Would anyone know if the Mark 2 interiors had different shades of wood trim
i have seen some with dark walnut and others look almost pine shade.
am restoring all wood but would like to get right shade for car if there is a difference.
cheers

 

You might see variations as I think many try to do the wood themselves and they get the color wrong and the car wood looses the book match appearance. Automotive wood is not something you just take some sand paper and coat it with stain from Home Depo.

I am not sure but on my 3.8s which is a version of that era sedan uses Beachwood. Restoring the wood is not an easy task as on my car the Beachwood, is not something that has a big diameter in nature, often very small say 1.5" or less and the entire wood is all book matched to look like a solid piece which I believe most Jaguars and high end automotive wood uses. Making a type of wood basically the diameter of a bush look like a solid piece of wood on a dash that is about 1 foot wide is some areas is an old school art. Good luck as making it appear like true factory is not easy. I had a friend whom used to do automotive wood so I got lucky as most restoration shops for wood will charge anywhere from $3000 to $5000 for a full Jaguar wood restoration, the latter being putting on new veneer as this is a lost art not many know how to do anymore. If you find it too daunting I would recommend Madera Concepts - Automotive Wood Restoration whom specializes in automotive wood.

On my car we did a good job but we were not trying for concourse level either so we used more modern clear materials to give it a nice sheen and not wear out over time with the sun as older materials would. I was lucky as he had saved some beachwood veneer, the correct stains (very hard to find), and he had the right tools to make the repairs. As I saw what he did and the techniques and knowledge it made it evident that automotive wood is not that simple.

 

Hello,

All Mk2 wood is Walnut burl veneer over ply or mahogany substrate. Some say that the last 240/340 cars had less figuring and a lighter shade veneer, and that may have been true for some as the leaves of veneer ran more into sapwood as they used it up.. but certainly my 1968 340 is not among them as it has beautifully dark burled veneer which I know is all original.
The straighter grain walnut sapwood by the way was used by Jaguar to veneer the wood and act as a crossanding. The face walnut burl was then planed away at the various angles to expose these lighter strips beneath, what may assume are inlays...
My father, the person responsible for my Jaguar addiction, had over a dozen new Mk1's,Mk2's,S-types etc during the 1950's and 60's, and the only model that came with a lighter shade veneer from new was the MkX. I know it's easy to over think this kind of thing when restoring one of these cars, but there was no science to it, they simply used the next off the shelf.

Kind Regards,
Saul Chaplin
www.britishautowood.com

 

I did check and on my Jaguar 3.8S the wood is English Walnut Burl and English Walnut Burl is protected and no longer available to be harvested. The banding on the edge of the dash that is lighter colored is Boxwood. Boxwood is typically a scrub but in some places they let to grow to the size of a small fruit tree. The reddish areas of the other door pieces are old Honduras Mahogany. The base wood of the dash is Beachwood and the main base wood for the other trim pieces were the old Honduras Mahogany.

While much of this type of wood is not produced many good shops and other wood enthusiast have kept some stock piles of these as they have increased in value. I think the wood on these cars is one of the most important things to try to find one in restorable shape as it can be hard to find places that will re-veneer it back using the same materials.

 

Thank you for all replies they have been very informative
Wood is now ready for final laquer and polish
pictures to follow

 

It was all american walnut in the Jaguars (still is) apart from the MkV and some early ones that were figured French walnut. The crossbanding underneath is walnut sapwood. Boxwood was not used until the Daimler double six VDP models in the early/mid 70's -- on the door wood

 

Thanks we thought since the style was mimicking Bentley & Rolls Royce Jaguar would use the same wood but Jaguar as my friend said, Jaguar really was the economy solution to elegance at the time

I still think that restoring this wood should be done by shops like yours and others with that old school know how....