fulmitz

Has anyone else noticed if their wood is different shades? I mean my steering wheel is VERY dark brown and the rest of the wood interior is cherry/walnut. I know it can't match exactly but everyone seems to notice so it does stick out. I'll try and post some pics soon.

Fulmitz

Phu

My trim is bird's eye maple. The steering wheel matches with the rest of the wood except for the shift ****, the **** is darker than the rest.

1NICESC430

I have the dark wood in my silver/black.The steering wheel is noticeably darker than the rest of the wood. In fact, I wish all the wood were as dark as the steering wheel.

I don't know anything about interior wood trim in cars, but I'm pretty sure all the wood in the SC has a very thin veneer of the good stuff and is who-knows-what underneath. I also expect that the wood on the steering wheel (is it really wood?) is a bit different because it gets a lot more handling than any of the trim.

Whew ... talk about speculation!

fulmitz

I thought it might be due to the shape and the way the light reflects on the wood but People with the birds eye maple don't have color problems. Also my shift **** is darker too. Almost brown for the wheel and the shifter while the rest is definitely more red. Just thinking for $60k they could give you matching wood.

Fulmitz

ceboyd

I never really paid attention to the difference in tones between the steering wheel and dash but now I see that the steering wheel is much darker....

It never really bothered me before so I'm not going to make a big stink about it now!

fulmitz

Thanks for the confirmation. I wasn't sure if it was just my car or if others had the same thing happening. Actually I went to take a picture 2 nights ago to show the difference. It was dark and the flash was on. When I took the picture, in the picture they all looked the same color with the intense flash. I'm really wondering if it is just an optical illusion.

Fulmitz

dserban

I am in the furniture business and I deal with this kind of things a lot. The wheel and the **** are made of solid wood. The rest is veneer. Even though they use the exact same formula, you can not obtain the exact same color on solid and veneer.

Also you don't have all the wood trim on the same level and therefore the light has something to do with the way you see the shades of color.

I hope this helps.

fulmitz

Thanks, but why then would the Bird's Eye Maple all look the same but not the walnut?

dserban

I have the Walnut so I don't know how the Birds Eye is.
My guess is that the hard maple used for the wheel is natural (white) and the veneer was bleeched. Probably no stain so it will look more uniform. I was looking closely to my walnut and I did not see a difference in intensity but a slight difference in color (the veneer is a slight redish).

Anyway even though this is an expensive car it is build by machines and I am sure that whomever does the wood trim does use different boards from different suppliers.

We build the furniture by hand (by the way we started in New Orleans, my wife's home town) and we still have differences.

Larry

First.......Find two trees that are exactly alike;

Then.......Take them to your Lexus dealer as proof that Mother Nature really makes exact duplicates.

We're talking wood here, not plastic.

dserban

Exactly. That is what I try to make my customers understand.

fulmitz

I have noticed in real intense or bright light and from standing outside the car and looking at different angles I can see more red in the steering wheel and it does look like it would match. Guess it's also the light playing tricks on my eyes. I'm cool with it. Thanks for the help.

Fulmitz

1NICESC430

You're correct, Larry ... However (there's always a "however", right?), the point is that the depth of color in the walnut is virtually the same in every piece of trim except the steering wheel where it's darker. So there's something else going on. Solid wood vs veneer? Sturdier finish on the steering wheel?

Personally though, I don't care. I like it all even though I mentioned in a previous append that I wish all the wood in my SC was as dark as the steering wheel.

Now excuse me while I go prepare some ronies and chacha.

Larry

Thanks Ed.

I'm off to stare at my dining room table a bit. I noticed that one of the legs has a slightly different grain than the others.......

What's "chacha ?"

p.s. I just got back from L.A. this morning. I stayed at the St. Regis Hotel (my company actually allowed me to do that !!).

Boy, you guys should have seen the array of cars that pulled up to the entry !

Just an FYI......Tim Curry, the actor, pulled up in a red/ecru SC430 !

1NICESC430

Larry ...

chacha, chachee and other similar variations = meat (Am-Ital kidspeak).

Tim Curry - while I was watching Clue, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out where I saw that "butler" before. There was something vaguely familiar about his face, but I couldn't place it.

Aha! It suddenly dawned on me - that's the same guy who played in Rocky Horror and mesmerized me with his performance of "Sweet Transvestite". What a piece of work!