It is easy enough to use the heat-loc veneer glue, and attach the veneer with an iron. A dashboard is particularly easy to do, and saves the trouble and cost of building a vacuum press unless it is just something you want for other projects.


Your project is looking really good!

 

The trick with heat-lock glue is to apply it evenly with a roller.
Not too much glue, but enough to do the job.

 

It's been a frustrating few weeks working on the interior wood. Jon, I should have listened and simply invested in a vacuum press but I've had a lot of success veneering with traditional clamps and was certain it would work here. My first attempt at the dash top burl was a disaster - I clamped a thin sheet of Masonite over the burl along the forward and rear edges when gluing up. Unfortunately there wasn't sufficient tension down the center of the panel and the result is pictured here.

Simple enough - a thicker piece of Masonite should do the trick, and sure enough the clamps were under a lot of tension when gluing up this time. Unfortunately when I returned a few hours later the entire panel had split down the center the entire length from the excessive tension - no picture of that epic failure. A little epoxy and some clamp time brought the core back.

At this point I considered using the heat-loc glue discussed above by Chuck and Jeff, as the procedure seems simple enough. I read however that this glue is not recommended for crotch or burl veneers, both of which are very unstable and move with varying heat and humidity. I've always used one of the urea resin glues for veneering which I know are bulletproof once cured.
I spent a week debating whether to attempt another clamping exercise or bite the bullet and purchase a vacuum press and finally decided upon the latter.

The first piece is still clamped in the bag as I type so I'm not certain of the outcome but everything looks good. One convenient aspect is that the entire dash top burl can be clamped in a single step right over the leading edge radius. The secret here is to soften the veneer sufficiently to bend without splitting or cracking. Will post a pic tomorrow of the outcome.

We did a final power bleed of the brake system and raised the ride height of the beast. With the shock settings at their softest there will be a lot of suspension travel until we get them dialed in and I didn't want any clearance or bottoming issues. Other than the missing chrome - bumpers, front window frames and tail lights - and interior wood and a couple of trim panels - the beast is there. It's April and it's still snowing in New England so I haven't ventured out on the road with no front door windows. Spring is supposedly here so maybe soon.

 

Just curious, what did you use to create the vacuum, a pump or venturi/compressor ?
Normally when doing large pieces, this is used so you get even atmospheric pressure on all areas of the job, but from the photo, it looks like the grooved bench worked well enough.
To test it if it's glued, start tapping with you finger where you suspect areas that are not glued down. Areas that are not bonded will have a very distinct sound as apposed to areas that have bonded properly.

Breather Mesh - Vacuum Pressing Just Got Easier

 

What a pain about the disasters Doug, but the final job looks good so far , will be great to see how it turns out later.

The Beast is looking fantastic.

 

Third time's a charm. Did a quick sand over the cross banding this morning and everything looks fine (almost). The press worked perfectly - the human element did not. The book-match doesn't quite match (this is what happens when you waste your best veneers on failed glue attempts), and it's not even centered on the panel (this is what happens when working too fast after multiple failed...). It will look pretty anyway.

Jeff, I purchased a 3 cfm pump with a regulator vs the ones that run continuously. The venturi pumps pull a lot of air very quickly and seem like the way to go if you're doing production work. This glue up took about a minute to pull the bag down which was great as it allowed me time to manipulate the bag over the top surface and around the sides. The breather mesh looks like the way to go but the place I ordered the pump and bag from didn't carry it so I made up the bottom platen, which worked fine for the relatively flat dash top. I think the mesh is the way to go when veneering more intricate shapes, so I'll order some for the other dash panels. Thanks for the comments.

 

Meh, so what if it isn't quite centered, the very difficult part is getting the width of the cross banding parallel of the length of the dash and it looks perfect.
What wood did you ultimately use for the cross banding, there's been allot of discussion over this in other threads ?

Are you going to add the cross banding edge next to the windshield, again that's a bit of a tricky business ?
I'm not sure how Jaguar did this, but my guess is they had a form to match the inside contour where the de-mist blows.
Three layers of veneer cross banding wood were pressed onto the form to create the edge, after which it was simply glued in place in permanently held with tiny nails.

Trying to create that edge, dealing with the laminate of the layers and forming it into the concave curve of the de-mist "cut-out" would be a bit much in one attempt.
Then on top of that trying to get it even and straight.
Forming the section first would be easier.

 

Looks good Doug, I have the wood to do yet, so may need to mail it to you ?

 

The veneering is about completed. I had quite a few breakouts along the edges where the burl folded, this despite repeated use of softener. I know paper backed veneer would avoid this, and I'm sure there are other techniques about which I'm clueless. Fortunately wood is pretty forgiving and lends itself to patching which should be all but invisible once finished. I'm planning to use a catalyzed automotive clear and am wondering if there's any kind of sealer that would be compatible. Otherwise it should just be a matter of shooting enough coats to fill the grain. Also wondering if anyone has any experience with UV or infrared lamps to speed drying between coats?

Jeff, the cross banding is "blonde mahogany" whatever that is. For the raised lip at the windshield I glued 3 layers up as you suggested, alternating grain direction to minimize cupping. When gluing to the dash top I tacked the straight center section and clamped at the "corners". I didn't get a sharp angle and now looking at some original dash pics it looks like Jag may have joined separate pieces here but I'm not certain.

Jon, I'm afraid you're on your own with your wood - except for any advice I can lend. Just like bodywork and paint - after doing the wood one understands why the professionals command the money they get. Worth every penny. I do enjoy the challenge though.

 

I've been using automotive clear coat for a while now, I never bothered with any sealer _ I've just used the "clear" as the sealer.
I laid down 3 coats, allowing each to become tacky to prevent sags.
Most of that was sanded off leaving the grain filled _ sometimes I had to repeat the process until the grain was all filled.

I didn't use any UV lamps to speed things up, although I cold have I suppose, I just left each spray session sit for a month to full y cure in a very warm and dry environment.

Once the grain is filled, you can start laying down the top coats and it's up to you how you want to proceed on what grit of paper to use to flatten and remove the orange peel.

You can save some time and jump right into the 2000 grit, but it takes longer to get rid of the peel, but then you spend less time getting rid of the previous scratches left by using courser paper, from previous sprays.
You can start with 1000, 1500, and then 2000 _ you can go to 2500, but I found that it's not necessary, it depends or OCD you are.

I like this product as it contains no silicon if you need to go back and do touch ups.

 

Looks great Doug,
I agree with Jeff, don't bother with any sealer, use the clear coat as the sealer, you could use Rocket accelerator to speed things up, it reduces drying times by 30 to 50%, and you would need more than 1 lamp source if you wanted to UV or Infrared dry multiple pieces.

Personally I would go with a P500 for the first couple of coats, the following coats will fill the scratches, once the grain is filled then lay on 2 coats of clear and sand back, you can reduce the orange peel by increasing the reducer in the clear coat, and spraying at a higher gun pressure, then a further 2/3 coats, I would not use any rocket in the top 2 coats, as it reduces flow out so you may get more orange peel.

Some clear coats give more orange peel than others. I personally like Omnicron 2K clear, lays on well, flows out nicely and doesn't sag or run as easily as others I have used, observe the flash times for whatever product you use.

The cross banding may well originally have been Satinwood, as it was very common in English furniture, (but I don't know for a fact) it comes from India, and as they were part of the Commonwealth I guess it was easily obtainable. Blonde Mahogany could well be some sort of generic name, in theory no Mahogany is "Blonde" as far as I know, but again I may well be wrong.

Sanding the top coats :- this would depend on personal choice, you may well find Jeff's suggestion works for you too, I would go 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, but I would use the 500 and 1000 wet and not dry.

Clogging on the paper is the worst issue, the clogs will scratch far worse than the coarse grit, and be careful on the edges, it is real easy to take the clear coat right off as the edges do not have as much thickness of paint as the flat areas.

Updates when you can Doug, looking fantastic.

 

For sure using the paper wet, I didn't mention it because it's just understood that it be used wet.
For me, but not necessarily for Doug, the only time I used the paper dry is when I was filling the grain.
I wanted to remove as much finish as possible, so I used a 220.
The build quality of the clear coat easily filled the 220 scratches.

I used an air brush with around 15 to 25 psi with a water trap.
I found even a small sprayer provided way to much volume _ it was too difficult to control.

 

You are correct Jeff absolutely, the reason I mentioned it in that order, was just in case someone hasn't filled the grain fully before wet sanding, there is a risk that the water can get into the grain, I know you know exactly what I mean, and sometimes I am not great at explaining stuff, if in doubt dry sand until the grain is filled, then switch to wet.
Jeff please add/correct this from your experience.

 

I appreciate the tips on finishing the wood, all of which is about ready to shoot - just some minor veneer patchwork on the door caps. We may also have to fabricate new wood trims for the A pillars as the roof drain tubing and wiring harnesses appear to be a bit too large for the originals to conceal - will try routing these out as much as possible, but will have to see.

Finally got most of the chrome back - still waiting on the front window frames which had some issues with all the fabrication work we did. I like the look of the old style bumpers - something about the proportions that just seems to fit the Mark 2. Deleting the over riders updates the look a bit, and the plater did a nice job re-profiling the lower front center where the license plate mount bolted - just a straight clean line now. He also trimmed the ends of the front bumper so it doesn't extend past the wheel opening when the bumper is tucked in tight - it's just sitting on the tub lip in these pics. We also eliminated the domed bolts at the ends by welding in some studs - and the disc brake advertising went away at the rear.

It looks like it will be in the 80's next weekend so I have a feeling the beast will hit the road - with or without front window frames. Wish me luck - till next time.

 

Stunning job Doug, nice job on the chrome works perfectly.

Hopefully you do get the Beast on the road next weekend with the wind in your ear if the window frames aren't in.

 

Fabulous. Wish I could see it 'in the flesh'.

I love your licence plate

Mike

 

Great job Doug!


You should post some more completed photos.

 

I do like the deleted over-riders. Is it still road legal in your state like that? I'm fairly sure it wouldn't be here.

 

Interesting point, in the UK it would make no difference, but as a general rule here the less protrusions the better, so the over riders missing would better than when fitted as far as the road legal thing goes, but this is all over ruled by the classic car classification anyway so becomes a mute point.

The bumpers themselves would be illegal now in the UK as they would be the protrusion, and bull bars are not legal here unless they are smooth rather than simple bars, so someone would bounce off them if they were hit ! Not that that would make much difference over 30MPH !!

What do the laws state in the US that would make the omission of the over riders an issue ?

 

Finally got the beast on the road last weekend - sans front window frames and roll bar (still not painted). It was a quick trip - just long enough to bring everything up to temp and run the ECU through an operating cycle to clear some codes. The good news - even with the shocks at their softest settings and no front roll bar the car feels light and responsive - at least up to my max of about 50 mph on this trip. My wife drives the same vintage XJR as the donor car and I've restored a Mark 2 to mostly stock, so those are my reference points. There's still some Mark 2 character that I'd hoped to lose (more noise/resonance than the XJR), while the loss of about 1000 lbs from that drive train makes for a totally different feel - can't wait to get the thing sorted and explore the limits.

The bad news - we developed an exhaust manifold leak - simple enough but for the fact the manifolds were installed with the engine out of the car. It may be possible to remove them with the engine in place but I'm not hopeful - it's that tight. I don't even want to think about pulling the motor/trans at this point in the project - keep a good thought.

More concerning is a drive line vibration under heavy acceleration (of course I put my foot into it - the motor's broken in after all). The drive shaft is carried over complete from the XJR except for being shortened. It has Metalastic flexible couplings at the diff and trans ends and a center bearing just behind a splined slip joint and ahead of a conventional u-joint. The local drive shaft shop I took it to for shortening actually shipped the entire assembly to a California specialist - something about a special welding process required.

The fact that there's no vibration while running under light load tells me it's not a balance problem, although I haven't had the car up to speed yet. Since the vibration occurs under heavy load I'm thinking it could be a damaged flexible coupling or center bearing - the donor car took a significant front end hit that blew out both motor mounts and tore the trans mount. The couplings and bearing look fine and passed inspection and balancing at the drive line shop, and they replaced the u-joint.

I'm thinking the more likely cause may be an alignment issue involving the center bearing. I lowered the bearing mount to gain tunnel clearance for the drive shaft to avoid modification to the tub. While the diff to center run is dead straight, there is about a 3" rise from center to trans. The flex couplings are almost neutral in this configuration, with all of the directional change at the u-joint. Total shaft length is 60" with the bearing almost dead center. Any thoughts out there on what the problem might be will be appreciated. The thought of pulling the interior to open up the tunnel to raise the bearing to achieve a straighter run has even less appeal than pulling the motor. Here's hoping we don't have to go there.