Here ia a link to a article I have had on my website that maybe of interest since it is about woodgraining. It was scanned from a old magazine. Ed http://oldmopar.com/oldmopar/woodgrain.html
Right on, Ed! That's something I did with mine, but much more refined, thanks!. You've got some great info on that site, for the older Mopars, neat.
I'd really like to learn this very well, so I could do this instead of decals down the sides of mine.
Practice on an old door (vertical surface) to get the 'feel' for the graining with different brushes. I used a 1" wide course haired cheapie brush. If you use quality long-haired brushes you'll get a very fine grain (mahogany is fine-grained), or a quality short-haired brush will give give you a bit less fine grained. If you want a teak or walnut grain, you'd use a long-haired nylon (medium quality). Since Ash and Oak have a mixed open grain, you'd want a long-haired medium to coarse grained brush (like one cut above a White-Wash tom-sawyer brush. The materials in that article are older, but you'd want them all for Exterior finishes fot UVA and UVB protection (fading, cracking, checkering and roadsalt). And a good rolling stool. Once you start the lines you don't want them to look disjointed at the door frames, etc. So you've got to be positioned at the same visual angle all along the side of the car. Tricky, but worth it. I'd do the inside edges of the doors and fenders and any lighting openings first, so that you don't disturb the graining effects.
Sounds like you're pretty experienced in this. Coming through Wisconsin anytime soon?! Haha, just kidding ya.
Years ago, I was a project manager for a commercial furniture and millwork company. We built executive office and hotel millwork, in Oil-rich Calgary, Alberta just before the Alberta economic Bust (like now, sort of) in the early 1980's. Anyway, we had a veneer department that had a few Asia veneer wizards. These guys could take Birch plywood and hand-grain it into teak or Bird's Eye Maple. I saw them take a sheet of Fir plywood and make it look like Dark English Oak. They'd do that for wall-panelling to line the executive bookcases and document storage rooms. Artists, man! You'd put up a sheet of the real wood and theirs, and you couldn't tell which was real. They were the only ones that were paid as much as the plant manager. Worth every dime, too. When I started my clock company, the CEO from my job became my partner, and lent me a couple of them for a few weeks to train a few people. I was one of their trainees. They could do inlays of brass, aluminum, copper, and even marquetry in hours, that most folks would take days to do! Beautiful work. Anyway, I still dabble in it, when I can. Metal isn't as forgiving (not porous) but the materials are easier to work with too. You can hide a lot of boo-boos in wood finishes. Here's a few good links, some for wood: http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/_Rolling_Out_the_Grains.html http://forum.doityourself.com/archive/index.php/f-148.html http://www.valsparglobal.com/val/resident/se_techniques.jsp http://www.painting-effects.co.uk/oak.htm http://www.hotrod.com/howto/53938_paint_job_tips/index.html For etching Aluminum trim before refinishing: http://www.plastikote.com/plastikote/auto/template.jsp?searchcode=PRI&product=etchprimer And a good site with samples of varieties finished and not: http://www.nwfinewoodworking.com/wood_types/rosewood.htm And some real woodie wagons for ideas: http://www.oldwoodies.com/index.htm There, that'll keep you drooling and pondering for an hour or two. Just a bit of practice and you can probably do one side of your wagon in a day (after metal prepping and drying the first base coats). It's 'Patience Work', so get some good jazz and a quiet spot to do it in. You'll be impressed.
Sounds like alot of fun actually! I'll need to get my 58 Chevy up and running by spring, so when I park the wagon for the warmer months, I can get some work done on her.
