?

Iain

[chris dancey]

I have made two, both exactly as they were made originally. The dashboards were ply with a thin veneered surface stuck on, they were not solid wood as many have made since. Some of the originals will be woodwormy, the ply was glued with ' horse blood ' which is like a sunday roast to woodworm.

[RodScarman]

.
.
I agree with Chris' [above] mine was veneered ply too. For my replacement I was able to stain/varnish ordinary ply "off the shelf" from my local timber merchants.

When renewing the dashboard on my 47/12 I didn't find any particular problems. Using material of a similar thickness, I drew around the original with a pencil and cut it out with a electric jigsaw and various drills etc etc.

However what was difficult, was to get the final [stain/varnish] finish to match the other existing woodwork.
I started with the wood paler and the grain less pronounced than required for the finished item. By applying various stains I eventually got it close to the original [but just slightly paler] When applying the final gloss varnish it seems to slightly darken/enrich the previous appearance [bearing in mind that if bare wood is stained wrongly it is very difficult to rectify it]

Another thing to watch out for, the colour of the finished wood sometimes changes colour depending on the angle it is viewed from. Perhaps the wood on the front of the "tool drawer" maybe a useful comparison. I used a polyurethane varnish with a uv filter encase light causes it to fade.

I'd try to get a good match for the finished dashboard, using scrap material or the back of the new dashboard. Rather than spoil your faithful copy of the original dashboard at this late stage [staining/varnishing]

The Freewheel Knob assembly can only be completely removed by loosening the screw that locks the inner cable [located at the rear of the gearbox] and then the whole length of inner cable can be withdrawn. Things would be easier when striping and assembling, if you also removed the chrome dome nut in the centre of the freewheel knob, this allows the inner cable to be withdrawn or inserted from there. This is covered in The Workshop Manual and previous posts on this list.

Rod Scarman

.

[1938 P2 14]

I did buy some oak veneer but I feel it might be too dark but I can try a bit.

[Holmefarmer]

On my '47 12 tourer I tried to match the existing cappings and tool box front after I had rubbed them down to raw wood. I tried many different wood veneered and the nearest I could get was one of 3 different Sapele veneers. I got samples of all 3 and finally settled on one which was close. I then "washed" it with a coat of light oak veneer. The match after varnishing with 3 coats of yacht varnish was not perfect, but it's a very good match. If anyone needs supplier details, please feel free to contact me.

[1938 P2 14]

Could you post a list of the suppliers you have used not had much luck locally.Iain