Got Wood? Perfection from the hands, mind and heart of Bruce Crawford.

[304065]

Wow. All I can say is WOW.

Rather than restore the wheel and dash of my 1966 911 myself, I sent it to Bruce Crawford at Hardwood Classics.

As you can see the results are nothing short of incredible. He has replacement chrome rings which went with the original patinated leather button perfectly.

On the dash, he was able to scarf in some veneer around the radio knob holes where it had chipped, and also around the edges of the hole. As a result, the original wood surface was preserved-- this did not require a veneer overlay like so many other dashes that are too far gone.

Of course work of this quality is not inexpensive, but you get what you pay for. Contact Bruce directly for pricing. Time was about two months, I told him there was no hurry at all (the car is still being restored).

Bruce has a web site at www.hardwoodclassicsltd.com, his contact info is as follows:

email:brucecrawford@hardwoodclassicsltd.com
phone: (805)528-6240
mail:1108 14th Street, Los Osos, CA 93402

Bruce is incredibly pleasant to deal with and knowledgable in the 356 and early 911 area. I had a number of conversations with him and he managed my expectations on pricing and the finished product very well.

Finally, for those of you who are thinking about snapping up the early dashes for later cars, he actually has NEW wooden dashes made of a single piece of mahogany that replicate the 901 dash that can be installed. This is a really cool option for later cars that need the early touch.

[robsled]

Bruce created a work of art for my 356 out of zebra wood mounted on a Les Leston wheel several years ago.
Truly an artist and a craftsman.

[rcnagel]

He did my dash and wheel for my 65'. It's almost too pretty, a thing of beauty. I would tempted to remove rings or watches that might scratch my wheel. It wasn't cheap, but he restored a wheel I thought was pretty far gone and gave me good credits on some other core parts, blown wood wheels and horn buttons.

The only criticism Ive heard is that the finish is too smooth and perfect. Some posters have said that some nos dashes and wheels have a thin finish and a slight raised grain, but a thin finish over time would degrade and allow moisture to invade and raise the grain. My $0.02

[W6CZ]

More of his work:

http://912bbs.org/index.php?a=topic&t=30347&hl=wood

[304065]

The only criticism Ive heard is that the finish is too smooth and perfect. Some posters have said that some nos dashes and wheels have a thin finish and a slight raised grain, but a thin finish over time would degrade and allow moisture to invade and raise the grain. My $0.02

I think that's a fair point, the finish definitely is glossier than it was when I bought the car. I've never actually SEEN a NOS dash so I can't tell, it's not like these were widely available as spare parts if at all. Kinda like those entire front clip sections you seen in the factory manuals. . .sure there's a part number. . .

[Neunelfer]

Looks great! Wish I still had mine from my 66.