Wood Dash Trim Replacement, was it worth it?

[wileetoyote]

Most of my wood trim pieces were in pretty damn good shape except for the center console at the gear shifts and one AC vent piece but those two pieces were bad enough to make me want to replace them hoping that the new kit matched well enough so that I could only do those two pieces... sure enough, not even close so had to embark on replacing all of them. What a PITA getting all the old adhesive off, not sure I'd do it again but now that I did, here are the details and some thoughts in case you're thinking about it yourself.

First off I researched some of the threads here but for some reason I ended up with the American Dash kit, Oxford Burlwood OEM Finish. Its definitely darker than my OEM finish and although the Toyota OEM real wood trim kit varied all over the place from dark (reddish) brown to light (reddish) brown, this darker kit was nowhere close enough to just replace the two pieces. Maybe the Honey Burlwood would have been a closer match.

My opinion/summary on the American Dash Kit:
Overall Appearance (post) installation: 8 or 9 (8.5?)
Kit Packaging Quality: 10
Material Quality: 8.5 (not sure what I was expecting but comparing the Toyota wood to this kit, Toyota would be a 10 and this kit would be a 6 however, for what it is, the kit material as a stand-alone would be about an 8 or 9 for the money)
OEM Size Matching: 6 (The reason for this low score is I ended up having to trim 45% of the pieces which is way more than I expected to do so which was 0%)

Pics:

 

[wileetoyote]

Most of my wood trim pieces were in pretty damn good shape except for the center console at the gear shifts and one AC vent piece but those two pieces were bad enough to make me want to replace them hoping that the new kit matched well enough so that I could only do those two pieces... sure enough, not even close so had to embark on replacing all of them. What a PITA getting all the old adhesive off, not sure I'd do it again but now that I did, here are the details and some thoughts in case you're thinking about it yourself.

First off I researched some of the threads here but for some reason I ended up with the American Dash kit, Oxford Burlwood OEM Finish. Its definitely darker than my OEM finish and although the Toyota OEM real wood trim kit varied all over the place from dark (reddish) brown to light (reddish) brown, this darker kit was nowhere close enough to just replace the two pieces. Maybe the Honey Burlwood would have been a closer match.

My opinion/summary on the American Dash Kit:
Overall Appearance (post) installation: 8 or 9 (8.5?)
Kit Packaging Quality: 10
Material Quality: 8.5 (not sure what I was expecting but comparing the Toyota wood to this kit, Toyota would be a 10 and this kit would be a 6 however, for what it is, the kit material as a stand-alone would be about an 8 or 9 for the money)
OEM Size Matching: 6 (The reason for this low score is I ended up having to trim 45% of the pieces which is way more than I expected to do so which was 0%)

Pics:

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[wileetoyote]

Most of my wood trim pieces were in pretty damn good shape except for the center console at the gear shifts and one AC vent piece but those two pieces were bad enough to make me want to replace them hoping that the new kit matched well enough so that I could only do those two pieces... sure enough, not even close so had to embark on replacing all of them. What a PITA getting all the old adhesive off, not sure I'd do it again but now that I did, here are the details and some thoughts in case you're thinking about it yourself.

First off I researched some of the threads here but for some reason I ended up with the American Dash kit, Oxford Burlwood OEM Finish. Its definitely darker than my OEM finish and although the Toyota OEM real wood trim kit varied all over the place from dark (reddish) brown to light (reddish) brown, this darker kit was nowhere close enough to just replace the two pieces. Maybe the Honey Burlwood would have been a closer match.

My opinion/summary on the American Dash Kit:
Overall Appearance (post) installation: 8 or 9 (8.5?)
Kit Packaging Quality: 10
Material Quality: 8.5 (not sure what I was expecting but comparing the Toyota wood to this kit, Toyota would be a 10 and this kit would be a 6 however, for what it is, the kit material as a stand-alone would be about an 8 or 9 for the money)
OEM Size Matching: 6 (The reason for this low score is I ended up having to trim 45% of the pieces which is way more than I expected to do so which was 0%)

Pics:

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[wileetoyote]

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[wileetoyote]

So in the end, I'm glad I did it considering the relatively low cost of the kit and my quest to keep the LC looking great. The new Katskin Leather, fixed AC and recent repair of one of the door lock actuators make driving her enjoyable again. New rubber coming up next.

 

[Mark W]

How noticable did any of the trimming turn out to be?

Mark...

 

[Mark W]

Is this actual laminate/coated wood, or plastic?

Mark...

 

[cahill]

Thanks for the review. I have been curious about this. How did you trim the pieces?

 

[wileetoyote]

How noticable did any of the trimming turn out to be?

Mark...

The first piece I cut was pretty bad actually but once I realized I can't make a straight cut with scissors, I switched to a blade and straight edge so then the other 8 or nine pieces I had to trim came out pretty decent. It was the inside (rounded) corners that still look crappy or just so-so. To be honest though, nobody will ever notice or look that closely. Also, you'd be surprised at the Toyota OEM trim, in removing them, there were several areas that I had never noticed were not installed properly or were pretty crooked.

If I had to do it again, I'd trim less off and more often for that perfect fit. For the inside corners, I buy an exacto blade or sharpen a 5mm diameter tube and use it as a punch for the inside corners.

 

[Mark W]

The first piece I cut was pretty bad actually but once I realized I can't make a straight cut with scissors, I switched to a blade and straight edge so then the other 8 or nine pieces I had to trim came out pretty decent. It was the inside (rounded) corners that still look crappy or just so-so. To be honest though, nobody will ever notice or look that closely. Also, you'd be surprised at the Toyota OEM trim, in removing them, there were several areas that I had never noticed were not installed properly or were pretty crooked.

If I had to do it again, I'd trim less off and more often for that perfect fit. For the inside corners, I buy an exacto blade or sharpen a 5mm diameter tube and use it as a punch for the inside corners.

Occurs to me that a dremel and abrasive drum might work really well for rounded inside corners, if not other places too. Maybe?

Mark...

 

[wileetoyote]

Is this actual laminate/coated wood, or plastic?

Mark...

I honestly couldn't tell you if its a real wood laminate and their site isn't specific but whatever it is is thin enough to cut with scissors or a blade. That would not be possible with the Toyota OEM wood trim. The pieces of this kit is made up of an adhesive back, a thin (paper?) laminate and then a thick surface gel coat. It measure 2mm thick and is die cut on a plastic backing. All of the edges are tapered so when I had to trim some of the pieces, it took the taper away but most of the edges I had to trim butted up against something so you'd never notice it was trimmed.

 

[wileetoyote]

Thanks for the review. I have been curious about this. How did you trim the pieces?

scissor at first just to test if it would cut and it cut like really, really easily. After the first cut piece came out poorly using scissors, I then switch to a sharp blade and a straight edge ruler for the rest. Those all came out pretty well

 

[wileetoyote]

Occurs to me that a dremel and abrasive drum might work really well for rounded inside corners, if not other places too. Maybe?

Mark...

Agreed but I shipped my truck to Hawaii and am renting here, all of my tools are in storage in the mainland to had to work with what I had unfortunately.

 

[cherring2]

I am in a similar situation and decided to just take off the old burlwood time. The burlwood trim is actually glued on to the original trim. I needed to replace mine and discovered when peeling back that the labels (for example Window, Door Lock) were present under the sticky part. Kind of a pain getting the sticky stuff off, but not impossible and when done it looks like brand new. I may reapply using a kit like the above but happy with how it looks for now.

 

[oilbrnr]

Just think about how much money the dealers made back in the day putting that stuff on, along with the gold trim, esp. on the Lexi’s

 

[cherring2]

Just think about how much money the dealers made back in the day putting that stuff on, along with the gold trim, esp. on the Lexi’s

I know right? what a rip off...slap some extra trim on top and call it luxury...LOL