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Original wood effect on Mk1 Ruby dashboard... - Ruairidh Dunford - 15-02-2020
Dear all,
does anyone have some colour photos of the original wood effect finish that was applied to Mk1 (detachable) ruby dash fascias please?
Also can anyone confirm in the internal door cappings were treated similarly?
Thank you.
RE: Original wood effect on Mk1 Ruby dashboard... - Mike Costigan - 15-02-2020
Ruairidh,
If the dashboard was wood-effect, then the door cappings were also. However, my (1936) ARQ Mk1 Ruby had body colour dash and trim. I may be wrong, but I thought it was only the Mk2 ARRs that came with wood effect.
RE: Original wood effect on Mk1 Ruby dashboard... - Ruairidh Dunford - 15-02-2020
My understanding was that the removable dash fascia on early Mk1 Rubys was 'removable' so that a wood grain effect could be applied to it (using an early photo/lithographic process - I think).
Like your 36 Ruby, my own 1936 Mk1 Pearl has no evidence of the fascia ever being fitted either. This applies to early Mk1s only I suspect.
RE: Original wood effect on Mk1 Ruby dashboard... - Mike Costigan - 15-02-2020
Pretty inconclusive, but this Light Car road test from late 1934 would appear to show body-colour dash and trim:
http://www.austin7.org/Road%20Tests/Ruby%20MK%201/
RE: Original wood effect on Mk1 Ruby dashboard... - Ruairidh Dunford - 15-02-2020
See here from the same source Mike: http://www.austin7.org/Technical%20Articles/Woodgrain/
I don't doubt your suggestion but I am niggled by the question, why a removable facia if if was painted exactly the same as the identical fixed panel underneath it?
RE: Original wood effect on Mk1 Ruby dashboard... - andrew34ruby - 15-02-2020
Most things on my 1934 Ruby seem to be un-messed-about-with, though clearly it had a lot of use from 1934 till about '54. Then 12 months back on the road in 1966/7.
When I bought this 1934 mk 1 Ruby ARQ the removable dash was brush painted in off white. While stripping it down carefully I found no trace of black, the original body colour. No trace of any wood-grain effect. It was a sort of dull chocolate brown on both sides.
Looking around at other Ruby dashboards I feel that anything goes. Some look to have original wood grain, some an original brown. And the shade varies a lot.
My door cappings seem to have always been black, the original body colour.
I have taken the body back to black, door cappings black and dashboard a moderately light shade of brown, slightly orangish.
I've never figured out why the dash was a separate panel, other than to woodgrain it.
RE: Original wood effect on Mk1 Ruby dashboard... - Mike Costigan - 15-02-2020
Certainly the first Ruby catalogue shows a wood-grain dash, but then it also shows cream window frames ...
1934 Ruby.JPG (Size: 123.46 KB / Downloads: 489)
RE: Original wood effect on Mk1 Ruby dashboard... - Derek Sheldon - 15-02-2020
It’s my understanding (could be Wrong) that pre Mk11 Ruby’s did not have the wood effect and solid non removable panels on the dash. Even later Opals remained like that. Mk11 however had a photo applied covering on dash and window surrounds.
RE: Original wood effect on Mk1 Ruby dashboard... - Ruairidh Dunford - 15-02-2020
Thanks Andrew and Derek.
Mike,
Here is the remains behind the door handle I was speaking to you about, it is almost varnish like and dark brown (which I prefer to the lighter colour shown on the Cornwall site link above)...
RE: Original wood effect on Mk1 Ruby dashboard... - Mike Costigan - 15-02-2020
That certainly looks like wood-effect: black and light brown on a dark brown base. Good luck with reproducing it!