Dash wood refinish

[rjkoop]

The wood veneer on my Spider dash is looking a little worn.



What would be the best procedure for refinishing all the wood pieces? Maybe light sanding, stain and laquer? Was thinking about going to Home Depot and seeing what they have. Or just a good cleaning and a clear coat. Not sure what to do and what product(s) to use. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Progress on other items it going well. Seat frames redone, seats sprayed with SEM paint (5 coats) and looking great (the grey strip you see in the picture is gone!).

[RRoller123]

You can lightly sand them and refinish pretty easily, or install new veneer over the old to improve the look, It is not that hard, as all the pieces are pretty small and come out easily. Here are some pics from my dash veneer job:

Madrone burl from http://www.veneersupplies.com/ they are the best.

In a nutshell: A light sanding with 220 grit, a good homemade 3/4 plywood press and lots of clamps, apply complete, thin coverage with Titebond 2, cut overlapping close and then sand up to the edges carefully to avoid chipping, finally finish with marine poly "spar varnish" and wax. Spar varnish is flexible and will handle the extremes of temperature we see in autos. Wait a few days between sanding of the spar varnish, it stays pretty soft, go slowly.

[azruss]

be very careful sanding veneer. it is extremely thin and 220g will get you through it in no time. If the wood is still pretty flat, you may want to use a 320g or 400g. when i did mine, i did 4 coats of urethane spar varnish sanding with 400g between coats. needs to dry good before sanding.

[RRoller123]

Right, my reference to the 220 was if you were going to re-veneer, then you need to rough up the surface really well. I agree that a lighter grit is sufficient if you are just going to clean up what is there.

[rjkoop]

Last night I sanded with 2000 grit sandpaper and used polyurethane on the wood. Looks good but I can see some waves in the polyurethane once it dried. Is this where sanding and applying more things coats with help?

[RRoller123]

Correct. After it fully hardens, sand lightly with 400 on a flat sanding block, apply a coat, repeat etc until it is where you want it. You can thin the poly slightly to get it to self-level a little better, or use "Wipe-On Poly", which is what pretty much all cabinetmakers use these days. We generally only use the brush-on to get a base built up, then sand and use Wipe-On to level out and get to the final finish. You can put on a lot of coats in a pretty short time, but let it dry fully between coats or it gets a little gummy. After final coat, wait a day or two and apply some wax and you will have a gem! I am partial to Butcher's Boston Polish Wax myself.

[azruss]

I found the urethane spar varnish in a rattle can. This was great for the final coat as it required no sanding. fish eye was an issue, so degrease between coats and handle with vinyl gloves.

[RRoller123]

Good advice. It is a good idea to wipe down each coat after sanding, with a little mineral spirits and a clean rag, t-shirt material is fine.

[azruss]

I have spent many an hour trying to eliminate fisheye in paint. Here are my conclusions. do not use a laundered rag. many have soap residue that is left behind. use a paper towel or a shop towel. shop towels seem to have less lint. I dont trust solvent as it seems to leave a little greasy film. I use a good biodegradable degreaser available from your local autobody supply house. regardless, never allow the degreaser to dry on the surface. always wet with one towel and wipe dry with another, flipping the towel often. I do this wearing latex or vinyl gloves. you hands or skin will contaminate your clean surface. also worthwhile to wipe with a tack rag just before painting.

[surfingfreeman]

RRoller
Beautiful job on your dash, the madrone Burl look very nice, what thickness does it come in/do you use?
Mike

[RRoller123]

Never had any problem with fisheye, but I don't spray poly so I can't comment on that.

Not sure what the standard veneer thickness is, probably 1/64" or something like that? I have seen that the new generation plywoods are a PITA to work with because you are lucky to get 1/128" for a top layer, and it sands right through if you breathe on it. And the Chinese crap with the red adhesive is terrible. We avoid it like the plague. The old days were better when the veneer tops were nice and thick and forgiving.

When I get out to the shop I will put a mic on a sample out of curiosity. They cut these things as thin as they can to maximize the yield from the flitch. They are so thin now that you can bend them around a pretty tight curve depending upon the species. The Madrone Burl is very brittle, but Pine, etc can bend around probably a 6-8" radius. I saw a really nice lamp once where the maker used wood veneer for the shade, and when the light was on it shone right through and the illuminated grain pattern was incredible!

[surfingfreeman]

I think the PO put in a walnut Burl veneer, looks nice but it's starting to separate at one corner

[RRoller123]

Looks great to me! Thought it was my dash for a second. Looks like walnut, but there are a few other suspects. Take a look at the burls on http://www.vennersupplies.com. Could be a number of things. The large swirls are common to a bunch of other similar looking species.

[RRoller123]

You could probably work a little glue under the bad corner and clamp it back down? Save a lot of work on a good looking dash.

[surfingfreeman]

Thanks RR
Will give it a shot. In your experience if money were not an issue what exotic veneer would you use?