[FrankBullitt]

I'm trying to talk my wife into letting me install a wood kit- she thinks I'm insane, and is not convinced by the presence of wood in Jags, Audis et al. To quote "Why do think wood belongs on the inside of a car. Don't you think it looks silly?"

Obviously I don't, but I want to make sure what I put in passes muster. Any comments about which/where to buy, problems/regrets would be appreciated.

PS To those who've installed a wood veneer kit, how is the curved/radiused edge of the black plastic pieces where they meet an adjoining ivory/quartz/fern piece of plastic handled by the kit manufacturer?

 

[johnkalajian]

I installed the burlwood kit available from Honda. I only got the "front" kit, which included the area around the speedo and the passenger and driver's door handle areas. It looks great, really dresses up the front of the car alot. Total installation time was 20 minutes, which includes actually reading the instructions.

 

[DDakRT]

IMO wood definitely belongs in some cars, and the interior of the Ody is not a bad place to put one.

I put mine in with no regret what-so-ever. A good advice is to buy a genuine (real) wood kit, the difference between real and sythetic (read fake) is bigger than you think. I have seen a couple pics of fake wood kit for the Ody and they don't look half as good as mine.

A good place to buy is on Ebay, the kits there are below prices on web sites selling the same kit. I got mine from Ebay for $121 for a real Exotic Burl kit from Wood Dash Factory, the kit sells for $399 on their web site. The only problem is that the seller (although very nice) raise their price to $280 or something like that. Make sure you ask the seller whether the kit is real or not, most won't say it on their site if the kit is sythetic.

Joshua Tree makes a very nice kit (better than mine actually because the gap are smaller) for about the mid $300, and Wood Dash Factory's kit is very good also and is availble on Ebay for a lower price.

As for installation, just warm the pieces up and they'll flex and mold to the curve of the Ody's dash. I have pics of my kit on Yahoo's Ody club and have sent them to Jim andhe should post them here soon too.

 

[Lorax]

I think the biggest dividing line among the dash kits is whether it is 'molded' or 'flat'.

A flat kit is cut from a flat piece of material, so the pattern must be made such that each individual piece only contours in one direction. Most kits are flat.

A molded kit is molded to match any dash shape and is thus capable of picking up a lot more detail in the dash. The Honda kit is molded.

It depends upon the particular car, but in my opinion the molded kits always look better because they perfectly match the dash. Check out the pictures on the HandA site of the molded kit and compare them to flat kits. The difference is in the details.



------------------
Lorax
'01 SS EX-Navi
Leather Interior, Wings West Kit and lots of other mods.

 

[mikester]

Well, I think I will represent the dissenting opinion here. Wood trim looks good in some cars - but only when it is real wood. Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, etc. do it right. Unfortunately, Honda doesn't. I have had 2 Acura's with wood trimmed interiors. The first one had the burlwood, and it really doesn't look that good. I thought it looked tacky, because it was so obviously fake. My new Acura has the ebony wood trim (which many people have dubbed the "bowling ball trim"). It still looks fake and plasticky, but I think it looks a little better, because at least it doesn't look like you are trying to imitate real wood.

I have seen the pictures of the wood trim for the Odyssey, and it is no better than the Acura trim. My opinion is, it just doesn't look that good, but you have to go with what you like. I would suggest you try to see one in person with the wood trim first.

 

[DDakRT]

I like how mine looks, it's real wood and looks just fine.

I don't like molded kits though as they are made from plasti-wood. There is no way real wood can bent and be shape like that.

BTW if you want feel free to go to the Yahoo Ody club and check out my photos. It's under "2001 GG EX by DDakRT"