Friday, March 11, 2011

Refinishing the Wood Dash and Other Small Upgrades

The 2000 has a nice wood veneer dash board.  Probably a lot of the cars that still exist show signs of wear, age, and sun damage in this area.  Here's how mine looked a couple of months after purchase.  Note the splotchy wood effect caused probably by water and general neglect, the plastic shifter and the hideous seat covers:


1) Still cool, but splotchy and worn.

The fix was easy for the dash, involving only a package of 0000 steel wool and a small bottle of teak oil.  I spent half an hour rubbing down the wood until the original surface was revealed. Then I dabbed an old shirt in teak oil and applied the product evenly over the wood, taking care not to get the oil on any clear surfaces such as the instrument faces.

I found a wooden shifter on ebay for six or eight dollars and I had the seats restuffed and recovered with original-to-the-car vinyl.



2) The new look

It's nice to know some upgrades are relatively easy to accomplish and do not require the help of expensive professionals (with the exception of the seat vinyl). Regarding the dash, having worked with wood and wooden boats for a long, long time I knew exactly what to do to get the best look from the wood.

A note on the floor mats:  Originally bought in Germany for my now-expired 2002, they are genuine BMW NOS from the late 60s or early '70s. While produced for the '02, virtually identical mats were available in 1967 as an accessory for the 2000.




3 comments:

  1. I really like the wood dash....here's my just started "blog"...

    http://nt7110.blogspot.com/?view=classic

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  2. Dash looks very nice.....I will start the same process on my 67' soon !

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  3. Perhaps a dumb question, but I see that your NK does not have a center console. Is that stock, i.e. no console ? It looks so clean ! Excellent work,
    and the floor mats really bring it all together !

    ReplyDelete