What’s up Jag world. I’m looking to purchase a 1966 Jaguar 3.8s and have a question about the wood veneer. Seeing that it is so expensive to restore the wood in the car; has anyone replaced or considered replacing the dash or other wood pieces with a solid walnut wood plank that had been carved and stained to look like the veneer pieces? Also who have you used to restore the wood in your car?

Thanks

 

I've never done it, and I've never come across anyone on this forum so far.
What ever you do, once the original veneer work is gone, the car will have a tendency to loose some its value, especially if it looks like the handy-man did his thing.
With that said, I've come across newer jags where people have opted to replace the walnut veneer with a different kind of burl or what ever they want, as long as it's done properly.
And when I say done properly, I mean the grain has been filled properly so the end result looks like a mirror; no brush marks, no grain showing through, no ripples etc.

Many of us here do our own work to save money, so any money that is saved, may be spent on projects where certain skills may be lacking.

 

Don't even go there. Your cap looks fairly well intact. I wish mine had been that good. The flat glove box surround and the speedo/tach surround can be replaced with some effort. Google veneer refinishing and GO GENTLY. If you're not up to this (a fairly simple job) then you're probably not up to the work required to mill and finesse a replacement. Even a "fair" job of it will be better than replacing. Please don't think quick and cheap fixes will do anything but devalue your car.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Jaguar-3-8S...ally+Aspirated

 

Well I my original plans was to remove the veneer, sand the wood, and replace it with another veneer. But it seems easier and cheaper to buy a solid piece of walnut burl and have someone who does wood work cut the wood to look like the wood pieces. As far as the cracks in the wood; can you fill them in with wood filler?

 

If you're going to re-veneer why not just us what's supposed be on there, this place has large sheets to mirror image the wood as it was supposed to be _ lots of selection too.

https://www.veneersupplies.com/

Minor cracks can be filled with a wood filler, but to stabilize large cracks that will move, they have to be glued with a two part epoxy of some sort.
The peeling veneer will have to be removed and replaced.
Any cracks in the base wood will always crack the veneer layer on top eventually.
The wood underneath was meant to be covered, I have a dash cap with ugly grain, sap wood and lots of worm holes.

 

that slab of burl will cost you a fortune, even if you can find one. burl is usually a root ball (no real length). the dash has four mirror or sister pieces, and four oak peces that finish the bevels. get the cap out and use some 1500 grit on the lacquer finish, check for cracks if it's toast get a mild stripper get the old lacquer off and re-assess veneer from there.




the entire area between the white lines had been sanded down to the substrate by the PO. it may not look great but it cost nothing but time and effort. using watercolors of various shades and viscosities and many different brushes i got fairly close to something approximating burl. if you fill and sand the lost pieces you might try this.

that upholstery color is one of my favs. good luck.

 

Hi. As somebody who refurbished the wood on a Mark 2 many years ago, you have my sympathy ! Mine was far, far better than your's looks. From what I can see the veneer is peeling off the dash panel and the glove box panel but not the lid, which looks like a replacement. The gauges/switch panel looks OK for a revarnish, as does the wood trim for the parcel tray. There will also be the wood trim for the A and B posts, and the cant rail. The door wood trims normally survive OK, and note that the top "strip" trims of these are solid mahogany. These normally survive well, so can be refinished. The dash top needs more photos, but from the one you show it looks not too bad.

Burr walnut veneer is almost paper thin so even where the veneer is good, care must be taken removing the varnish and sanding smooth. Really, it is better to get an expert to do the hard stuff, which will probably consist of removing the old veneer and gluing on new. The base material on the dash panels is 1/2" plywood, with solid wood elsewhere, probably mahogany. . Wood that is above the waist line is usually in good condition and DIYable. There should be about 26 pieces of wood trim, I remember laying all of mine out on a white sheet and photographing them when I had done the refiurb.

 

Marage95,
Do NOT micky-mouse the wood, as that is one of the key elements that makes the car iconic. Yes it is expensive to hire a professional and I do think it is worth it. Places like Madera Concepts Madera Concepts - Jaguars
can repair and install new veneer on every single piece. If every single piece needs new veneer you can expect to pay about $5K but it is worth it.

If you do any of the thoughts you asked, it would be akin to taking any car that came with a show car paint job and painting it with a Home Depot roller brush with house paint. I have seen some decent DIY jobs on the forum but I still think the wood is one area that you splurge and go with a professional. If you are on a budget save on other areas like the bodywork or basic mechanical as a DIY but if you do not bring the wood to that show wood finish you should not buy a Jaguar as you do not have the resources to do it right. You might post to see if someone on the Jaguar forums whom has the skill would do it for you for a fair price?

I got lucky and had a friend whom had the experience to install new veneer and make the repairs to a decent quality for half the price. Do not skimp on the wood.

 

Understand what you are getting into with a Jaguar restoration. The only saving is in labour where you have the skill and time to do particular aspects yourself. Many of us have found restoration cost works out at about the same as going out and buying a new Jaguar but spread over a much longer period.

Graham

 

British Autowood is another fine example of what can be done. Look at their examples. I consider Saul to be the benchmark.

https://britishautowood.com/

 

Actually I did all my own wood and it came out fine !

However, all the veneer was in good order.

 

Thanks for everyone's input on restoring the wood. I was under the impression that you could go cheap on the wood from watching youtube videos (which may have been my first mistake). They make it look so easy. I will admit that the wood is what gives ihe interior its true beauty regardless of which modle you have.I did call around and got an estimate of $7000 to $10000 to restore the wood, but from the before and after pictures it looks worth it.

 

Did you get a quote from Madera Concepts? I know it was about 4 years ago but they told me to put all new veneer on my dash and to refurbish all of the wood for my 3.8s it would be about $5000? Another reason why to me it is a real old school and hard to find many people whom still know the techniques is that when you look at a quality wood on a Jaguar it is what you call "book matched" meaning they make that wide section of wood look like it came off of one continuous piece. That is hard when you consider the veneer they use came from wood that was about 1 to 2 inches in diameter.

 

Book matching:

 

Here's another one with a steering wheel.
The don't show them cutting the groove inside the new steering wheel ring though.

 

Cool video, I have even seen book matching done on a high end High Tech companies executive briefing area, where they book matched a 12 foot tall wall that was around 40 feet long with some exotic wood; I bet that was a crazy amount of money

 

Madera Concepts qupated me $7000 - $9000, British Autowood quoted $4200. These prices are for allthe wood in the car

 

That's quite the price difference.
I'm going to criticize what I think is wrong with both places.
Note how thick the new finish is applied, the inside corner is gone, it's pooled into it.
I'm betting as with a new Rolls Royce that if you got it in the right light, one could see the rippled effect of a finish that's been applied to liberally and not properly cured and cut.

Personally I would get them to veneer it and have them stop there.
Even though it's nice and shiny, both places, IMO are not applying the finish properly.
I Would do the finish myself.

 

I agree with Glyn...I had Saul do mine just a few years back and his price was well under $5k. Beautiful job. I even purchased a gear shift and cigar lighter knob. Here are a few photos.

 

P - your interior is beautiful. i had not seen it before as your build post take a bit of time to go through. yeah - easy to see you had daily drive as your final prize all along.