Wood Restoration near NY?

[RichardPercival]

Does anyone know of or have experience with someone to restore the wood in New York or at least closer to the East Coast?

I've read lots of posts here relating to Madera in CA, but am loathe to ship it all so far. Also they are apparently top dollar and perhaps would be worth spending that if I wanted a special finish not just 'stock' but don't really want to spend as much as for new wood!

Also I have read in the Tech Manual thatthere should be 3 screws for each piece of dash wood - I only see 2 on mine and cant really see where one would have broken off.. Is this still as from the factory?

[Vander]

I just looked at a piece of wood here and it has a middle stud 7.25" from the stud on the curve.

[RichardPercival]

Thanks Vander, do you mean between the two studs I have or further round on the curve toward the outer end?

[RichardPercival]

Having now found a photo of replacement wood from underneath, I understand what you are describing.
It is very odd as no stud has ever been in that location on this piece of wood and it appears entirely original to the car, as is the speaker and dashboard leather around it. I can't immediately see a dedicated hole for the middle spike, but suppose it goes down next to the black card air boxes
anyway so would be the least obvious.
Very confusing! Will have to see what the story is with the other side once I've removed the guages next week.

[neelyrc]

I can’t help with a restoration shop. I talked to Madera a few years ago and found their price to restore my original wood was a toss up with new wood from the classic center. I bought new from the classic center.

Attached is a picture of the original factory passenger side dash bow I removed from my car (chassis 007749, February 1969).  Note Two studs only. The drivers side factory bow had three studs. New wood from the classic center was identical.

[kampala]

Same as Ralph. 

I recall one side piece of the wood trim had two studs and the other side had three studs. So total of 5 studs on dash wood and 5 blue nuts. 

[mdsalemi]

Does anyone know of or have experience with someone to restore the wood in New York or at least closer to the East Coast?

Richard--While Madera specializes in dashboard wood and has great experience with the wood pieces from our older Mercedes, AND they do spectacular work, they are indeed quite costly.

On the first go-around with my restoration in 1999-2001 (done in Michigan) I had the wood restored by a local quality furniture restorer with experience in veneers and fine furniture. He did a fine job for what I paid. More recently, 2020, when I had the hard top restored (never touched in the original restoration) I relied on a piano restorer to do the wood bows inside. It helped that I knew the guy.

Restoration of fine pianos such as Steinway involves some of the finest furniture and wood restoration that you could imagine.

So, in answer to your question about "Wood Restoration near NY" there are probably countless numbers of fine furniture restoration shops near you, and a lesser number of piano restoration shops as well. You may not know them right now but they are there, trust me...you'll just have to find them. Being in NYC, however, everything there and in the surrounding areas is higher in price than most of the USA. So furniture restoration in Manhattan is considerably costlier than in say, Little Rock, Arkansas...

Now all that being said, when I also had some work done on my car commensurate with the hard top restoration, my interior wood had not lasted as long and as pretty as I'd have liked. So I did send it all out to Madera for an evaluation. The cost was pretty high as we all know, with one piece needing a re-veneer. So instead I opted to buy all new wood, completely, from our friend George Katsoris from Authentic Classics. I defrayed the cost of the replacement by selling all the other interior wood on eBay. I think that was the best course of action for me.

[RichardPercival]

Thanks all!

I finally got the left side wood out this weekend and it does have the 3 pins.

One thing that surprised me is that all the wood has a different number pencilled on it (160 on both bows) from the number 366 on seats dash etc. which clearly matches my build number 00366 on the data card. It doesn’t look to have been touched and has wear consistent with the original leather around it.

Does anyone know if the number should be consistent or if wood might be a different number?

Thanks MDSalemi, I had wanted to restore the wood and will get some furniture quotes locally (In Jersey and Queens one can sometimes find more normal pricing than Manhattan but it begins to feel like the cost of getting any ‘work’ done now is higher than replacement since labor is expensive unless you have the skills to do it yourself. I’m in awe of the folks here who re-veneer their own wood but while I am doing lots of electricals (even harder in an underground public parking lot in Manhattan with only the light from an iPhone) I don’t have woodworking skills / tools/ space - as I have the rug in the second bedroom of a cramped apartment as a work bench 😂
Perhaps if it does turn out the wood is not even original to the car, that will make it easier to just accept buying the repro!

[badali]

If the veneer is intact you could try to refinish it yourself.  I lightly sanded some wood for my 220Sb with 400 grit then stained it to match.  Then refinished with clear.  It turned out very well.  You could practice on a piece of scrap wood to get your best color match.  It is not too difficult to try yourself.

[mdsalemi]

I don’t have woodworking skills / tools/ space - as I have the rug in the second bedroom of a cramped apartment as a work bench 😂
Perhaps if it does turn out the wood is not even original to the car, that will make it easier to just accept buying the repro!

As Brad pointed out, it's not too difficult. What IS difficult is working in (your words) a cramped bedroom in Manhattan. I get it. The sanding would be easy. Working the stain, and then a final coat of spray varnish or urethane, isn't conducive to work inside an apartment...