Classic Car Restoration – Bentley Woodwork Veneering Project.

Veneering a Bentley S3 dashboard and wooden trim.

Here’s a woodwork veneering project that I’m midway through. It’s for a beautiful Bentley S3 and it was in need of re-veneering. Here are a few photos of me in action. The veneering is carried out before the removal of the finish of the areas that don’t have veneer so that’s why you can see areas that look untidy and mismatched, but don’t let that concern you. That’s all dealt with at a later stage.

 

 

You can see in this project that the veneer in its original state is quite ‘grey’ and doesn’t have much contrast in the grain. So what I’m doing here is just wetting it temporarily with some water as a way show the client the potential for the finished Bentley woodwork. The final colour will of course be richer and ‘warmer’ (and to the client’s choice). It will also have a lovely water-based lacquer finish, to protect the woodwork and bring out it’s beauty.

 

 

I’m proud to show you the client’s reaction (with his permission) to my email providing the photos showing him the new burr walnut veneer with cross-banding detail…

“Happy with the photos’ doesn’t begin to describe my elation. What can I say? I knew when I chose to send the trim for my car to you, instead of having it restored here in Australia, that I had made the right decision: you have proven that my decision was 100% correct. The quality of your workmanship is exquisite: the woodwork in my S3 has been elevated to Continental standard. It’s beautiful! Thank you!”

Here you can see just how rounded the edges of the dashboard are and it’s imperative that the veneer fits perfectly and is well stuck.

 

 

 

 

The same applies here, in that the veneer is specifically chosen so that it matches the other picnic table. It is ‘book-matched’ to create a mirror effect. Great care is also taken to chose and also book-match even the ashtray woodwork so the grain of the wood behind the ashtray itself matches.

 

You see how the veneer is chosen from neighbouring ‘slices’ of burr walnut veneer so the the door cappings match each other.

 

 

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