The timber in a classic British or European cabin is furniture, and it ages like furniture. Sunlight crazes the lacquer, moisture lifts the veneer, and the deep figure of burl walnut slowly fades to a tired, milky grey. Restored properly, that same timber becomes the warmest thing in the car — a glowing dashboard, capping rail and door trim that frame the instruments and lift the whole interior.
Our cabinetwork is done the way fine furniture has always been done. Where veneer has lifted or cracked beyond repair, we re-veneer onto the original baseboards using timber chosen to match the figure and colour of the rest of the car. Where the original finish has merely aged, we strip it back, repair the substrate, and rebuild the finish by hand. The aim is always a result that looks correct for the car — neither plastic-bright nor neglected.
Matching the figure
The character of automotive woodwork lies in its figure — the swirling grain of burl walnut, the ribbon of a straight-cut veneer, the way a dashboard's leaves are book-matched about a centre line. Recreating that requires a stock of correct veneers and the eye to choose and lay them so the pattern flows as the factory intended. A mismatched leaf or a reversed grain is immediately wrong to anyone who knows the car, and we go to considerable trouble to get it right.
What we restore
- Re-veneering of dashboards, cappings, door trims and picnic tables
- Book-matched veneer selection to match original figure and colour
- Repair of lifted, cracked or water-damaged veneer and substrates
- Traditional French polishing and lacquer finishing by hand
- Instrument aperture and switch-hole restoration for correct fit
- Conservation of original timber where patina is worth preserving
The finish that makes it
Veneer is only as good as the finish over it. Traditional French polishing — shellac applied in many fine layers with a rubber, over days — gives a depth and warmth that sprayed lacquer cannot approach, and it can be repaired invisibly in the future. For cars originally finished in lacquer we replicate that finish faithfully, building, flatting and polishing until the timber glows. Either way, the result is a finish that reflects light softly and ages gracefully rather than clouding.
A small thing that matters
Woodwork is a small part of a car by weight and a large part of it by impression. Sit behind a freshly restored walnut dashboard and the whole cabin feels cared for. It is precisely the kind of detail that separates a thorough restoration from a hurried one — and exactly the kind of work we most enjoy.