Dashboards, I have had to strip back the dashboard as its peeling and look terrible, I am looking at Huon pine which has nice burl, but is light in colour, the other option is clear Black Walnut Celery Top pine or Kinbilly pine

 

Why pine ? Original was burr walnut and you should be able to get hardwood veneers fairly easily. Burr elm looks good as does birds-eye maple.

 

Why? Huon Ping Burl is very similar to the original timber just lighter, I and in Tasmania, Australia and supply is limited of what you can get

 

If you go with the Huon Pine burl, why not stain it with a transparent stain like this.
I have used this product to bring back the colour in severely faded walnut burls.

At any rate, here is where I got my burls from.
It's all photographed so you know exactly what you're getting and it's all book matched of course.
The sizes are published too.

Remember, it's the labour that's expensive, not the materials.
People forget that even their own labour on the own projects is worth a great deal.

https://www.veneersupplies.com/categ..._Wood__Veneer/

https://www.mohawk-finishing.com/pro...ing-ngr-stain/

 

I live 5km from the mill and can pick it, see attache

 

There's no doubt that it's very pretty that's for sure.

If your going to change things, why not leave it the natural colour (it would be a shame to stain it) and use a dark wood for the banding.
Something like zebra wood, people heart wood, or ebony, the very dark colour would really set it off.

The other thing that may work is not to mirror image it, but keep the grain pattern from the dash, continuing down to the instrument panels and glove box.
The grain pattern IMO is not tight enough for mirror imaging.

 

I think it might look decent with a mirror clear and without the mirror clear it would not be that nice as the Jaguars need great wood. The book matched stock veneer might be expensive but keep in mind that the wood dash and other interior wood is one of the most iconic parts that makes those early saloons great and is what most want to see when the look in the interior of the car. It is also a dying art to find people whom know how to do that type of wood working to create that great quality finish that to me is a must have for a Jaguar. That is one area of the car that I would not skimp on due to costs...

 

I think I would agree with you, but bazm seemed dead set on using the pine veneer, so I was encouraging him.

I've seen Rolls Royce's with custom non mirror imaged veneer using birds eye maple, it looked pretty snazzy !

I believe the most important thing here is that it must not look like the handyman did it, especially if you strays from walnut burl.