Wood veneer—especially the real stuff—isn’t as common on cars as it used to be, but it’s still a big, flashy part of Bentley’s design portfolio. During a week spent in the gorgeous 2024 Bentley Continental GT Edition 8, we couldn’t take our eyes off the Crown Cut Walnut detailing draped over its doors and under the dash and center console.
Wood is one of those materials that withstands changes in fashion trends and will always respond to joints. It will never go out of style, so if you want your interior to continue to look timeless—as we suspect most Bentley owners do—it’s a great choice.
There are a lot of fake — or “imitation” — veneers out there, but Bentley is the real deal. So how exactly does wood from a tree end up inside one of his cars?
Where does it come from?
The Bentley wood portfolio consists mainly of walnut, oak and koa. (There used to be cherry, though that’s not in the current production lineup.) These woods are chosen for their natural beauty, but also for their ability to withstand the huge swings in environmental conditions a car goes through.
Crown Cut Walnut, as seen on the 2024 Bentley Continental GT Edition 8.
“They have to be pretty UV stable because they’re going to be exposed to extremes of temperature and sunlight,” said Richard Bell, Bentley’s manufacturing operations manager and supervisor for the Bentley Wood Shop. MotorTrend in a recent interview. Bell has been with Bentley for 13 years. 11 of these have been spent in the Wood Shop.
If a customer wants a variety of wood that isn’t part of the tried-and-true offerings, Bell said the company would accommodate the request, but it would be a longer discussion with Mulliner, Bentley’s in-house customization team. The customer “should understand that there would probably be a disclaimer saying that we couldn’t guarantee in the future how the wood would mature and what it would look like,” he explained. “It would be their responsibility to have such an individual trait.”
Regardless, all the woods Bentley uses are sourced very carefully. “Woods [are] it comes from Forest Stewardship Commission standards,” Bell said. “Nothing in the veneer line comes from Africa or South America. We avoid areas around the world where we can’t agree where [the wood] comes from or has been replanted’. Deforestation is also a concern, so that’s another reason to be tight-fisted with sourcing.
Most of the wood, in fact, comes from here in the United States. Burl walnut is from California and Crown Cut Walnut is from North American black walnuts. “We have to make sure [the wood is of] moral origins, Bell said. “The walnut is a by-product of the walnut industry, so the farmer actually digs up that tree when it stops producing the nut. At that stage Bentley uses the veneer.”
Liquidamber (or sweetgum) is from the gum tree in Mississippi and vavona is from the redwood of California. “Vavona is a growth that forms on its trunk [redwood] tree,” said Belle. “It is not the log itself and it must fall naturally. But because of the size of the tree when it falls, it’s naturally abundant.”
Between six and eight times a year, someone from Bentley’s production department—that is, Bell’s team—goes out into the world to source veneer. This person knows everything the team needs, from the size of veneer required for each model to the quality, grain structure and color. “Also,” added Bell, “because it’s a natural product, you have to work with natural imperfections, like knots.”
The patterns are repeated in each veneer bundle and each bundle includes 24 sheets. Bentley’s production manager handles each individual bundle to make sure the leaves are all up to snuff.
“He bought a Bentley[s] the top 5 percent of the veneer that is [in the world]Belle said.
How It Is Treated
With a Bentley veneer, we’re talking about a bit of wood less than a millimeter thick. “The Western standard for veneer is 0.6 millimeters, plus or minus 0.05 of a millimeter,” Bell explained. As for how much he needs in total per car, “It depends on the options,” he continued. “The customer could have veneered door pads, veneered champagne tables. There is a wide range.”
However, Bell said somewhere between five and 10 square meters (about 16 to 33 square feet) “would cover it.”
Before a new finish is introduced, it goes through a series of tests. There are general Volkswagen Group tests, as well as specialist Bentley tests, to reproduce high and low high temperatures. Think of the logs being placed in a giant oven or freezer.
“We also put veneers on what we call a ‘sunshine car,'” Bell said. “It’s where we ship the car to Arizona and it sits at a high temperature for a while.” This period can last up to two years, so that the team can really see what is going on.
Then follows the processing of the wood.
“Some woods go into the car in a completely natural state,” Bell said. “Eucalyptus is treated with ammonia which makes it darker, but this is more for visual aesthetics. The same goes for chewing gum that goes through a heat treatment process. Once it’s in the factory, the main things are that it’s kept dry and flat — the conditions we need pre-production.”
Each variety of veneer takes a different approach to ensure it is free of defects. But because the veneer is so thin, it can be brittle and break easily. The Bentley team applies moisture, paying particular attention to the openings where the vents will eventually fit. “We’re stressing the wood a lot in those areas, so we have to apply moisture to it,” Bell said. “We do this with the deionized water by either spraying it or brushing it.
Once the team gets a press section, they sand it down and then it’s time for the lacquer process. The veneer must be cleaned to the point where it is completely free of dust and dirt and a polyurethane sealant applied. The sealant not only acts as a seal, it is also a bonding agent to the polyester lacquer that goes on afterwards. Back to the sander the piece goes after that, followed by polishing with different compounds and cotton polishing wheels for a glossy finish. In the end, all the lacquer used can add up to an extra 0.6 to 0.8mm above the wood.
Of course, Bentley doesn’t just slap veneer on the car and call it a day. All the curved and complex shapes of the console, dashboard and doors are formed from an aluminum substrate on which the wood is wrapped. Think of it like lasagna: There’s the aluminum backing, which gives everything its shape, and on top of that is a laminate package that, through a combination of heat, time and pressure, bonds the veneer to the metal and prevents it from wrinkling. .
There is no one answer to how long a process like this takes, as there are many variables. “It depends on the model, the components, [and] lacquer finish,” Bell said. Bentley currently offers two lacquer finishes: polyester gloss and open pore. Open pore is a sprayed finish, with a tactile and visible texture. However, the glossy finish is the most popular.
Ballpark, though? Bell estimates the open-source process will take between four and five hours and the gloss will take between eight and 10 hours, both spread over the course of about three weeks.
Installing it in the car
Now knowing exactly what goes on in the veneer gives you a new appreciation for looking inside a Bentley. Even though the pieces are separated into different parts of the car, all the pieces line up perfectly. It’s impressive attention to detail.
“It’s very important to us at the plant,” Bell said. “The grain has to flow under the door, through the dash and under the other door. It should because the parts meet end to end, [so] the grain must also meet end to end. The wood in these panels is very important, because if you have a stair case where the grain doesn’t meet end to end, it looks terrible.”
What happens if something breaks during production?
“We have a veneer shop in Crewe,” Bell said. “There are about two to three months’ worth of stock. When a car goes into production, I have a number of spare sheets available, so if there was damage in production, I could replace a panel. Each veneer bundle, even if it comes from the same tree, is slightly different, so it is unique to that customer and their car. It is very important to have spare veneer sheets while the car is being built so that we can substitute like for like.”
There is nothowever, room in Bentley’s wooden vault for customer cars that have gone out into the world. If anyone needed anything fixed, Bentley can replace the entire wood set to guarantee color matching, fading, etc.
“Woods change as they are exposed to UV radiation. They’re getting old,” Bell said. “A fresh piece of walnut veneer would not match a three-year-old piece of walnut veneer. So the customer would have a choice: He could either accept the difference in color and grain structure because it would be from a different tree, or he could choose to replace the entire interior.”
Obviously, prices vary for such a job. It depends on the type of veneer and how much wood needs to be replaced. Bell wouldn’t give us a number, so use your imagination. And then add another zero or two to the end of that number.
But think about what happens in it. A Bentley may or may not be your cup of tea, but you have to respect the veneer process. It just goes to show that if your favorite high school elective was carpentry, miraculously, there’s a team doing just that at Bentley.
