metal plate on rallye bezel, whats it for

[crash340]

Team, there is a metal facia that is held onto the face of the Rallye gauge bezel via having tabs bent over through the bezel, its under and seperate to teh woodgrain facia, whats the purpose of this metal plate please.??

[JayBee]

If you're talking about what I think you are, that metal plate is what the woodgrain bezel/overlay is glued to. Ii's probably suppose to give the thin woodgrain more rigidity. On mine, some of the rear tabs are bent over and some are twisted through the some openings.

[crash340]

Thanks JayBee, no not that plate, this one only covers the very face of the black platic frame, it does not curl/bend around at both ends like the panel the woodgrain is fixed to, these are a thin flat plate, have a look at the link below, the silver sheet metal backing plates.
http://www.pgclassic.com/288-set

[Racer57]

JeeBee is correct. The backing plate that your talking about does not cover the entire woodgrain panel. Only the flat area.

[burdar]

Is that plate 100% necessary?  No, probably not.  You could physically glue the woodgrain to the plastic bezel.  The reason it was done originally was for ease of installation at the factory.  The woodgrain overlays would have come from one vender with the metal backing already glued on.  The plastic bezel came from another vender.  When the pieces were assembled at the factory, all they had to do was bend a few tabs once the woodgrain was put on top of the bezel.  They wouldn't have the time to glue the pieces together at the factory while assembling the dashes.

[crash340]

Ok, thanks guys, so, what your saying is if I buy a woodgrain set like these from http://www.performancecargraphics.com/Dash_Stuff/Woodgrain/E-body_Rallye_Wood_Plates.htm
then they are already attached to a set of metal plates?
what supports the curved ends? what is the curved ends made of and what are the curved end tabs?

[burdar]

The wood (not just a decal!) is hand-fitted and bonded to mounting steel plates, using a slightly-elastic glue that allows for the slight difference in expansion and shrinkage with temperature that exists between aluminum and steel. Thus, the bond won't crack or become brittle over time! This was a HUGE fault of the new car wood on E-bodies. The assembled plates drop right into the shroud slots, for a perfect fit.

Yes, it looks like those come with the metal plates already attached.  They also come with the corners pre bent.  The woodgrain piece is just thin aluminum.  Nothing supports the curved sections other than the plastic bezel.  There are tabs on the ends of the curved sections that get bent over the plastic to hold them in place.  You can see them in the link you provided.

[crash340]

Thanks Mate, I think the confusion is coming in regarding the aluminium plate, I know the woodgrain was on a thin aloy plate so why the sheet steel plates, I thought the aloy would be enough,

All good, appreciate it.

[burdar]

The "woodgrain" isn't wood at all.  It's just screen printed(painted)on the aluminum piece.  The factory had to figure out a way to attach it to the plastic bezel quickly.  The easiest way was to attach the aluminum(wood) to a steel plate that had tabs punched into it.  The tabs then go through holes in the plastic bezel to hold it all together.  Like I said earlier, the aluminum(wood) "could" have just been glued to the plastic bezel but that would have taken too much time in the factory setting.  Multiple pieces coming from multiple venders.  The woodgrain was already glued to the steel backing.  The workers who assembled the dashes just had to quickly bend a few tabs on the back side of the bezel and it was installed.  No time to let glue dry when you are assembling dashes as quickly as possible.

The steel plate wasn't for support at all.  It's only function was to be able to quickly mount the woodgrain to the plastic bezel.

[crash340]

All over it thanks mate, now I just have to try and get one to the land down under safely, thats the next challenge!!!!!!