Here are pictures of the first CNC Facia cut in exotic wood. This wood is called Zebrawood and it's from Africa. I stained it using a walnut oil finish. The block of wood the facia is sitting on is what it looks like before getting cut and stained. I must say I'm getting better and better at cutting because this one is very smooth. I even remembered to cut the recess in the back for the lens. I have about 5 other types of exotic woods I'll be cutting examples from over the next couple weeks. With the holidays my time in the machine shop is going to be limited.

Another View

Here's the backside with the recess for the lens. As you can see it is unfinished wood.

Impressive work. Thanks for the pics!

Sean

OK.. I had to put it on my Empeg. I actually like it better than the aluminum one.

(Jaw free-falls, hits floor, rebounds into place) Oooooo, that is sweet...Let us know when you're taking orders for the wood ones.

That looks so sweet, but SOOOO inappropriate in my 1999 Mustang with dark grey interior. Sadly, the thing that matches my interior most is... the stock Empeg fascia. Sigh.

The current fascia design lends itself really well to the wooden texture. It's got a very retro look - to the point where I also agree it looks much better in wood.

An aluminum piece (esp. CNC) lends itself far better to a simpler design. Something with a "monumental" approach (that's something that is big/bold without small details to detract from the overall look). Unfortunately the stock design has the small details that, IMO, just don't give it the right punch.

Like so many others, a wooden fascia would look totally unappropriate in my Integra. It might be passable if I had some other wooden trim, like perhaps a shifter knob, or even if it were alone. Unfortunately, my Clarion head unit is also milled aluminum. :) It would look great in one of my parent's cars or my little brother's... (A couple of Mercedes, including a 1956 190SL and my bro's Lincoln Towncar).

Bruno

You have to remember, there are many types of wood and wood stains. I didn't think the wood was going to look good in my PT Cruiser (all silver trim) but I think it looks great.

I have some purple wood (yes, it's actually purple) that I'm going to machine next.

I might even go ahead an try some clear acrylic.

I was looking for some other exotic woods when I stumbled upon this remarkably creepy selection of products. [shudder] Who exactly needs this (latter) sort of material on hand?

This is really nice work, I must say.

TommyE

now how would it look with this

That looks really nice Rob. I think I also agree that it looks better than the original. But like others have said I don't think it would look right in my car (BMW 520 Black & Grey interior). Now my old Jag that I used to have - that's a different story. It would look good in my 1967 Daimler Sovereign but that's a very long term restoration project so I think that's out too.

Oh and I pleased you remembered the recess in the back for the lens this time .

GREAT GREAT GREAT ....

Orders for Christmas ?

Yes I'll take a purpleheart wood and a clear one.
Excellent work!

ynot,

NICE car. I got a 2000 gt vert. and your right the stock plate matches the interior perfectly!

The result looks great but I too am not a big wood fan. However, your work did prompt me to get my dremmel out so for the rest of the metalic boys, here is a pic of the spray and abraision job I did to suit my forthcoming WRX.

Hey, I've got a WRX, how'd you do that?

First revove the black facia and spray with a suitable colour spray, then a clear laquer. Remove the hadle and dremel all the black powder off, then finish with some fine emery cloth in a single direction to get the brushed look. Then spray the knob/buttons with a nice aluminium colour and laquer.

About an hours work excluding drying time.

What dremmel bit did you use for best results?

I was going to do the same thing to mine. But, I'm also going to go a couple of steps beyond in the fascia. I'll post pics when I'm done. Of course I should concentrate on finishing up the install first. :)

Also, can you recommend a good silver paint? I was going to either to to a hobby store to get something used on models or to a craft store to get the kind people normally use for creating the silver antique look. I've had nothing but bad experience with silver paint from the local automotive-type store.

Bruno

I found that the sanding cylinders on the rubber wheel thing worked well at removing the black powder coat. The PITA bit is the left hand side end of the aerofoil detail.

I used car spray from the local Halfords for the facia, Ford Nimbus grey I think. I have never had problems with these on plastics (funny, I used to spray everything in black satin, now I spray everything silver ???). I do think that the laquer is most important though. I did not do a coat on my first try and the paint rubbed off after a few months..... We will see how this one lasts.

I believe that you can get a special primer for plastics (for bumpers/wing mirrors etc.) but I have never used it. Anyone else ?

Yeah I love my Stang but now that winter is coming, I'm not going to like it so much. I need to find a good set of snow tires before the winter weather starts.

I've used primer for plastics when doing the cowling on my SeaDoo. Didn't make a huge difference. Of course I also did like 12-15 coats of paint - and lots of wet sanding.

Did you do anything to the stock cap bolts? Paint them, replace them, etc?

One of the things I've been thinking about doing is removing the pattern around the bolts. I'd need to get replacement bolts that had a smaller head or I suppose I could grind a mm or so off the current ones.

When I paint my fascia, I'm going to try for a horizontal pattern to make it look like it's been machined. So I may just use two different silver paints in combination. We'll see how it works out on a test piece of plastic first. For now I'll be leaving the buttons - they'll probably match well.

The trickiest part is going to be changing the roundness of the opening in the fascia and then filling in the divet on the left of the handle. Since I'm going to gring the powder coat off it's going to be hard to hide the filled area...

Oh, and for yn0t... Winter tires: NOKIAN if you want the best.
Bruno

For the facia bolts I just put them in the dremmel (they fit perfectly) and "pushed" them into some fine emery paper. This removed all of the black coating and gave a nice shiny finish. I should probably laquer them as well as they are probably mild steel and prone to rusting over time. However, to take them out and do the same again would be 10 mins work.

I use this epoxy putty called Hard and Fast for many things and this should be good for your handle filling. It has a grey and black portion with a platicine type of texture which when mixed, set in about 15 minutes and can be filed to shape. If you are going for the complete aluminium look, you will probably have to coat the whole handle again to cover this up.

I am using a similar epoxy putty. It's dark green and white. I've also seen it in brown and white and a couple of other colours. I use it for my jetski - it was sold in a marine-craft package. But it's the same stuff also sold for use in some pet stores for attaching rocks, etc. Very sticky and cures extremely hard.

I have filled in the spaces on the left of the fascia, created a new curve on the left, removed the raised and dotted circles from around the bolts and also removed the arch from the circular surround for the rotating knob. Looks good so far (well, it looks like a disaster of white spackle on black plastic, but I'm looking forward to when I have it completely sanded and primed. :)

I will grind the tops of the bolts by fitting them into the dremmel (thanks for the suggestion) and I'll also be drilling out the holes for them a little bit - so they sit deeper and flush with the face. If need be I will shorten their length.

I've also dropped the display so that the fascia nearly touches the handle - you can't see through the space to the silver of the dock. I had to sand/grind the bottom of the outside of the facia to make it easy to open/close the handle (after dropping the position it was getting stuck). Incidentally, I had to do this to properly fit the empeg along with my Clarion head unit. The Clarion has a bid silver plastic surround and this wouldn't allow the empeg to fully insert into its dock. I also had to carve down the top and bottom of this surround for optimal fit into my dash. Seems like the Integra is only "approximately" double-din. And only when the inside lip of the dash opening is trimmed away.

I'm going to prime the fascia in black "bumper" spray paint. I've used this brand for a while now, it's excellent on plastics. I'll then do the finishing with a silver paint. I'm going to try my hardest to get some horizontal streaks into the fnish to match the Clarion machined aluninum.

I was going to wait on this, but I got a little ansy last night while watching some TV and decided to break out the dremmel and epoxy.

I'll see if I can post some pics of the work in progress tonight.

Bruno

In reply to:

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... and I'll also be drilling out the holes for them a little bit ...

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I'm sure you already know this but when you drill these deeper be very careful that the drill doesn't try to 'screw' itself all the way out of the other side. Because of the through hole there will be very little resistance to the drill. Sorry if I'm teaching my Granny to suck eggs here.

I know exactly what you're talking about. But thanks for the message anyway, just in case someone else tried it without that extra care. I'll be using my drill press and will have the depth locked. The fascia will be clamped to the press.

I would consider modifying only the bolts to make them fit better, but it would require grinding off too much of the head. So much that it might not leave very much depth for the hex driver afterwards. So in the end there will be a bit of both. A bit drilled out of the hole and a bit ground off the bolt.

Bruno

/edit/ Here's an image of the semi-rough application of the epoxy.

Hey, that's quite nice! I wonder though, if there are any left hand drive viewing issues for the far left of the screen due to the clearance of the new piece you added.

Calvin

I suspect it will block a little bit more when viewed from the extreme left. I can adjust this by sanding a bit more of course. The optimal design for viewing would be to eliminate the curve on that side completely.

Here are a couple of pics after some sanding and a thin coat of black paint as a primer.

Bruno

And on the empeg....

I was looking for some other exotic woods

FWIW: Some of those woods are pretty toxic where it comes to breathing sawdust.

Just thought I'd post a picture of the latest..

This is unfinished PurpleHeart. I figure I'll finish it with a clear laquer.

If you want to purchase it let me know.

We gonna get to see a burled walnut facia any time soon? I'm guessing there would be some interest in that since it seems to be the wood trim of choice in most cars (at least in audi's and BMW's).

-Adam

Just terribly curious and impatient :) : qhat about the metal ones? How advanced is the work, so far, and when do you expect to sell them?
Thank you!

Kind of reminds me of the Rio Receiver.

Calvin

My burled maple wood is being cut into the size I need as we speak. I should have it back from the woodworker next week and I will start cutting. I too am looking forward to seeing those.

Rob

The metal face plates are going slower than I expected. They take a ton of work on my part and I have already had multiple facia's get messed up after more than 8 hours of cutting. Cutting that much metal is slow and very demanding on my CNC Mill. I've been reseaching some machine shops for outsourcing with not much luck. One place even gave me a quote of $179 each. I am meeting with a company next week to discuss some other possibilites. In the meantime I am cutting other materials.

Rob

Hey CruzThs,

Thanks for your updates. Is there a dark black wood that you can recommend for milling fascias? I thought maybe a dark black ebony would look pretty radical? Seems to be a high demand for black fascias...
--Andrew

I've been following this CNC thread and others since they started. Nice work!

I just have a few questions. If these facia's are made from wood won't they be *very* weak around the buttons and such?

You can also stain wood very easily. Shouldn't forget that. The darker you start with, the better, if you want to get near black. About the only way you'll get true black is by painting though. Or cut the fascia from coal. :)

Around here, the darkest wood that I know of (that is easily bought at any Home Depot) is Walnut - dark brown.

Bruno

Don't get me started on the Home Depot diatribe. :-p

I guess if I were to invest in a new fascia, I would to get something nice and unusual. Painted slab of wood isn't much better than the standard plastic, probably worse.

Ebay has tons of nice exotics up for auction...

--Andrew

They may be somewhat weaker than the original plastics faces but since there really is little or no sideways pressure on the button holes I wouldn't worry. Also, many exotic woods are fairly hard and hold up well.

Rob

I see.
Thank you so much for your updates and hard work. Now, plese keep posyting pics of other fascias you're cutting, if you don't mind, I am still very interested and I am sure also many others in here. My original empeg fascia is borken (at one screw hole. You don't see it from outside byt the fascia bends slightly when I handle the empeg) and I am still ionterested in replacing it with some more resistent material. Unfortunately, wood does not match my car interiors, in general, but maybe some particular kind of wood may do well....

Again, thank you so much!

I'll keep everyone posted. At this time the holidays are slowing me down but I'm still hard at work. I should be getting my maple burl any day now and I'll make a few samples with that. I also have a couple more aluminum face plates nearly finished (require polishing) so I'll post some photos once they are done. The great news is that it looks like I may have found a machine shop that can cut 50-100 of the aluminum face plates for me at a fairly decent price.

I'll keep you posted.

That's fantastic. There is no way I can afford it but I'd love to see the results of the wood, preferably on my own empeg. (sigh)