Alternative to wood grain kit

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J

joelisac

Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Threads
11
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39
Has anyone come across an alternative to the wood grain kit? I would think a brush or hammered silver would look great.
 
I bought a 6 pack, took a flat chisel, flat screw driver, needle nose pliers, and a can of wd-40 and spent 2 hours taking all of the wood grain off. Fingers were sore for 2 days, but it was worth it. The writing and symbols are all under the wood. Except for about 3 slight blemishes from the chisel, you would never know it wasn't original. Plus, it makes the tray around the shifters much more usable. Some say a heat gun helps!! I can get pics if you would like.
 
TJ96TLC said:
I bought a 6 pack, took a flat chisel, flat screw driver, needle nose pliers, and a can of wd-40 and spent 2 hours taking all of the wood grain off. Fingers were sore for 2 days, but it was worth it. The writing and symbols are all under the wood. Except for about 3 slight blemishes from the chisel, you would never know it wasn't original. Plus, it makes the tray around the shifters much more usable. Some say a heat gun helps!! I can get pics if you would like.
Click to expand...
A blow dryer does wonders. Heat them up good and they come off much easier and cleaner.
 
I took the heat gun to mine and had it all off in no time. You could tell that the interiors were made to be sold without the woodgrain somewhere, maybe outside of the US, and the woodgrain was added over the utilitarian pices to appeal to the luxury market. That may not be the case with newer trucks, but in 95 it sure was.

Removing the woodgrain was the first thing I did after buying my cruiser, next went the hokie taillight protectors, factory running boards and rear wind deflector.

Just go easy if you use a commercial heat gun, heat it a bit and then test it. You don't want to overheat anything under or around it. Heat guns work great for removing anything with glue on it, including decals and stick-on pinstriping.
 
Dash/Trim Pieces

So what exactly is the 'woodgrain? I am assuming that if heat is applied to take it off, it is a type of film? I kind of like mine, haven't seen too many like it, but would definitely be more utilitarian and fitting for the expedition build removed. No longer cute and fancy.
 
If I wanted to screw in some diamond plate around the shifter do I have to worry about screwing into any wires or would it be smarter to remove that console and fit the diamond plate and reinstall. As you can see the PO removed the phone and left some nice holes and the black it chipped up a little bit so I thought a nice piece or two of diamond plate to cover the area would look good.
shifter.webp
 
Thanks ERG80, now I know to stay away from silver
 
I agree, silver looks fake and weird. But seems like a fairly easy thing to do to revive interior and add some good looks! How bout painting the interior pieces?
 
If you professionally spray lacquer (with a gun, not rattle can epoxy) the panels to match the interior colors or external color of the rig it can come out looking great. As for pitted, broken, or cracked panels- using fiberglass resin, than smoothing it out with wet sandpaper before painting takes care of it. A couple of companies make plastic primer to help with adhesion as well. If you can get a good single stage lacquer in a can (custom mixed at auto paint supplies) you may be good.... otherwise put 4 good layers of clear on top. If you use clear you can polish the parts later for a good shine.
 
i romoved my wood dash kit and it was a pain in the ass and i had a heat gun as well, but well worth it. I scratche the hell out of my shifter console, but ened up gluing a fabric material to the console and it turned out good for the first time i tried something like that and i can keep my phone or ipod on it without it sliding around, i'll take some pics of it tomorrow during the day time, also did my armrest in the same material
 
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