Rosewood Trim Panel Restoration Idea

[fiftyfordfloored]

After reading through Jonathon Donald's impressive guide to salvaging rosewood, I had an idea.  Is it possible to take clean cores (un-cracked/unscratched), have the Rosewood pattern film recreated, and use them for water transfer printing and hydrographic film like this: Hydro Dip?

[Gary Lewis]

I think that's an excellent idea!  Please, please go for it!  

And, while you are at it, if you run across a brushed-aluminum they can do please check it out as well.  Several, myself included, are considering doing the XLS treatment.

[Ford F834]

I think hydro dip is a great idea if you can find a print similar to the original. I believe this is what Dennis Carpenter did with their repro. Notice that the wood grain wraps around the inset of the HVAC controls and covers the nameplate and mask behind the radio knobs that are black on the original.

 

I would of course apply black paint over those areas after dipping. The instrument bezel would have to be masked to keep the dip off of the indicator lights and wiper/headlight illuminated icons.

As Gary mentioned, we have kicked this idea around as a way to clone the very rare XLS trim. I like the idea because of how durable the hydro dip finishes are. My first attempts at cloning the brushed aluminum look have not yielded very good results and seem pretty fragile. The main problem I see with hydro dip is finding a suitable print. The XLS has a very unique "white" silver color with subtle brush marks that is hard to duplicate. Finding a similar rosewood grain might be easier.

[grumpin]

I watched an episode of B*tchin Rides where Dave Kindig made a wood looking instrument panel with paint and a paper towel, dabbed it after he applied the paint, on a metal panel. Turned out really cool.

I think dipping "wood" be better though.

[fiftyfordfloored]

The XLS trim is something I've never had in my hands or come through my stash.  From what I can see from pictures, it looks almost like a brushed aluminum finish with an interesting sheen.  I think next time I'm at the salvage yard I'm going to pick up some core bezels to send out and test a few finishes.

The rosewood in the link looks like a really nice pattern.  Not correct, but nice.

Wood Films

Brushed steel finish they have looks like it could be somewhat close, but hard to tell.

Metal Films

[Gary Lewis]

None of the finishes would have to be exact if we could cover all of the trim in the truck with the same thing. And that has an advantage because some of the trim is really hard to find, or never was made. For instance, the door panel trim is hard to find for certain applications, like power windows with/without door locks. But by using hydrodipping we could use a panel of aluminum or plastic and coat it to look like the radio and instrument bezels.

[Ford F834]

Gary has a good point about everything matching. Even if you do find it all, the variation in condition and just different runs of print can make for a motley cobbled mess that looks more wrong than print that might not quite match the original. My rosewood pieces are slightly that way and it bothers me. I don't think it will show when they are installed, but sitting next to each other on the bench I see it.

Gary, the power window switch holes are pretty easy to make by enlarging the crank window hole on the door panels, but you can't go the other way. The main problem is crank window panels tend to be warped and bowed inward and commonly have circular scratches. However if you were cloning/hydro dipping I would think you could use crank window panels as cores for power window ones. I don't think there were ever power window medium duty brushed aluminum door panels, but I don't think we are going to find nice crank window ones either. They will have to be cloned to match the bezels.

Maybe I am just too picky, but I have not yet seen a hydro dip or vinyl wrap pattern that comes anywhere close to the look of the XLS bezels. If I had only ever seen old dull ones I would probably be happy with silver spray paint. But after getting the NOS piece I have seen just how stunning the original finish was. I want to create exactly that, and so far the commercial print patterns aren't doing it for me.

[Gary Lewis]

Having held that piece I can agree - it is stunning!  And a whole interior of that would be awesome.

And I agree about the door panels - we aren’t likely to find good Rosewood ones, and they didn’t make XLS ones. So, we will have to make our own, which is why I like the hydrodipping idea. I can see making new door panels out of aluminum and dipping them to match the bezels. 👍

But, until we can find the right stuff, I’ll keep working on the other bits for Dad’s truck and hope someone finds the holy grail.

[Ford F834]

Gary, NOS medium duty door trims would be the ticket. But I don't know if the brushed aluminum panel was a separate part number from the door card or if NumberDummy could check for them. That would be the ultimate, but I imagine service parts inventory on F600-F800 was never very much.

I do have some okay rosewood door trims to use as clones, and I am itching to try it. Unfortunately there are these nasty little things in life called "priorities" that take away the fun. But it will happen, as I am sure you have noticed by now I have quite the stubborn streak and I won't stop until I have a convincing substitute for the unobtanium trim parts. I think hydro dip is a great idea, but I still have not seen a pattern yet that grabs my interest.

For those of you that may not know what Gary and I are referring to, the medium heavy trucks with the Custom Cab trim level had brushed aluminum bezels and matching speaker cover door trims that the XLS never got. We want to reproduce them and add it to the XLS interior trim theme:

[Gary Lewis]

I seem to have some medium-duty microfiche, a viewer or two, and maybe a file or two. 😎  Let me check this afternoon after church.

[Dyn Blin]

I had read somewhere that F150 XLS models never offered AC, so the trim panels didn't have vent openings, so the picture above threw me off.

Did I learn yet another new thing on this forum-the brushed aluminum was offered in larger Custom Cabs with AC?

The pics show that interior to really look sharp.

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, the medium-duty trucks had brushed-aluminum door panels and bezels.  But I don't, yet, know the part numbers.  Here's what I found in the 1980-89 parts catalog for the F600-900 trucks:



And here's what the 1980-89 parts catalog for the light-duty, meaning F100+, trucks says:




So, I'm headed to the shop to look at microfiche.......

[Gary Lewis]

The 1987 version of the 1980 - 89 catalog for the F600 - 900 trucks has exactly the same result as shown above.  

Not only that, it has exactly the same drawing as in the F100 - 300 truck catalog - except that all the numbers begin with "6" instead of "1".  So, thinking about it, Ford hired lots of people to change all of the numbers on every page of the catalog?  

Anyway, I can't imagine that the ones above are they as surely the only panel wasn't brushed-aluminum?  Or, maybe it was as they might not have had inserts for the base trucks.  Dunno.

[Ford F834]

Dyn Blin wrote

I had read somewhere that F150 XLS models never offered AC, so the trim panels didn't have vent openings, so the picture above threw me off.

Did I learn yet another new thing on this forum-the brushed aluminum was offered in larger Custom Cabs with AC?

The pics show that interior to really look sharp.

The F150 XLS was offered both with and without AC. My NOS bezel is a light duty bezel with factory AC vents. I will agree than non-AC seemed to be more common, and many of the XLS with air had it dealer added. I have a XLS cruise control horn pad as well, not not all XLS were stripped base models.

The medium duty instrument bezels will ~not fit our trucks. The steering column opening is different.

Gary, did the medium duty parts catalogue have a diagram showing these door trim inserts?

The reason I ask is they could potentially have had the chrome ring also. I just wanted to make sure those part numbers were indeed for the brushed aluminum speaker covers.

[PetesPonies]

Reading this thread . . does anyone have interest in these pieces?








I don't want the wood and would be perfectly happy with black pieces to replace the gauge and radio. The door panels I will be using don't have the wood, so I don't need a replacement there. Obviously the drivers side is scratched from the window handle, but the other three pieces look pretty good.Thoughts or interest?

[Gary Lewis]

Here you go, Jonathan:

[Gary Lewis]

I don't need them, at least now.  But, the door panel piece might be useful if we can figure out the hydrodipping bit.

[Ford F834]

Gary Lewis wrote

Here you go, Jonathan:

Perfect! Thank you Gary, 23864 clearly points to the speaker grille, not the chrome ring so those are the correct part numbers and they are separate from the door panels. 👍

[Ford F834]

PetesPonies wrote

Reading this thread . . does anyone have interest in these pieces?

I don't want the wood and would be perfectly happy with black pieces to replace the gauge and radio. The door panels I will be using don't have the wood, so I don't need a replacement there. Obviously the drivers side is scratched from the window handle, but the other three pieces look pretty good.Thoughts or interest?

I already have some door panels for cloning but please don't discard them. If nobody else is interested in them let me know what you want for them. I do not have any black bezels for trade, only a 85/86 style silver mesh weave instrument bezel. I can look for some in the junkyards but good ones are getting few and far between.

[PetesPonies]

Anything that isn't broken is fine, as I can refinish them as I want. I just would need the gauge and radio bezels.