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Genuine real wood dash insert … or not?

SpinDoc7

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Twice now I’ve seen forum posts here and elsewhere from self-claimed designers who say the R1T cab trim is fiberglass composite, or plastic, rather than ash wood as Rivian has always claimed. Honestly, I think it looks great whatever it is (I have Black Mountain) but I wondered what the group thought.
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ranieri

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The website says it's "natural-grained ash wood". So I assume they can't just put something else in there. Wouldn't that be false advertising?

I take the company's word over some internet "experts".
 

Dark-Fx

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It's actual wood. I know someone who works for the company that supplies it. But it's extremely thin and backed by plastic.
 

SeaGeo

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It's wood. If it's not, I literally can't tell after rubbing my hands over it and being worried I'd get a splinter. lol.
 

crashmtb

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Twice now I’ve seen forum posts here and elsewhere from self-claimed designers who say the R1T cab trim is fiberglass composite, or plastic, rather than ash wood as Rivian has always claimed. Honestly, I think it looks great whatever it is (I have Black Mountain) but I wondered what the group thought.
It’s open pore ash(I’ve seen and touched it), and likely a veneer over plastic backing…if it’s like every other such bit of wood on a modern car.
 

OverZealous

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It's actual wood. I know someone who works for the company that supplies it. But it's extremely thin and backed by plastic.
Which is exactly how it should be, if anyone doesn't know this already. This is not only an efficient use of material (typically they can get hundreds—maybe thousands—of cars out of a single tree this way), but also much more durable as the veneer is stabilized by the backing material.

It's not furniture sitting in a relatively controlled home environment, it has to put up with a lot of climate variations. If someone used solid (thick) wood in a vehicle, you'd almost certainly get cracks and splits due to wood movement.

(I once read that one of the ultra high-end brands would get all of the wood for a vehicle model from a single tree. It's amazing how far you can stretch veneers.)
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