kjcole

"The SC 430 was long on luxury and features. There was just one trim level, and it came very well equipped with items like leather upholstery, genuine wood trim and a navigation system."
-Edmund's

So the steering wheel and shift **** are wood - but everything else that looks like wood is plastic, right (dash/doors/center console)?

FLYCT

The base is plastic with a real wood laminate and finished with resin i believe. The reason for plastics base is to prevent warping.

JR

kjcole

So a thin veneer of wood on a plastic substrate, covered basically in a clear resin?

Sounds plausible to me.

Thanks - while pulling most of the trim when I upgraded the stereo head unit I was focused on the plastic underside and just assumed the rest was lithography!

Kelly

mandyfig

The Steering Wheel and Shifter **** are all solid wood. The steering wheel, I happen to know who supplies them. They use the same process for the multiple layers of clear coat like the famous gunmaker's (escaping the name at the moment)..

huy33

Everything can't be wood because if the car ever gets into an accident, there'll be a bunch of splinters flying around inside.

mandyfig

I have seen this made from the show in Discovery Channel...these steering wheels do not splinter...

mandyfig

Break your nose but not splinter...LOL.

tfischer

I had an old English car for a while in the 60's (a 1950 Alvis - look it up) and all of the wood interior trim was real wood, including the wood strip around the inside of the sun roof (twist the handle and pull it back yourself). I took out the dash and door trim pieces and refinished them, like you would do for a chest of drawers. Eventually I moved to more modern cars (TR6), and have not had to use carpentry skills around the car much at all. I cannot imagine today's motorists putting up with that kind of maintenance, and I really don't much mind that the wood trim looks like it sits under a quarter inch of resin.

sixonemale

"The Steering Wheel and Shifter **** are all solid wood."

Just from a common sense perspective, I find it very difficult to believe that the steering wheel is solid wood from a safety perspective. More specifically, the SC is electronically limited to very high speed and if at a high or even low speed were to collide with another car or object, it would seem that the wooden steering wheel would crack or break from it's connections much easier than one that had metal supports throughout the entire steering wheel assembly. I may be incorrect, but that's my two cents.

mrblister

The steering wheel has a metal frame or skelton. The wood is applied by hand and does require I think the discovery channel said the estimate to make in man hours was around 35 hours.

tfischer

I agree; I think all modern steering wheels have a metal frame around which the wood or leather exterior is applied.

kjcole

I restored a 63 Mercedes diesel (a 180d, pretty spartan car), but found solid walnut dash trim from a gas version in a salvage yard. After refinishing it was spectacular, but totally out of character with the rest of the car!

Yes

Everything you never really wanted to know about how SC430 steering wheels are made...

http://www.imakenews.com/thompsonlex...K35mq,blG8bb2W

tfischer

That's pretty impressive.
Thanks for the link.

mandyfig

The company who supplies that is TAC.