TECH WEEK: Woodgraining Made Simple; You Can Do It!!

Overview
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In the late ’20’s and through the 40’s, various automobile manufacturers created a faux wood grain for the dashboard and garnish moldings. The original process was a photo etching of sorts, and while there were variations, it was a very rapidly applied part of the moving assembly line manufacturing procedure.

When I got our old ’33 PC Plymouth last year, one of the best parts of the car was the interior. The main drawback was the garnish and the dash, both painted a semi gloss black and looking very tired and bland.

The home grown graining process illustrated in this Tech Week Entry involves the principle that lacquer, (the base coat,) and enamel do not mix. With a lacquer base and an enamel grain, we achieve the “look” of the original wood graining from back in the day.

This strip shows the first three stages: bare metal, primer, and the lacquer base coat.



An incompatible enamel is the grain. a clear coat seals every thing and leaves that fake, shiny look that was the rage in the late twenties and into the late forties. Here is a sample of burl type grain done by a hot rodder as a practice piece. This was his first attempt

Before Pictures
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Here is the dashboard in the ’33 Plymouth when we got it. Note the push button for the horn, and the SW temperature gauge to the left of the factory gauge panel.




The garnish moldings also looked drab and boring, although in excellent condition.

Supplies
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With a little creativity and some practice you can do this on your own project. Let’s get started!

The supplies needed are most likely all on the shelves of your work space already. The first two pictures show what you need on hand. Not shown are a couple cans of rattle can primer.





For the ’33 Plymouth, we chose a copper base found at Auto Zone, originally a Nissan exterior color.

While most thirties cars had a dark subdued grain on a mahogany base, (see the ’34 Ford dash picture later in this thread,) the goal with this project was a lighter shade to brighten up the interior.

For the grain we tried a new venture: Sepia printer’s ink, but any black or dark brown enamel works fine, brush applied cans of Rustoleum are readily available at your Home Depot, or local hardware.

 

Part II

Supplies
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With a little creativity and some practice you can do this on your own project. Let’s get started!



The supplies needed are most likely all on the shelves of your work space already. The first two pictures show what you need on hand. Not shown are a couple cans of rattle can primer.





For the ’33 Plymouth, we chose a copper base found at Auto Zone, originally a Nissan exterior color.

While most thirties cars had a dark subdued grain on a mahogany base, (see the ’34 Ford dash picture later in this thread,) the goal with this project was a lighter shade to brighten up the interior.

For the grain we tried a new venture: Sepia printer’s ink, but any black or dark brown enamel works fine, brush applied cans of Rustoleum are readily available at your Home Depot, or local hardware.

Preparing Parts
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Preparation of parts is pretty straight forward. The Plymouth dashes, unlike the Fords of the era, are welded into the body, so all dash work is done in the car.

Here it is being finish sanded and prepped for the extra holes to be filled. With the interior still in place, extra caution was needed, and we opted to pass on using stripper for the old paint.



Garnish pieces have to be stripped to bare metal. I use aircraft stripper. Here one of the quarter window garnish moldings is getting the treatment.




Once the part is stripped and sanded clean, a couple of coats of primer are applied. I used shake can Rustoleum “Filler Primer” on this car.

Two or three coats of the lacquer base color is then applied with 600 sanding in between. Don’t worry about “shine” on the base coat, here, just good, even coverage.

Set the pieces aside for a day or so to make sure they are completely dry.

Mixing Grain
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There are an infinite number of ways to make the actual wood graining. To start, mix your graining color with paint thinner. Very small amounts are needed.




Add a capful of regular paint thinner to the lump of ink. Again, “small is better,” as a little of your graining will go a very long way.



Using a small artist’s brush, mix the printer’s ink, (or enamel paint of your choice.)



Again, the idea is that the enamel based ink/paint will not blend into the lacquer base, allowing you to make your design on top of the base.

 

Part III

Applying Grain
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You will find by experimenting the “right” amount for color shade, depth, and flow. If your mixture is too watery, work more grain color in, and less thinner. Practice will quickly enable you to choose your own style. Anything you don’t like can be immediately wiped clean with a paper towel.

This is a close-up of a newly applied grain onto the copper base. Also, an end cut from a 3M squeegee with some sharp teeth is used to obtain a rough grain. Once you start trying different ideas, you will make your own tools.



A straight grain is simple, and the brush, (here an artist’s brush,) does most of your work. If, BTW, you find your hand a little shaky, so much the better. Jiggled motion often creates realistic designs.



A small ball of wadded up newspaper dabbed onto the surface will create great burl effects. A foam body shop squeegee makes lines.

Here you see the effects of a straight grain “chopped” by the edge of the foam squeegee.

Patterns to Get Your Creativity Flowing!
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The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Once you start with your own, you will quickly find many others.

Paper towel dabbing, (similar to the wadded newspaper, but a bit more intricate.)



More “chopped” straight grain.



Knot hole.

 

Part IV

Clear/Sealing
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The final step to a really “faux” finish is several coats of clear.

Polyurethane is simple. On this project I found brush applied high gloss polyurethane worked well.

Access to the clear used in the base coat/clear coat systems would probably be awesome.



A day’s drying for each coat is necessary. Water sanding with 2000 grit sand paper will smooth down all the small imperfections and drools.

Be carful in sanding the first few coats to not sand down into the grain design, as you will have to start all over again at that point.

The final outcome is determined by the amount of effort put into the clear/seal stage. The original cars shined so reflections could be seen. On this project, I left some flat spots and “wear” to match the rest of the used feeling of the car.

The Ford dash pictured had ten or more coats of 2000 sanded polyurethane, a couple of coats of rubbing compound, and then wax and more rubbing.

The polyurethane gives a texture that easily matches the vibes of a slightly leaky flathead motor and an old seasoned paint job.

Finished!
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Here is the ’34 Ford five window dash done a few years back. We also did all the garnish. (This car is now in Australia.)




The finished Plymouth dash board and moldings transform a ho-hum interior into a more inviting place to spend driving time. Here, note the rehabbed steering wheel, (please disregard the on going updating of the gauges and the wiring!)




A shot of the interior with the quarter moldings and rear window molding in place, while the driver’s door window frame waits it’s turn.




Final shot from last summer, before the current “winter updating.”



Now its time for you to go out and try your hand at graining something in your garage. You can start with most anything from a beer can to a tool box lid. Give it a try. You will be amazed at how easy it is!

Good luck, and thanks for giving this Tip a look. GA

 

Daaaaaaaang!

 

nice work

 

wow! Might have to give that a try....I'l do a hubcap instead of a dash...in case I screw up! lol!

 

That is spectacular! I am going to have to try that.

 

Excellent tech . Thanks very much for taking the time to document and post photos of how you did it.

 

So cool!!!! Very creative man!!! GREAT JOB!!!

 

Nice Gman!!! My wife actually did a similar thing to all the steel exterior doors in the house. but we started with a maroon and then added a dark stain over it and dragged 6" wide brushes down to start the grain and then touched up with smaller brush. Your's looks killer!!!

 

Looks great!!!

Thanks!!

JH

 

Great tech... I never would've thought of doing a tech on this valuable art skill.

I did this on a Plastic Yacht on the gunwales, the Bridge and adorned the fiberglass Binnacle with realistic birdseye finish!

A boats brightwork is always touched and you know you did a great wood grain finish when people touch your paint job and say the brightwork is "perfect"!

 

Killer!! I like this tech because its something I didn't even know I wanted to know how to do. Now that I've seen it, I'm very intrigued. I will be giving it a shot soon.

 

This is great, always wondered how to do this. Great tech!

 

Wow---thanks for that. Stupid me, I thought the '40 was done.

 

I'm a little surprised, because while I already knew woodgraining could look fantastic, and is a traditional finishing process, I also "knew" that it required special patterning tools and tons of practice. Guess I know better now!
Also guessing that a higher contrast between base color and grain could make for some eyecatching effects. I'd like to try my hand at this.
The technique would work nicely to give some character to gelcoated fiberglass, as Wingnutz suggested.
Great tech!

 

Supah! I'm encouraged that I might be able to do that on my '41 Plymouth!

 

I love it.

 

very cool

 

Excellent tech. I've been wanting to do this on my '40 Chrysler but I figured it would take some expensive equipment to get any kind of decent results. After reading this, I think I can do it.

This one has my vote for favorite so far.

 

awsome got my vote for tech week

 

Thanks everyone for your excellent comments and support! I'd love to see pictures of anyone's wood grain, even if it IS on a hubcap! GA

 

Wow what a difference that made. Love it.

 

are you trying to make carpenters out all the grease monkeys ? It really works great on glass cars, as someone wondered, saran wrap makes great burl look, is that PLy going to the nats for some red stripes?

 

Boggles my mind, you make it look so easy. THANKS

 

job well done! beautiful transformation.
excellent tech article!!

 

" winning! "

 

wow!! very good jod this woodgrain! i search a esay methode for my dashbord and i find it here!! thank you!

i can do it with this base on my 41 dodge coupe

i apologise if my english is not correct, i'm french and i do my best for write better

and i don't know if is the right place to introduce my car but i'm glad to show it to you!
all original except the paint, original engin run very well, everythings work, i'm the 4th owner, i purchase this car in missouri and i export it to bordeaux in france.

 

Thanks for posting the woodgraining tech! I gotta try it.