Anyone know for sure what material all the wood looking trim in the LS430 is made from, and the steering wheel.


Wood, Plastic, etc.?


Thanks .....

 

hydrodipped plastic.

 

Interesting process, thanks for the answer.
I found a short movie on the process

 

Not plastic. Actual wood. Very thin veneer on most surfaces. Definitely not plastic.

 

As jay said it is real wood. And top notch quality at that.

 

Real Wood.

 

The "Shimamoku" string wheel was introduced for the LS460. The LS430 never had real wood, in fact no car has real wood except maybe for Bentley's.

Real wood, isn't as appealing to the eyes cosmetically as the dipped plastic pieces. Nor is it cost efficient for huge car manufacturers.

Take apart all the trim pieces and you'll find from the behind that it is plastic. And on some edges you can see where they dipped and where they did not by looking at the wood grain pattern and seeing it get cutoff at the edges from the back.

LS430, not real wood.

 

For all you haters out there, I went ahead and looked and the panels with a microscope. The LS appears to be real wood.

This is a sample of imitation wood, taken from a Toyota Aristo center console I had laying around. Note the distinct dot pattern left behind by the printing process.


On the other hand, here is a sample of a real wood veneer. The grain of the wood is apparent and fine details are visible.


Now here's the wood from my LS. Notice the visible grain and lack of the dot pattern, which leads me to believe that it is, in fact, real wood veneer on the plastic panel.

 

Thanks for those images, top notch.

I'm starting to doubt myself, if it is real wood then cool. BUT, I don't understand why they tried their hardest to make this look FAKE. No idea.

 

The LS 430 interior featured walnut wood trim on the dashboard and upper doors, along with semi-aniline leather and oscillating air conditioning vents.[70][74.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexus_LS

 

From 2004 LS430 brochure:

 

Definitely real wood, and it's easily apparent (in my eyes at least). Also, Lexus claimed that all the wood in each LS430 was from the same tree so the grain patterns would match (which they do).

The plastic crap is stuff you'd find in cheaper, semi-luxury cars. My old Infiniti I35 and Acura TL had fake wood. It looked nice but you could definitely tell it wasn't real. The LS real wood is a night and day difference. Knock on the wood in your car then try it on a cheaper car with the simulation stuff.

They do dip it, which makes it look faker to some, for durability so it won't get scratched, etc. It's pretty durable stuff. My interior needs to be detailed but the wood is spotless.

 

Was this a question just to ask or did you want to change the color or appearance of the wood?

 

Just curious, this is my first Lexus and like it more each time I drive it.

 

Every single trim piece that looks like wood on every single Lexus ever produced is supposedly real. Indeed, the backing is plastic, and the veneer is thin, but it is wood, and this is something I read in one of the many articles describing the "uniqueness" of Lexus vehicles vis-a-vis Toyota.