Wood-clad Volvo C70 2.0T Convertible
06.05.2021
Car enthusiast Reinhard Heuel reports on his unique project to equip a Volvo C70 with wood panelling. In the meantime, the vehicle has been completed.
The Making of a "Wooden Car"
Documentation about ideas and work to create an individual vehicle out of a series car:
For quite some time, I have been thinking about how to coat the exterior of a passenger car with a wooden surface. This vehicle should differ from already known, wood-clad cars in that no plywood, veneer or foil is used and also no scale-shaped pieces of wood similar to mini roof tiles should be applied in an overlapping manner.
For me, the only option was to use solid wood strips, which are glued to the outer skin of a car next to each other, following the existing contours, similar to a parquet floor. After trying out different types of wood, including acacia and spruce, I decided on oak as the local species. I used 18mm thick solid wood boards, which were sawn into 6mm thick strips. The lengths of the strips were sawn individually according to the dimensions of the body parts.
In order to be able to use the vehicle in traffic later on, the criteria, e.g. load and breakage tests on sample sheets, were agreed with the TÜV in advance.
Likewise, the approval of my liability insurance was obtained before the work began.
The wooden strips with a cross-section of 18 x 6 mm (sometimes 19 x 6 mm) were glued to the previously roughened outer skin of the car body using special adhesive. After that, all the wooden strips had to be fixed for about 1.5 hours with screw clamps and other devices to prevent the wood, which was under tension due to the curvature of the body, from coming off.
All this was preceded by the selection of a suitable car. At first, a VW Beetle came to mind, but due to its engine power, which did not seem sufficient to me, I decided on a Volvo. It was to be a convertible and after some time I found a suitable vehicle. Type C 70, year of construction 2004, with a mileage of 115000 km. In particular, the long-term quality of this brand was well known to me through the previous ownership of several Volvo vehicles.
On 04.10.2014 I started my work, which reached its provisional conclusion on 31.04.2015.
Finally it's finished! After 1,070 hours of work.
The way to the "oak runabout"
Wood coating "Volvo C70 Cabrio"
1. Wood coating process:
Wooden strips of solid oak, 19 mm wide and 6 mm thick are applied
the contours of the car body - are glued next to each other on the exterior
of the vehicle.
2. Wood:
Glued wood panels, solid oak, 19 mm thick, sawn into 6 mm thick strips.
3. Glue:
For wood joint "Henkel Ponal waterproof".
4. glue:
For sheet metal/wood connection "Uhu Ultra".
5. paint:
Wood primer "CLOU Schnellschliff für Außen" (Quick sanding for exterior use)
Top coat "Renovo Dickschicht" (5 coats with intermediate sanding).
6. preparation of the vehicle:
Sanding of all sheet metal surfaces with grit size 60
7. load test
Load test of the metal / wood connection by folding a glued sample sheet. The wooden strips withstand a bend of > 60° without detaching from the base sheet.
Text and images courtesy of Reinhard Heuel. Reproduction and distribution only with the written permission of the author.
