To reproduce the original Wood grain effect for a 1935 Ruby.
Dashboards on the early Rubies were done in a very
attractive wood grain effect. As far as I am aware there is no replacement
surface to achieve the effect without physically painting the dashboard.
When I stripped down the dashboard from my 1935 Ruby I found a
small area of original wood grain effect under the patent plate so I decided to
reproduce this as close as possible. I photographed the only remaining piece of
wood grain and kept it for a reference.
Materials & Tools
Artist's Acrylic paints (the heavy body type in tubes)
Raw Sienna (or Yellow Ochre), Burnt
Sienna, Raw Umber, Black and White
A medium sized soft brush (a cheap size 8 or 10)
A flat stiff hogs oil painting hair bristle brush size 6 or
8.
A spray can of car body clear lacquer.
You will also need some household items like an old tooth
brush, coarse sponge and a comb.
The colour of the paints required depend on the wood being
imitated. I understand that there were two shades of wood grain, one very dark
like a dark oak and the lighter almost teak colour.
Method
Before you start on the real thing, practice on a spare piece
of metal. You will learn a lot and be able to discover your way of doing it.
There is no correct way, only the way that suits you.
new wood grain effect
I will now describe how to achieve a Teak effect, the methods
are the same for all wood effects only the colours will need to be changed.
To start, after having prepared the metal dashboard to a
normal standard ready for painting, you first have to paint the dash with a base
colour which is similar to your desired effect. Before choosing the colour make
sure you read all the article as you should gain an insight as to the purpose of
the base colour. For my example I used a Red-Brown colour. You can either use
car body spray paints or the Acrylic paints directly. If you use the Acrylic
paints make sure you brush them in the grain direction only.
Select the Acrylic colours which appear in the wood being
imitated, I selected Raw Sienna, Raw Umber, White and Black. If you look closely
at a sample of the wood you are copying you will see more colours than a simple
'brown', hence the use of Black and White. Some woods may even need a yellow or
red. Place a little of each colour onto a white plate, saucer or tray.
Start with the predominate colour (Raw Sienna) and using the
stiff brush, paint a thin layer onto the panel with brush strokes following the
grain direction.
Leave streaks of the base colour showing through. Only paint
about 3 or 4 inches along the panel you are painting While the paint is still
wet (it will dry in about 3 to 5 minutes) pick up a small amount of the next
predominate colour (Raw Umber) and blend into the first in streaks, you may find
the stiffer brush helpful. Now paint the next 3 or 4 inches in the first colour
and repeat the second colour, make sure that each section of painting along the
panel is well blended with the previous section.
When you have completed the panel with the first colours now
is the time to play with the paints. The idea now is to take a very small amount
of paint (in my example the white and black) and using as coarse a brush as
possible (the toothbrush or comb or anything else of a similar nature you can
find at home ) drag the almost dry brush across the surface that you have
painted, in the direction of the grain and it should leave fine lines like grain
on the surface. Keep doing this all over the panel, it is best to work all over
the panel with each colour rather than working in one area at a time. When you
have the desired wood grain effect then the panel is finished of with several
light coats of Car Lacquer spray (intended for top coating metallic paint
finish).
Where you need other effects like Knots or Burr effect then
you need to experiment with tools and methods. For example Burr Walnut can be
achieved by painting the lighter colour first then thinning down the dark colour
with water and applying it with a just damp sponge and soft brush. Dab the
sponge to give a mottled effect and then drag the soft brush in and around the
sponged area to produce connecting grain, If the paint is thin enough some of
the lighter under layer will show through to varying degrees.
Light and dark veining is produced by undercoating with the
first layers using two colours side by side partially blended together.
It is a lot easier to do than to describe, use a little
imagination and if possible obtain an example or a picture of the wood to be
copied but don't try and make an exact copy of the example. Do a little at a
time but be bold and free with your brush strokes and always follow the
direction of the grain. If all goes total wrong paint stripper will remove the
Acrylic and start again, Remember, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
More pictures
This article, written by Malcolm Watts, originally appeared in CA7C Seven Focus.
