[Mgs] what wood for seat supports

[Bob Howard]

Kelvin,
   Ash was used for much of the body framing. As Max noted, it has an
open grain that looks much like oak.  
   The seat supports in both my TD and MGB appear to be a close-grained,
moderately hard wood that may be a luan or one of the many
mahogany-looking woods. There are many, including the luan that is used
to face plywood for use under vinyl floors. 
   These supports don't support much weight; it doesn't really matter
what wood one uses, except that it should be reasonably rot-resistant. 
That lets out pine.  In the northeast, commonly available hardwoods
(deciduous tree) include oak, ash, birch, maple.  On the west coast there
is redwood.
If you had pieces of a five-veneer plywood made with waterproof
(exterior) glue, that would work. 
   But as to what one chooses---I suspect that if you examine abandoned
shipping pallets you will find a hardwood that is perfect for the task,
and any one of them would do just fine. Nicely cut, sanded, filled,
stained and varnished, they would look wonderful in the event anyone ever
peered under your seat tracks. Or apply one one coat of thinned black
paint, as MG did. 
Bob
 
On Thu, 2 Aug 2007 16:40:58 -0700 "Dodd, Kelvin" <doddk at mossmotors.com>
writes:
> I'm working on re-sourcing early MG Midget seat frame support wooden
> strips. My question is whether anyone has a good idea on what type 
> of
> wood they were originally made from? They appear to be the same as 
> MGB
> ones, so if there are any carpenters out there who recognized the 
> wood
> type or could suggest similar materials please let me know.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> 
> 
> Kelvin Dodd