[spacechem]

I'm a woodworker, so a bit of warning: "Mahogany" is a very large family of quite varied wood species. Natural color ranges from Orange to Pink and the grain from quite coarse to very refined, so one can't just go into a hardwood lumber store anywhere in the world, ask for Mahogany and expect to get the same thing. People often see antique mahogany furniture with a very dark stain applied and (quite reasonably) assume that is the natural color.

The bigger question here is how true to original color and figure (what most people in U.S. refer to as "grain") do you want to achieve or are you happy with something close which looks nice? If you must have concours precision, you may have to settle for the more expensive original (if it's available at all). I tend to agree with the above post- doubting A.R. would have been all that picky day-to-day and a variety of factors will, by now, make it pretty much impossible to determine just exactly what the precisely correct color should be.

All the above said, I'm going home tonight and look at my '74 GTV dash and try myself to determine what it is. My recommendation on finish is a gel varnish. Easy to apply, won't run or drip, and available in a variety of colors. If you go the route of cutting your own panels from veneer, you'll have plenty of scrap for color experiments.

Will post again after looking at my car...