Woodgraining - Grain-It Technologies

[Gene Brink]

Interesting stuff on this website - http://woodgraining.com/. If one has the skill set (or wants to develop it) GIT has a pretty full line of tools and supplies to do some DIY work.

[Mark Shaw]

The Primavera looks just like the original dash in my 38 Buick.

[ols car dog]

I did my 1930 Studebaker with it .Very happy with the results

 

 

[dei]

This was Dad's attempt on his beloved Whippet.

[NTX5467]

Rather than paint, some of the "body wrap" material can probably be used to manufacture what ever type of woodgrain design you might desire, I suspect.  Probably not unlike adapting the water slide decal photography techniques in another thread a few year ago (1920s Pontiac speedometer restoration).  Maybe even use the "wrap" technology to reproduce an existing woodgrain design, possibly correcting the end result for sun fade and such?

 

NTX5467

[kgreen]

That's interesting.  How does one verify the correct woodgrain pattern and color for their car?  For instance, the example for the 40 Buick doesn't look correct.

Edited September 27, 2017 by kgreen (see edit history)

[Mark Shaw]

Ken,

     I think the only way to verify pattern and color is to find an original in-restored car for comparison.  My 38 Buick  dash is original but faded in comparison to the glove box door, which has a rich brown color.  We are guessing that the glove box door was left open after the clock was disconnected, so it was not exposed to sunlight during storage.

[RivNut]

This looks a whole lot easier and quicker.

 

 

[RivNut]

14 minutes ago, Mark Shaw said:

Ken,

     I think the only way to verify pattern and color is to find an original in-restored car for comparison.  My 38 Buick  dash is original but faded in comparison to the glove box door, which has a rich brown color.  We are guessing that the glove box door was left open after the clock was disconnected, so it was not exposed to sunlight during storage.

 

[Jdee]

 If you need to know what woodgrain your car gets you can e-mail anytime.

Jdee@rwebsite.com

And I'll try and find it.

Jdee

The 1938 Buick had a Butt Walnut Dash and PrimaVera Window Moldings.

Just working on one today. Tried to put some water on an

original Glove box door but it did not work so good lol

But old original parts are where you find your patterns.

We do have a patterns video here woodgrain patterns

 

Edited September 27, 2017 by Jdee (see edit history)

[Gene Brink]

That is cool, Ed. Only problems for DIY is the equipment requirements are formidable and while there are a lot of different grain patterns they don't make reference to knowing what you might need for a particular application (although they certainly may know if asked). NTX's mentioning of body wrap technology strikes me as having promise as well.

[MCHinson]

6 hours ago, Jdee said:

 

The 1938 Buick had a Butt Walnut Dash and PrimaVera Window Moldings.

 

 

 

You may want to check a few more 1937 and 1938 Buicks. While I am more familiar with 1937 Buicks, The 1938 Buick Century that I am restoring clearly did not have Butt Walnut woodgraining on the dash. Your video also seems to indicate that all 1937 Centurys have what I think you called the geometric pattern dash. Based on observation of several original 1937 Buicks, I would dispute that assertion. There are seldom hard and fast rules about "every" car 

 

You may wish to check out the reprinted information from the 1939 Fisher Body Manual on page 14 of the attached Torque Tube Issue. There were three different types of Di Noc dash patterns used in 1938, Butt Walnut, Chevron, and Straight Walnut Grain. They were not all Butt Walnut. 

Torque Tube, The - Volume VIII - Issue 2 (October, 1989) (Submitted by Brian DePouli and Bill VanNostrand).pdf

[NTX5467]

As a point of curiosity, were the different patterns of woodgrain related to the model series of the vehicle in a particular model year?  Was one pattern perceived as being more upscale than another one?

 

Thanks,

NTX5467

[MCHinson]

I don't really feel qualified to give you a complete answer to that question. I think that the Chevron pattern was typically only found on Roadmasters, so maybe it was perceived as being more upscale, but it is difficult to reproduce so most restorers avoid it. While some of the newer technology can probably reproduce it, older restorers often changed those cars to woograin because they could reproduce it easily. My 1937 Century's woodgrain has been redone. I don't think it is an authentic pattern, but it really looks nice. I personally think that it looks more upscale than the original straight grain. It is more of a burl pattern mahogany, which as best I can tell is incorrect for the 1937 Century... but it sure is pretty.

 

 

[kgreen]

I had a chance to talk to Ed (I think) at Grain it Technologies (GIT).  As he indicated above, their company can identify the proper grain pattern for most cars as they have samples.  They have gone to a lot of trouble finding all the old patterns.  As for the 40 Buick dash that I questioned above, he has done work for noteable 40 Buick specialists to their satisfaction which was later confirmed during judging of certain of their cars.

 

GIT is able to replicate the dash using original lacquer or modern urethane.  The lacquer is prone to aging more quickly than the urethane.  Further discussion with Ed reveals that many restorers like the high gloss grain finish.  The authentic finish is more satin than gloss.  GIT can prepare your restored dash either way.

 

Oh, the various colors shown in my previous post above can be due to camera/phone sources for the pictures and vary further by monitor display.  The patterns do vary, but i would get with Ed to verify the correct pattern if you wish to be authentic in your restoration.

 

Ed is sort of backed up right now so you would do well to plan ahead for his services.  Thanks for the original post Gene, this is a great topic!

Edited September 28, 2017 by kgreen
more info (see edit history)

[Jdee]

Sorry if I came off as saying Every and All 38 Buicks had those patterns.

 It was just a quick post to let people know they can get their car back to an original pattern and finish.

I was working on a 38 when I read this post and posted too fast I guess.

 

Cars could come through with almost any pattern. We have seen some odd stuff in the past 20 Years of Woodgraining.

Some cars changed in the middle of year so you need the build date if the car has no traces of woodgrain left.

 

I believe Evan said there are a few exceptions in the custom made plate section of the plate patterns video when referring to the Chevron Plate for the 37.

Just letting people know you don't need to buy every plate or pattern if you are getting into woodgraining.

 

 When we do a restoration or make plates for our customers we work with our customers to find the right pattern for their cars.

With the help of the owners of the cars, forums like this and finding traces of original woodgraining on the parts we can get the finish done or

make a plate so you can get it done. We have been collection interior parts since we started 20 years ago so we can replicate factory patterns and handled

many thousands of parts to examine for patterns in our restoration projects.

 

 If your car does not have a Butt walnut finish than what does it have? That would help more than saying you are wrong about the patterns used.

I know how bad things get picked apart and dissected online. It's just the internet

 

Jdee

Woodgraining The Lost Art  Is free to watch online.   There is a  Finding Patterns  Video.

[MCHinson]

45 minutes ago, Jdee said:

 

 

 If your car does not have a Butt walnut finish than what does it have? That would help more than saying you are wrong about the patterns used.

 

I posted a photo of the dash showing the original woodgrain. It certainly looks more like Primavera than Butt Walnut to me. Based on the information reprinted from the 1939 Fisher Body Manual that I posted, I would guess it to be straight walnut grain. You are the woodgraining professional. You tell me what it is.

[Jdee]

It's a Heavy Stippled Mahogany. hard to tell from a photo but Probable a MH2 basecoat. The reds go first.

Jdee

[MCHinson]

54 minutes ago, Jdee said:

It's a Heavy Stippled Mahogany. hard to tell from a photo but Probable a MH2 basecoat. The reds go first.

Jdee

 

I guess what confuses most of us hobbyists on this issue is that your desciptive terms don't match the original names used to describe the patterns in the factory reference materials. After seeing quite a few original cars, I have a good idea of what it is supposed to look like, despite some fading over the last 79 years, and think that I can do a decent job of replicating it myself, but if I was going to pay a professional to do it, I would need for the professional to show me a photo of what it was going to look like, because of the different terminology used to describe the different patterns by the different professionals. 

[Jdee]

Yes, it's true straight grain has so many names they change the basecoat or ink color and come up with a new exotic name.

That really does throw folks off. We like getting photos of original work.

I have had people send their glove box door for a sample of what they want us to match.

This is just a quick print But we have quite a few straight grains some very fine others denser.

We don't know every woodgrain pattern for every car but we can usually find it and make a plate.

Edited September 28, 2017 by Jdee (see edit history)

[Mark Shaw]

The photo below is the dash & side window of my un-restored 38 Buick Special. 

Enlarge & note the color difference of the glove box door and the original wood grain pattern.

[Jdee]

That's a cool photo. Do you think someone added the door from another car for the clock or did they all have a clock?

We have seen a set of window moldings with one Frame being darker than the rest.

We think it was just a shift change at the factory.

Some people put more pressure on the roller and can get much darker prints.

[Mark Shaw]

20 minutes ago, Jdee said:

That's a cool photo. Do you think someone added the door from another car for the clock or did they all have a clock?

We have seen a set of window moldings with one Frame being darker than the rest.

We think it was just a shift change at the factory.

Some people put more pressure on the roller and can get much darker prints.

 

It is possible that the glove box door was replaced by others before I got this car.  However, as I posted earlier, it is also possible that it was left open after the clock was disconnected for storage.  Other Buick owners have seen this color difference in glove box doors too...

[Jdee]

That would make sense. The sun does some crazy stuff. People have asked us to do the gold woodgrain on their 37 PLYs 

And it was silver. If someone has a car for years and smoked or where they parked at work the sun can really change things.

It can be frustrating.  why and what happened to the old finishes who knows we just work with as many people as we can to

figure it out.

 

 

Edited September 28, 2017 by Jdee (see edit history)

[Jdee]

I have not been on in a while since this post. I think my last post was 3d Printing LOL maybe not. Time goes so fast.

I hope the fellow got his parts made. 

 

[NTX5467]

 Another curious question . . . . How'd the factory (in this case, Fisher Body) do it on the assembly line?

 

Thanks,

NTX5467

Edited September 29, 2017 by NTX5467 (see edit history)

[MCHinson]

3 hours ago, NTX5467 said:

 Another curious question . . . . How'd the factory (in this case, Fisher Body) do it on the assembly line?

 

Thanks,

NTX5467

 

If you will open the document that I posted in post 12 and scroll down to page 14 of the publication,  the reprint from the Fisher Body Manual explains the three methods that they used.

[Jdee]

Yes, number 1-- Roller app by the factory.

Di noc before stamping. So get your dash re-stamped LOL

Just keep reading that PDF .My 39 Buick had the same wood grain as the MCHinson Car dash

LOL

Not the mahogany burl we are used to seeing.

 

Earl Beauchamp was here checked out my 39 and said it was  a 

Canadian car Well it has the wrong woodgrain LOL