BullnoseHunter02 Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 Hey yall, so im jumping the gun again, daydreaming about having a Bullnose, (Ill have one hopefully by the end of this year or sometime next year!) and was thinking, the Rosewood trim on the XLT Lariat trucks wasnt real wood trim, (Therorectically plastic painted panels) Would it be possible to fabricate real wood pieces to go in place of the plastic? Its a cool idea but im not sure it it would work. Just an idea imma throw out there to make the whole "Luxury trim thing seem more authentic. Any input on this welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford F834 Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 My father has been a woodworker/custom furniture builder for 47 years... and I grew up learning from him in the woodshop. The bezels can’t very well be replaced with wood because anything thin enough won’t be strong enough. That leaves gluing veneer onto the plastic bezels. Gluing wood onto plastic isn’t ideal because the wood will shrink and swell with atmospheric moisture and the plastic won’t. It will try to crack and buckle. Lots of varnish to seal the veneer in plastic will help, but it’s a tall order for the wood to stay on and look nice. The heat of an auto interior is brutal. You could certainly try it, but trimming and steam bending the veneer isn’t easy... if you are simply not fond of the two wood grain patterns that Ford made you might look into hydro dip films. At some point I want to try that for replicating the very rare XLS brushed aluminum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BullnoseHunter02 Posted April 11, 2019 Author Share Posted April 11, 2019 My father has been a woodworker/custom furniture builder for 47 years... and I grew up learning from him in the woodshop. The bezels can’t very well be replaced with wood because anything thin enough won’t be strong enough. That leaves gluing veneer onto the plastic bezels. Gluing wood onto plastic isn’t ideal because the wood will shrink and swell with atmospheric moisture and the plastic won’t. It will try to crack and buckle. Lots of varnish to seal the veneer in plastic will help, but it’s a tall order for the wood to stay on and look nice. The heat of an auto interior is brutal. You could certainly try it, but trimming and steam bending the veneer isn’t easy... if you are simply not fond of the two wood grain patterns that Ford made you might look into hydro dip films. At some point I want to try that for replicating the very rare XLS brushed aluminum. Thanks so much! it sounds a lot harder than im imagining!ive heard that Aluminum finish is super hard to re create! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 Thanks so much! it sounds a lot harder than im imagining!ive heard that Aluminum finish is super hard to re create! An option might be the woodgrained adhesive-backed vinyl. I did that to a friend's car in the 60's and it held up well, so surely 50 years later the technology of vinyl is even better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BullnoseHunter02 Posted April 11, 2019 Author Share Posted April 11, 2019 An option might be the woodgrained adhesive-backed vinyl. I did that to a friend's car in the 60's and it held up well, so surely 50 years later the technology of vinyl is even better. yeah, true. ill look into that stuff. Now i know why Ford didnt use real wood when they did that trim! Just seeing how much it would take to make the whole "Luxury Truck" thing a step further. Was the XLT Lariat really that luxurious for the time? by todays standards it doesnt seem like much at all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Cecil Posted April 12, 2019 Share Posted April 12, 2019 yeah, true. ill look into that stuff. Now i know why Ford didnt use real wood when they did that trim! Just seeing how much it would take to make the whole "Luxury Truck" thing a step further. Was the XLT Lariat really that luxurious for the time? by todays standards it doesnt seem like much at all! I have a sawmill. It cuts 1/16" vaneers.....just saying. Might be able to do some experimenting..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford F834 Posted April 13, 2019 Share Posted April 13, 2019 An option might be the woodgrained adhesive-backed vinyl. I did that to a friend's car in the 60's and it held up well, so surely 50 years later the technology of vinyl is even better. Sorry, this has nothing to do with the topic... but... Gary, for whatever reason I cannot view all of the text for this thread with my phone in landscape position. It disappears on the right side and I cannot scroll there. I used to think this happened because of large inserted pictures but this post has no pictures... I don’t know if you can detect a formatting difference that is causing this, but I thought I’d Let you know just in case it is correctable for future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford F834 Posted April 13, 2019 Share Posted April 13, 2019 Sorry, this has nothing to do with the topic... but... Gary, for whatever reason I cannot view all of the text for this thread with my phone in landscape position. It disappears on the right side and I cannot scroll there. I used to think this happened because of large inserted pictures but this post has no pictures... I don’t know if you can detect a formatting difference that is causing this, but I thought I’d Let you know just in case it is correctable for future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted April 13, 2019 Share Posted April 13, 2019 Sorry, this has nothing to do with the topic... but... Gary, for whatever reason I cannot view all of the text for this thread with my phone in landscape position. It disappears on the right side and I cannot scroll there. I used to think this happened because of large inserted pictures but this post has no pictures... I don’t know if you can detect a formatting difference that is causing this, but I thought I’d Let you know just in case it is correctable for future. By golly you are right! It does it on my iPhone X as well. And I don't see a reason for it. Let me look further..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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