Home Made wood trim, i think i am up to something Options

[NaderG]

So i posted this idea in an older post and no body replied , i have alot of ideas for my car , some are impossible to do without a fat wallet , some are simple , here is one of the simpler ideas :

i want to add custom amde wood trim in my car , in places that it shouldnt be :
RED --> places i want to put it in
Yellow --> maybe , if things turn out well





Here is what i PLAN to do :
I baught a pack of wood veneer , not the best but the wood looks good . i will finish it my self , cut it to size and then the problem begins ( You can buy prefinished, high quality , flexible veneer online for a price ) The problem is how exactly to put it on there , if i just stick it on there using adhesive it would look cheap and the wood would be above the vinyl and ehh , what i am thinking of doing is using a knife to carve out a 1mm deep place for the wood into the vinyl , make a lil bit smaller that the actual wood and make pockets at the end like this /________\ and then squeeze the wood in with some adhesive and i am done , the only thing is that i am afraid that cutting the vinyl would leave marks all over the edges and make it look bad

PLEASE I NEED OPINIONS !!!! help me out with this project !! any ideas of how to put it on without making it look cheap ??? suggestion ??? THANX , i hope this works so that everybody can benefit.

[NaderG]

I just finished finishing one of my wood veneers , its HARD , i hard to do a bunch of tets first and it still isnt perfect , i cut pieces into size for test fitting ..... lets just say that out interior is a heck alot more curvy that it looks !!! the natural 2 ply wood veneer couldnt accomodate all the curves ! so yah , 20 bucks down the drain for the wood , and another 20 for the finishing products , i thinki can still return the finishing stuff ... god i hope , i havent given up though , i am still looking into flexible veneer ... tough stuff to fins though , so i will try laminate first , i just hope it doesnt look cheap , if it does then i will just quit the project ..

[CelicaST_CALI]

dude u might ruin ur interior on this...cause as u said the interior is curvy as hell,the only thing i would think that would be easy to do as wood would(haha)be the dash trim inserts but u already painted them.Regradless of what it looks like i wanna know what it looks like when its done

[manphibian]

It's an interesting idea, let us know how you get on with it

[NaderG]

So far i havent reached far , but for now , i will try to find the flatest parts of my interior and try to fit them with veneer , i will also try to avoid cutting/ carving anything untill i get a good handle of the whole thing ... laminate look cheap and the good ones cost a fortune and also dont come in small sizes .... right now the only thing that is stopping me is that i dont want to spend money , there is alot of really good materials on the web like flexible veneer which is already finished and glued .... i will see how far i get into this before i give up , for now i am doing a cover for the lower Din and the ashtray

[NaderG]

IT DIDNT WORK !!!! , man ... but well , i have to try something in order to know what works and what doesnt , real wood was not just a bad choice , it was a stupid one !! and to think that veneer would be flexible enough to acomodate the car's curves !! lol , well , thats another 40 bucks down the drain but well i learned a couple of new stuff taling to a friend of mine who wraped most of his interior in carbon fiber and added a lil bit of extras in there ... if i want a good looking , none damaging way i have to use a very thin wood laminate , the kind they use for floors and cabinets and stuff , i have to also find plastic and cut / shape into the shapes i want , then cover with my precous laminate and then stick on my dash , sounds good ? alot better than real wood i say ! well , i am out of extra cash for the month , so i will have to tackle this some time later

I just have a question to alll of you plastic experts , how do i mold or shape plastic into the curves of the interior ???

[CelicaST_CALI]

well it dependds on how thick the plastic is.You car heat it.

[NaderG]

i am kind of putting this project on the shelf for now , i cant find any damn laminate anywhere ...

[NaderG]

I know 6GC will be down tonight but i am not in a hurry , i want to know what kind of really thin plastic i should use for my wood project , something that would easly adapt to my interior's curves or easyly molded to it .... if i had to heat it up , wouldnt that burn my vinyl ?? a lil help here plz , i am not really good with plastics

would this tuff work to make small thin panel to glue the wood on ?

www.shapelock.com

how much would i need ?

This post has been edited by NaderG: Jun 24, 2007 - 12:44 AM

[CelicaST_CALI]

wait its 11:30 and teh sites still up...

[Rockford]

I have mine, if you want i could sell to you, i'll take it off my car!

[NaderG]

I have mine, if you want i could sell to you, i'll take it off my car!

what exactly are you talking about ?

[DSToyo]

off topic question, but what are the switches next to your cig lighter? were they stock?

[NaderG]

off topic question, but what are the switches next to your cig lighter? were they stock?

theese are my top control button and rear quarter windows control because i have a vert !

[topshed]

I've got that plastic wood,see what you think. sorry can't get photo to upload



This post has been edited by topshed: Jul 1, 2007 - 12:38 PM

[CelicaST_CALI]

wow dstoyo...and u call uself an american...lol yes its the vert switvhes!!

[DSToyo]

wow dstoyo...and u call uself an american...lol yes its the vert switvhes!!

i know, i didnt realize he had a vert...

This post has been edited by DSToyo: Jul 1, 2007 - 5:15 PM

[CelicaST_CALI]

lol nader wat happened to doing it urself?

[NaderG]

lol nader wat happened to doing it urself?

new college semester left me bankrupt ( college books are $$$$$ ) , also no time to finish the damn unfinished wood , i intend to use it on the DIN cover , the auto shifter surround and maybe the ashtray cover , then i will try to find a way to fit a strip on the dahs and door , just to make it look a lil bit more luxurious

[CelicaST_CALI]

yea that would be nice..