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ShipBear
10-01-2002, 12:40 PM
I need to know the Best way to replace the wood behind my dash..
It's 4 feet long, 4 inches tall, and 1/2 inch thick..
The front and back is sealed in glass.. The wood is history..
Think I can, glass a piece of wood and slide it up in the dash wet. and it'll bond OK..?
Or should I cut the glass off the back, Glass and clamp the wood to the front, and lay new glass on the back.. To make sure it really bonds good..?
What kind of wood would be best for this..?
I don't guess end-grain balsa, would be strong enough.? Even layed up in glass..? I have alot of it..

Thanks for any Info, Later Larry

action17
10-01-2002, 01:31 PM
balsa wood would work if properly laminated!! your best bet would be to get all the rotten wood out and get rid all the old glass by grinding or sandind depending on how bad it is!! you want to make sure your bonding surface is clean and scuffed up so you'll get a good bond with the new material!!! good luck!!

Techno
10-01-2002, 05:30 PM
I cut the glass strips that hold the wood in place in the back. These were on each side and on the bottom. A grinder makes dust and is easy, a chisel isn't too bad but is slower.

Now the wood is laminated and bonded to the dash.
Pound chisels or whatever between the dash and wood. The wood comes off leaving the finished dash. Clean off any wood from the underside of the dash. Also be carefull that its the wood seperating and not the lams of the dash. The wood keeps the back side lams on it. Your not leaving a pocket.

You could use plywood or laminate wood. I laminated 4 pieces of walnut and bonded it in. Before bonding I laminated the outer side. Mixed up some thickend epoxy and clamped it in. I still have to tab the wood into the bottom of the dash and sides of the boat.

The balsa core is really only coring. IF you do this I think the lams are very important now since this is what the corings job is.
It was mentioned using aluminum too. I dropped this idea only from the point of redrilling the gauge holes. Mine will be square and it is small inconvenience anyway.

I would either use plywood. Make my own thin strips of wood and laminate them together(mine all run the same direction, horizontal). Or buy veneer and glue that together, I didn't check the cost of that though.

The wood ended up being about 3/8" thick. I cut off the end and added it to the area of the steering wheel. Doubling this area. there are 8 peices edge joined and laminated to form 4 layers. The edge joints were staggared.