I'd suggest you buy a rubber sponge from an auto paint supply store and sand the parts with a 200g, then 500g, then 800g then 1200g or 1500g then buff it with rubbing compound then buff with a good auto finishing wax.

I have my entire set of wood trim in the 500g stage after spraying five coats of two part clear on it. I'll proceed as I suggested to you then strap my dual action buffer pad side up on my table and handle each piece while I use the rubbing compound, then change the pad on the buffer and do the polishing stage.

I'll wax them by hand just before installing them.

Even spraying them with a good trim HPLV gun won't make the finish lay down right. It must be cut and buffed just like an auto with a new clear coat.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

Thinning the poly will take most of them out but, you know, cut and buff.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

I have never sprayed the maximum gloss product. I do agree it may need further buffing. At the same time it appears to flow out so nicely in most of our cases at around half gloss. It looked much better than anything else I had ever used. Nice wet coats of course.

Actually the proper sequence is to remove the original finish totally. Stain the wood, Spray a coat of sealer over it to sand. Then hit it with the final clear coats. The sealer I believe is designed for sanding more so than the final coating. Plus it might act as an adhesion enhancement between the stained wood and the final finish. I would not use a water based stain either.

Anyways, whatever gives you the results you are happy with is what you want.

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.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

Many people have recommended Igor. 6-8 weeks turnaround time, but they say his work is outstanding.

Mercedes Auto Wood Trim Restoration for San Diego Los Angeles California Florida Nevada Arizona Texas Washington New York | I specialized in restoring vintage auto wood trim for Mercedes All models W107, W108, W109, W111, W113, W100, W123, W124, W126

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

This is the same guy that sells refurbed trim on eBay. Username is restoredinusa. Once I get some other issues sorted out, I may just bite the bullet and buy one of his restored consoles. I think I could spend a lot of money and time on doing it myself and not be happy with the result.

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1991 300D 2.5 "Rocinante"
2002 Golf TDI "Teen Spirit"
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1984 300D
1966 Mustang I6 3sp
1985 Mazda RX-7 GSLSE
1982 Toyota Supra
1977 Datsun 280z
1971 Datsun 240z

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.

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.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

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.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

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. :-)

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1968 250SE

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.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

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.

FWIW

I use epoxy resin. *

Strip off old veneer and replace. **

Tint epoxy resin. (Don't stain the wood) ***

Flood the new veneer with the resin.

Cut holes after resin has cured. ****

If needed, I will sand out the epoxy and spray a thin layer of 2k automotive clear.

* You can find cheap epoxy resin at the hardware store. It's a two part kit. May be branded as "envirotex" or sold as bar top coating.

**You may be able to simply heat the trim and lift the original resin off the veneer with a razor blade.

***The trim in this car was originally coated in a tinted resin. This is why the pieces look like raw natural wood when the finish starts falling off.

Also, epoxy resin is not compatible with oil based stains and paints. If the stain is not completely dry the resin my delaminate later on.

****The edges of the piece will not look right if you cut the holes before pouring the resin. The resin will create a kind of "bubble" look or a rounded edge. For this reason, I cut the veneer oversized and trim it down later too get a nice square edge.

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"Canary Mercedes
Crawlin' like a baby
Drank got me lazy
Iced out, Feelin crazy"
- Riff Raff