I don't recommend a sanding sealer.
 

Sanding sealer is an antiquated process which was use to compensate for dealing with raw wood which needed to be sealed. Minwax oil based stain will seal the wood well enough to apply today's clear finishes.

Sanding sealer will not level unless it's applied in many coats and sanded level. That's basically what you're doing with the cut and buff of the finish. One way or the other if you want a super smooth surface it has to be sanded. The level of gloss is changed by removing the contours from the surface or making it super smooth. Even the pros get orange peel with clear.

I completely agree with the statement "Whatever give you the result you are happy with..."

The 'trick,' to those small bubbles is to allow a them to surface after thinning the poly. Be patient for 15 more minutes.

Most of what I've shared in this thread is from experience. I am in the final stages of finishing my second set of w126 trim and I've made every mistake possible including sanding too early and knocking the top off of the zebrano veneer leaving it unsuitable to be called acceptable. I suspect that would occur with sanding sealer.

I've considered as a hobby removing messed up veneer on these trim pieces I've destroyed and laminating them with zebrano and perhaps other types of wood. I am shopping for wood and bad trim to work with now.

Removing the old finish is pretty easy. Paint stripper to soften it up and remove as much as possible of the disolved product. Then take fine steel wool and gentally scrub it down with laquer thinner to remove the remaining residue. The laquer thinner also dries out the wood quickly.

Rule number one I suppose besides wearing rubber gloves etc. Is stay away from using water or water based products on bare wood. You do not want to expand the old fossilized cells it the wood. The steel wool also tends to smooth the surface or polish it to some extent during the wash down.

It does not disturb the original patina of the wood either. Unless you get really aggressive with the steel wool.

Actually by aquiring another set of wood cheap or free. So many sets just get crushed. If you should mess up along the way probably is not as bad if you mess up somehow on the only set you have. There is little reason to mess up unless you do not follow steps.

Old style laquer is the easiest thing for paint strippers to dissolve. To me using the laquer thinner wash is mandatory. Do not sand the wood.

Madera Concepts is not inexpensive but they are probably the best in the world at restoring automotive wood. Several years ago I had an opportunity to tour their facility in Goleta, CA. Very impressive.

Several years ago there was a fellow located in North or South Carolina that also did a great job at restoring automotive wood. Unfortunately he became seriously ill and passed away.

Agree with not sanding.
 

One might get away with a sandpaper in the 1500+ grit range but that's not going to do much as far as smoothing the wood.

I have read that steel wool can lodge in the wood grain and rust before you can get it sealed with stain or clear. I use scotchbrite but it's very abrasive and will remove wood like sandpaper. A light rubbing is all you can do without damage, very light. Don't ask how I know.

You can't level the wood. Don't try it. The veneer is too thin and delicate. The low grain must be filled with clear many times and sanded smooth to produce a high gloss sheen.

The stripping process is a bear. If the stripping compound dries you'll almost be starting over when you try to get it off. You want to catch that stripper when it's ready which requires patients and attention.

Recently a chemical called methylene chloride was deleted from the formula of most stripping products. Those products which our members used a few years back will not work the same now without that chemical.

Stripping is not that bad
 

The biggest hurdle in getting the job done, is thinking about it.

Use the lowest harmful chemical you can to get the old stuff off, do whatever is recommended, and get the job done.

The hardest part is getting a nice finish once you apply the varnish. It will take a few coats but the last coat is the hardest.

I loved finishing. The two part clear I used required four days after a coat to dry enough to sand but it can be recoated after it dries to the touch. In 70ish temps that's about an hour and the pot life of the finish is 4 hrs.

I two coated it then sanded to level it a bit after four days then shot another two coats on it. I enjoyed the sanding because I could tell by touch that it was leveling fairly well even after only the first two coats.

I have a piece of zebrano 1/42nd inch coming to attempt to replace one piece of the wood's laminate. If this is successful I may start buying up pieces which have cracked wood and give laminating and finishing them a hobby. This is more my style than turning nuts and bolts.

Strippers are not nearly as powerful as they were years ago. Laquer is not a hard finish to attack with even todays stuff. I really believe that the wash and scrub with the thinner has no real substitute.

Someone mentioned the steel wool leaving pieces behind to rust. I have heard this many times and places over the years. At one time people used water to try to clean up may have been the reason. That would start the steel rusting. Do not use water and you cannot really clean up with just more stripper.

The thinner washes all the residue off and out of the surface grain. Then dries out fast. So you are not promoting the steel to rust if any is trapped in there. Or perhaps stainless steel pads can be located.

If not doing this can make or break a job I am not certain. When the part looks pretty clean initially you can see the color of the thinner darken as it is removing all the remaining residue. The reality is you still can get some pieces to practice on and it will make you feel more comforatable.

In my generation many of us were technically scroungers at locating what we needed really cheap or free. It was an acquired art form. I still have the skill set but there just is not the surplus stuff around as much anymore.

I need a couple of hundred sheets of good used plywood soon. Or even surplus new. I will ask around but they have been getting far scarcer to find all the time. The railways used good plywood to block the doors to load grain in boxcars years ago. Then sold the plywood cheap or gave it away for the asking.

I am still up to getting some free or low cost wood veneered dash parts. I think it is all in how you approach doing it. Wreckers with brains will sell things cheap if they know otherwise it is just going to the crusher. Or you are fortunate to have people with cars that will never see the road again in your area.

If you ask the right way usually. You want some just to practice on. I know this probably sounds strange in todays world. Or you can get into a good conversation and leave your request till the end of it. This makes it harder for them to say no.

This should work. Pieces on the small size. Too small in area for furniture applications perhaps can be had at reasonable cost. Some veneer houses are really expensive. You probably can steam them over a bad set to get them into better shape to fit the contours on the set they are going on.

I have never seen veneers as thin as what you mention. They should present no problem. I am not sure you actually have to use veneer quite that thin. Although it should make application easier. Many veneers are not flat when you get them. With veneers that thin you have to get them on flat as you do not have the latitude for sanding.

I'm expecting delivery of the zebra veneer on 4/20. I'm going to research the process of getting it to form around the curves at the top and bottom edges of the door and dash trim. On second thought, I have a couple climate control panels which need new veneer I might do myself a favor by making sure I can remove old veneer and glue the new stuff on before I take a shot at forming a radius.

I have never re veneered car wood. You could repost what you find out here if you want.

There should be a site. There are guys that have the hobby of creating things like pictures. Using pieces of veneer. You really want to find them for a lot of information. I forget what the hobby is called. I think I remember you put tape on the backside and cut your line with a sharp knife for example. The tape holds the veneer together better. Then you carefully remove the tape in an across the veneer fashion. At 1/42 inch thickness. I cannot see a bending problem but again I have not done this.

It just came to mind. The hobby is called marquety or something very close to that. They should also inform you of the best veneer places to purchase from. With the best prices as that is also human nature. As a guess some on whatever site they have will have done different things with veneers and should have a lot of good information.

What they do in getting the exact sizes they want is probably worth finding out. It may be desirable to remove the old veneer intact to have a pattern. As for getting it on evenly I do not think it just unreasonable to kind of burnish it after placing it. I really like contact cement but even with much thicker veneers placing the veneer on the other part with contact cement is critical. So they may have replaced contact cement with something else that allows a little more latitude in placing.

That hobby although not the same as you want to do. Primarily because they only work flat surfaces usually. At the same time they may work others on occasion. I am almost certain that if I was placing veneer on certain of those dash pieces contact cement may not be your best friend. I also suspect you already know this.


The more information you can gather the less painful in general has been my experience. When doing new things. It just occurred to me that the factory probably cut the wood oversize. Then trimmed it back to the aluminium backing after it had set. Using contact cement fitting a pre cut piece to some of those backings is not going to work out well. Doable but very hard in my mind.


There are systems to set up so the veneer gets placed exactly where you want it. Actually another one I can think of. Basically it is a dry run where you put the piece exactly where you want it. Run tape along one edge. Fold the piece back off. Using the tape as a hinge. Do you adhesive thing and put the veneer back on like closing a door.

Except on some. I am pretty sure with certain veneers you will have to build a small press and install the veneers with pressure applied. To get them really flat on the surface. This press and jigs are easy and cheap to build with a little thought if required. Pressure molds are easily fabricated for an application like this.

Try to get a thickness reading on what thickness veneers where originally used. Perhaps you already have.

There is an esthetic beauty in doing car wood at the end of the rainbow. Certain pieces would even look good as art on a wall. Developing interests that you can continue to purse in retirement. That have some earning potential. Is just being smart. Prices for whatever you do then will totally automatically adjust to inflation. Pensions and savings are really not properly indexed proportionally to both inflation and increasing costs.

Right at this time developing vocations to take in to retirement are pretty good. They do not have to consume a lot of time for the return.

My gut tells me the choice of stains. Is probably the hardest issue where they are required in a refinish. To get ones that most people like. To me at least this is harder than one would think.


Tastes also change over the years. For example at one time I really liked a softer walnut stain over a harsher one. Today I like the slightly harsher one for the better grain contrast. That is just me though. If I was doing it for others I would probably use one somewhere in the middle of both.

The web does not have everything but again there might be an actual staining disussion group out there as well. Personally I think it could be a great hobby with some earning potential when you get comforatable with it.

I'v given this little thought and I appreciate some of the points you made. I will search and find out the best glue. The man who sold the veneer says he will help with information and advise. I consider this will be vital to the process.

As far as bending I'm thinking I'd glue the subject on the piece of laminate then work then bend it. Of course I'll ask about making a radius with the laminate from the seller and do enough research to feel confident I'm fairly much knowing what to expect.

The trimming will be a lot simpler. I'll use a router to get close and finish the trimming with sand paper wrapped on a paint stick. If the radius wrapping goes well the aluminum and wood backing should keep me out of the finished surface.

For me, I have the stain. I mixed a good portion of red in with a dark walnut base and found out that the more red the less dark the stain became. Likewise the more dark the less pronounced the red became. It was confounding but I decided to keep it dark so the final formula was less than 20% red.

Super excited to get the wood trim on my W108 redone. I know I have a leak somewhere in the front right corner (windshield?), so this is a good time to get that fixed at the same time. :-)

I figure if I can remove and replace the zebrano on the long piece which goes across the dash between the left edge and the glove box I can handle everything else.

I have two of those dash trim pieces to try and I'm lining up the method and means along with the equipment and tools now.

I just finished the second set of leather which I'll sell to offset some of the cost.

I'll discuss the problems when I'm finished and the solutions if I find them.

I was not into this enough to really have good proceedures under my belt. Two things have come to mind. I would seek information on the factory process used at the time. Plus it occurred to me that vacuum might work well for some applications.. Used small vacuum pumps can be had really cheap.

I also remember I have put two pieces of product together with the contact cement still not partially air set. To enable some movement. It worked well enough and there were no issues over the years by doing so. I have never used water based contact cement. Simply because I know how well the old formulation worked. Possibly hard to get now anyways.

It did occur when using really thin veneers a barrier coat may be needed first on the backside to prevent any bleed through of the adhesive.

The one absolute at least to me is to use a laquer thinner wash with any paint remover. Gun wash grade I purchased in five gallon pails. From auto paint places. It still may be cheap in your area. . Smaller amounts are probably a better grade you do not need and tend to be far more expensive.

Laquer thinner will get you high incidentally so use it with good ventilation. I use it as kind of a universal solvent as well and is the first thing I reach for. If you have not used it before you should be happy with the product. You may be using it for gun wash now for all I know.

A soak of a piece in a closed container with it may lift the old wood off. It evaporates too fast to use in an open container.

What a person eventually does In retirement can be kept under the radar. Some do and some do not. I suspect it should be based on the volume one is doing. My creativity got me one net worth audit from the nice tax people at one time. Two of them and four hours later we parted company with no penalties.

They have never came back over all the ensuing years. Yet they did discover a small error on last years tax returns. A legitimate misteak that only cost a thousand dollars. So they must still pay some attention to us old fossils tax returns.

Just because a person is aging and eventually will see some form of retirement. Does not mean you have to go dead in the water. People can find interests that also provide an income source from it. Paid for what you find challenging and interesting to do is a healthy pursuit in many ways.