hypothetical dash question (want opinions)

The new burled walnut on my glove box and instrument panel turned out so nicely that when I repair the rest of the damage on the base dash structure, I plan to re-laminate that too. I have just ordered some "interesting" mahogany, and I have a LOT of gorgeous burled walnut still left over (more than enough to redo the 4 door caps, radio blanking panel, and the dash 2 more times.) Would it look out of place to go non-original and run walnut across the entire face of the dash? Would that just be a sacrilege, since its not original? The dash top will stay original for certain!

I have seen pictures of a fully burled dash and it looked very nice.
Not original of course, but does that matter to you?

Rich

I always liked a dash front that sort of matched the window trim.

So is that two votes for full burlwood? That's what my wife wants. I'm still on the edge and can't decide if it'll be "too much." I suppose it'll blend nice once the door caps are burl again, rather than smudged black paint to faux the missing burl? There's some GREAT PO stuff here!

B-racer Wrote:

I hate to say it, but she HATES this car! She thinks its the stupidest investment I ever made. And the funny thing is, These little touches MAY just change her mind. She's ok with a B that sees 500 miles a year taking up her valuable garage space, but the Magnette has no place in her heart what so ever. That's despite the fact that I'm driving it on all my daily errands and it gets upwards of 30 mpg, as opposed to the Land Rover at 10 mpg.

Now that's just plain messed up. I have never had a woman turn up her nose at my Magnette. It didn't matter what kind of woman, either.

White/black/brown/big/medium/little/kid/teen/young/middle/mature, they have all liked it. Doesn't mean they were going to immediately go out and search for one but they all like it.

She'll have an epiphany, keep the faith.

...and this is a girl who grew up around hot cars and street rods! It almost mirrors (in a smaller version) her own father's '40 4-door Pontiac - same color even, but mine's in better shape and runs better. I think its starting to grow on her, but there's certainly no twinkle in her eye when she sees it! The more I drive her around in it and the more attention she gets from admirers and onlookers, the more it'll start ringing her bell. Maybe at MG2008 she'll figure out just how cool it is? :)

Hopefully she will come around! What's not to like? Its kind of surprising as I find its usually the wife/girlfriend/female enthusiast who likes the Magnettes more often then the guys.

With regard to the veneer I'm kind of go for original when reasonably practical, but it would still look good either way. You may need to be careful that it doesn't come out too dark looking if you go with all burl.

Ed, that was my biggest worry. The other worry was that it'll lose the look of real wood you get from the mahogany grain and start looking like plastic with a nice high gloss finish. I have to see what the mahogany veneer looks like when it arrives, cut a few samples and let the wifey decide. Maybe she'll get more "connected" to the car that way. She's already pretty proud of herself winning the popular vote here! She's coming around... slowly. We took the magnette out to dinner last night and I think she enjoyed the ride! No comlaints anyway.