custom gauge panel with wood

[bigredball90]

I am interested in putting in a wood gauge panel instead of what we already have. Does anyone one have any pics of someone doing that or pics of any wood in the interior?? Also what kind of wood should I use?
Thanks,
Luke

[binder56jd]

i think your best bet is to make a aluminum or light gauge sheet metal panel with a wood veneer overlay--sorry no pics but u can look at covans or dakota digital for some design ideas--or use an f600 panel with wood overlay

[fordman]

i have thougth abo tthis for a day now and here is what i am thinking. it could be done. you woul dalmost need a patern of some sort to make the swooping top part. the flat face would be easy to make. if you are going to do it. i woul duse a good quality wood. oak or a burl of a wood might look real good also. heat and flameability of wood in and around electronics. that would have to be taken into consideration when putting lights in the back for night driving. a insulator might help with that. if i were to make my own pattern. i might have to deconstruct a bezel to get a pattern off of. maybe. one thing that comes to mind is removing most or all of the face palte materials and making a flat insert into or onto the cluster face.

[bigredball90]

im thinking maybe mahogany. or something similiar. I wont be doing I have a freind thats really into to carpentry and has been doing it for a while. I have the dash out of my parts truck thats in pretty bad shape (painted, scratched, faded etc) that I could give him for a mold or whatever. An insulator is a good idea to I never thought of that. Thanks for the ideas so far let me know if you come up with anything else!
Luke

[Pete's Truck]

I made and installed a wood grain instrtument cluster with new gauges. I will try to take some pics for you tonight.

[Pete's Truck]

Here's the pictures of my wood gauge.

[krumpelsaurusrex]

I like that wood dash. with the exception of my fuel gauge, none of my gauges work. I think the speedo cable is bad and that why it does not work, but the wood dash with new gauges sure beats having external ones mounted near my knees. I'm not going for a total original restore, so this may work well for me. I would maybe stain the wood a dark color and varnish the heck out of it to get a great shine, but that's just my taste.

[4th effie n counting]

Pete, where you get those knobs? they look good with the dash.

[reflectionpoint]

I made and installed a wood grain instrtument cluster with new gauges. I will try to take some pics for you tonight.

Pete, you wouldn't have any measurements or tips you could share on the process you undertook to make your dash? It seems pretty straightforward but looks can be deceiving . After refinishing my wooden steering wheel this week I've decided I'd rather do something like this than the F600 dash swap.

Thanks,

-~Eric