How are SE (fake wood) instrument panel covers fastened to the dash bezel

[Pratty]

Hi all, I'm in Australia and my car is a 68 Charger that was converted to right hand drive in the 1990's when it was imported. However, the job was never completed and the dash is unfinished. They've chopped and plastic welded the black ribbed bezel so it fits on the right side of the car but it can obviously never be a ribbed black plastic again due to the rough way in which it has been cut and joined. The up side to doing it that way was that the instrument panel itself is essentially unchanged. I've got a couple of choices. One was to fill it with Bondo and paint it with black wrinkle finish and see how that looks. Might look okay once the lettering is done (or chromed before painting). The other option, which is the way I ended up going, is to fabricate a plug over which which a new ABS cover can be vacuum formed - like the SE instrument panel bezel cover that they stuck the woodgrain vinyl on to. That has actually worked really well. My question is though, how did they fasten these cover panels to the black standard ones underneath? The ones for sale that I've seen never show the back side and every video or story I've seen or read never mentions the method of fastening this top layer decorative trim panel. If anyone can shed some light on this for me, I would be really grateful. Many thanks in advance!

 

[Photon440]

As I recall, the wood grain was applied to a thin stamped aluminum panel which was secured to the instrument panel by tabs that were inserted through slots, then bent over.

This picture from another seller on here shows the tabs on the back side:

 

[Pratty]

As I recall, the wood grain was applied to a thin stamped aluminum panel which was secured to the instrument panel by tabs that were inserted through slots, then bent over.

This picture from another seller on here shows the tabs on the back side:
View attachment 1887234

Ah, fantastic!! Thanks so much. And the picture gives me a good reference for fabricating so I'll know where the best spots are for securing the outer panel. Very helpful indeed, thanks again!!!

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Yup, actually a thin aluminum sheet with the woodgrain and lettering silk screened onto it, that is epoxied to a metal backing that has the tabs stamped through it... Good luck, I saw some cars being prepped to go to Aussieland back in the 80's.. Some were a lot better than others...

 

[59pwrwgn]

I have seen posts in the past, where owners used wood inlay instead of the vinyl to dress up the dash.