If all you do is coat it and walk away, you’ll get that. A proper finish job needs to be rubbed out for flatness and clarity, and to get rid of dust nibs!

There’s a person from CA on eBay that sells refinished wood, and will refinish pieces sent to them. Not cheap...

It seems to me that the console wood is the one that always needs help, no matter how great of shape the car and the dash is.

Not sure how poor of a match it would be to only refinish that.

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Current Diesels:
1981 240D (73K)
1982 300CD (169k)
1985 190D (169k)
1991 350SD (116k)
1991 350SD (206k)
1991 300D (228k)
2008 ML320 CDI (199k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (442k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (267k)

Past Diesels:
1983 300D (228K), 1985 300D (233K), 1993 300D 2.5T (338k), 1993 300SD (291k)

What would you rub that out with to get a smooth finish and the little dust looking things out of there? (and it's not dust because I put the pieces in a big covered plastic container after I put the varnish on).

Possibly small air bubbles. There is a laquer out there that they add a hardener to just before you buy it. Shelf life is measured in weeks. I use it to spray kitchen cabinets with. You tell the retailer what gloss level or number you want.

You may know the product as it is used on wooden kitchen and dining room tables but only at about a number five gloss level out of ten. About the same as I use on those kitchen cabinets.

This stuff is tough and will not yellow with time. Or go gummy. The top gloss level might dry like glass and require no surface working. If you do not get any orange peel effect. It is the toughest finish out there today that can give you a very high gloss. You pretty much have to spray it.

In the day they just put many coats of straight laquer on and polished it out once it dried. It was famous for cracking and checking after a time and not really very durable. Normal laquer has no gloss until you work the dry surface. Spar varnish cannot reach the levels of surface gloss of the laquers.

There are extra gloss hardners for clear coats but clear coats are not that tough either.