Yeah ~ I don't know why they were left out of pics. Too late now. I have a bucket full of wood pics but they are in none of them but are fitted obviously.

 

I don't think so, in later cars, the veneer doesn't seem to be as spectacular, but it is indeed walnut, not mahogany.
I've made an attempt to lighten the photo, and the section in green seems OK.
The one in red, may have been sanded through, the grain is not as tight there and is much lighter then the rest of the area.
In yellow is too dark to know what's going on.

Over-all the photo is so bad it's hard to say.

 

I think you are being modest. You have an amazing skill set. Most seem to pull a heavy vacuum on parts they are veneering these days.

 

I found that place to be an excellent source of walnut burl veneer.
It's all book matched and you see exactly what you're getting.
I found that it's the only place where they have sizes large enough to do the job.

About veneering, it takes much trial and error to get it right, take a year to teach yourself.
There's lot's of good reading on that sight.

The most expensive thing you will need is a compressor and a vacuum press, you can buy a vacuum pump, but that can get quite expensive.

You will learn how to simply fill the holes so they can't be seen in Cass's glove box in post 12.
Veneer has small flaws in it that will need dealing with, very similar to the holes in the glove box, but because the holes are natural, they're easier to deal with.

Here are some before and after photos of a guys RR 47 Wraith I did about 10 years ago.
No veneer here to deal with though, it was all solid English Walnut, it was severely faded to this awful yellow.
The centre dash with the gauges on it I replaced because it was warped and some handy-man filled it full of large holes _ too far gone.

 

My blocks have little hoods over them that the light fits into. Also solid ~ no veneer. Possibly a CKD quirk.

 

@JeffR1 I took my DSL out to the garage, set the white-balance to Flash, and took some better pictures. I think these do a better job of showing the finish.

 

Those photos are much better, the glove box lid is fine, it's the bottom edge that's the problem.
Looks like the veneer was letting lose and someone just tore it off, hence the hard jagged edge on the far right; there's also evidence of fill there to smooth things over.

Lots of "fish-eye"_ in that finish, a typical cause of that is silicon contamination in the wood grain, that stuff is a PITA to get rid off.
As soon as a finish is applied in spray form, whether that's from an aerosol can, air brush or spray gun, the thinners in the finish activate the contamination which comes to the surface.
This acts like an oil deposit and causes the finish to creep away in that given area, the finish literally floats on top of the contamination_ it appears as these tiny "pop" marks when sprayed.
Wax trapped in the grain can make this happen too, but it's much easier to deal with.

 

Thank you. I have a friend who is a custom furniture maker by trade and he gave me some veneer pieces for when I make a new dash for my Daimler. I'm softening and flattening the veneer now. He has a commercial grade press and uses glue that is heat activated. It comes as sheets that he layers between the substrate and the veneer and then puts it in the press and heats everything. It's sort of a similar process to drymounting photographs or artwork.

I have done vacuum veneering before and the choice of glue is critical. Ordinary yellow PVA (carpenters) glues don't work well, as the veneer can bubble when it absorbs the water from the glue, and in an environment like a car the glue can creep with the temperature swings and gaps can open up where the veneer pieces join. The best glues were 2 part formaldehyde based, but they are banned now.




I have 4 of these pieces from the same flitch, so I can make a centre-matched dashboard 60" wide. My friend will do the stitching and gluing for me when I am ready. The veneers are sewn together with a special machine when bookmatching to hold them in the desired match for gluing so there are no gaps or misalignment of the grain.

 

Better photos of the glove box. The first one was so dark it looked like the wood had been rubbed down and then stained. Now you can see the veneer but Jeff is right someone has torn a section out and tried a repair. Although my wood has some holes in it I have since I built the car purchased some replacement parts in a job lot of spares and I intend to replace the whole dash with the new wood when I get a week so no more holes. The new wood is all matching from the same dash so the veneer looks good. Just have to find the time to strip it all out and replace it.

 

I don't see anything here that is not recoverable by a good artist that understands woodgrain. Even the chap at British Autowood paints in grain. Then you keep your matching original dash set.

 

Satin finished by choice. This whole glovebox lid is painted on a friend's car. It came with no lid & he found another non matching one that they started from scratch.

 

The painting in of the grain isn't as difficult as it sounds especially in the darker area. The lighter parts are more challenging because you don't find that honey gold in a paint pot. I would be more worried by the silicone/wax contamination. That can be extremely difficult to eliminate. And you don't know if you've eliminated it until you apply lacquer.

 

When attempting to restore early veneer finishes prior to XJ6 series do not even contemplate using any sort of abrasives e.g. sandpaper, steel wool etc.

The original factory finish and even later repair attempts using varnish can be chemically removed using methyl ethyl keytone (MEK) or acetone or if these can't be found just lacquer thinners.
The concept is to apply these chemicals wet in cloths and then cover with aluminium cooking foil to cut down evaporation. This trick is still used in aviation for stripping "dope" off fabric covered surfaces.
Typically 20 to 30 minutes will suffice to strip the old finish. It may require a couple of coats if the finish is old varnish over the original factory finish.
Some people recommend using paint strippers, but I have never found it necessary and am wary because most require water to clean off and moisture may affect the veneer glue line.

If aftr stripping the resultant wood seems to be "furry" a quick trip through a gas flame will get rid of these 'furs" ( I picked this up from a gun smith)

Once stripped most early veneers may need some stain to return to original colours. This is particularly applicable to cars exposed to high degrees of sun and heat. Walnut stains are too dark, and I have found teak is closer to the original.

In MK1 and MK2 cars I have refinished woodwork using multiple coats of acrylic clear (as in clear over basecoat). It does not come up super shiny as 2pack but looks closer to the original finish as I remember. Also has a high UV tolerance.

On the problem of silicon or oil contamination of the wood there are proprietary brands of additives for automotive panel paint which will stop the "fisheyes" just as well on wood.

By the way the XJ6 cars used a wood finish which seems to be impervious to any chemical. I have stripped a couple using a heat gun and scraper.

 

I've used this Circa 1850 gelled stripper, and methyl hydrate to clean it off.
The wood alcohol extends the strippers action.

It's methylene chloride _ it gets the job done, but not very friendly to use.

Bill, yes, the stuff on the XJ6 cars is quite indestructible, the methylene chloride doesn't really touch it, so far, like you, a heat gun is needed, although I have had people tell me that air craft stripper works _ I've never tried it.
When we were into restoring antiques at work, now and then, someone would bring in this Vilas Maple Furniture to strip.
The guy next door had this huge dip tank full of liquid methylene chloride, he left the furniture soaking over night, and at best, it soften it so it could be scraped off _ it didn't really work.

wood stripper (antiquerssupply.com)

 

I redid the woodwork in my MK2 2.4 and used a normal wood glue, a clothes vacuum bag from ebay (sucked up with a vacuum cleaner, buy a few though because they do hole occassionaly and cost peanuts) and 2K Laquer and the results are great.



I used iron on real wood edging then sanded this down then glued on the veneer and used the vacuum bags, then sanded again before laquer. The end result is proportional to the time you put in and I did rush some bits but i'm really pleased with the end result and the whole car set cost around £120 to do.



Anyone doing his will notice that a lot of the parts are book matched so you use two pieces that are identical positioned as a mirror so you end up with one larger piece. You can see this when you look at the dash top, door rails etc.

 

I would have never of thought a vacuum cleaner would have worked.
The best that can happen is you have 15.4 pounds per square inch on the veneer.
A person can't pull more vacuum then what the atmosphere weighs at sea level.
Maybe the vacuum is pulling 10 psi or even 7 psi, that should be plenty of clamping power per square inch.

I'm curious now, I think I'm going to take my vacuum gauge and see how many inch pounds my vacuum pulls.

 

That looks great! I think it worked because the pieces were smaller. I did a round table top about 24" diameter and it bubbled.

 

More then one vacuum cleaner then...?
If breather mesh would have been used, it may have worked.
It allows even clamping as it makes the vacuum dispersed across flat surfaces.

Vacuum Breather Mesh: The Easiest Way to Apply Veneer (joewoodworker.com)

 

Very interesting Jeff. Filed!

 

JeffR1
I have access to aviation stripper and it did not do anything to the XJ6 finish.
The reason I suggested not using any abrasives on the veneer woodwork is that the veneer is extremely thin.
I have used a micrometer on old Jag veneer, and it is typically about 8 to 12 thousandths of an inch.
Cheers