04-06-2020, 10:26 PM
Austin dashboards are characterised by wood which contains only two colours - the grain colour and the background, unlike modern photographically produced finishes which use a full-spectrum image. I've heard several accounts of how they might have been produced originally including possibly a mechanical printing technique. If anyone knows definitively how it was done I'd love to know!
For my dash timber veneers were scanned and then tweaked in Photoshop to give a high-contrast black & white image very similar to an original pattern. The artwork was then used to make a single-colour grain-only transfer to a specified colour. The background colour is sprayed in cellulose to match the original before applying the transfer. The finished transfer is then sealed with cellulose lacquer, matted down. It has tested my spraying skills to the limit as any flaws in the lacquer can't be flatted down and resprayed without damaging the grain. Lots of failed attempts before this one!
Peter.
For my dash timber veneers were scanned and then tweaked in Photoshop to give a high-contrast black & white image very similar to an original pattern. The artwork was then used to make a single-colour grain-only transfer to a specified colour. The background colour is sprayed in cellulose to match the original before applying the transfer. The finished transfer is then sealed with cellulose lacquer, matted down. It has tested my spraying skills to the limit as any flaws in the lacquer can't be flatted down and resprayed without damaging the grain. Lots of failed attempts before this one!
Peter.