I've been looking at restoring the wood dash pieces in my '83 240D for some time now and was wondering if anyone has experience with restored in usa? Restoration seems to make much more sense fiscally since the wood is still decent, it's just the finish that is pretty aged.

The biggest challenge is the clear protective finish. The clear coat on MB wood trim from the 80's onwards is a very hard product to remove, sand and get to an acceptable state to refinish without destroying the underlying veneer.

If your wood trim is otherwise intact with no deep crack in the finish, you could try to polish and then refinish with a thinned clear coat and multiple applications and assess the results from there.

My self personally on my center console section that was the most sun faded and cracked, I chose to simply veneer over the existing with matching Zebrano wood and then apply a polyurethane clear over that. Happy with the results

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Stable Mates:
1987 300TD 310K mi (Hans)
2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee OM642 165k mi (Benzrokee)

More than you ever wanted to know.


Interior: Wood Trim Repair/Replace/Refinish link thread

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“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
― Brian P. Cleary, You Oughta Know By Now

Impalaman's Garage on Youtube has a DIY series on his W126 wood, it came out really nice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctwc_TTglho

I used a gentlemen in San Diego by the name of Igor Smirnov to refinish my w124 console trim.

It took a couple months, but turned out perfectly. His contact info:

www.restoredinusa.com or phone him at 760-975-5323

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Regards,
Ian White

1995 E300 Diesel w124 OM606
2014 E550 w212 M278 biturbo

2001 BMW 740i E38 M62 (past)
1981 300SD w126 OM617 (past)

Thank you.

It was good fun.

@YousefTA

Thank you.

It was good fun.

I need to refinish my 240d center console piece. All my other "wood" looks pretty good. Haven't attempted anything, yet. Stumbled upon these guys surfin YT. I'm sure a lot of people already know about them. I did not. Heck, they may even be here, on the Pelican. Their videos have a lot of good tips and tricks. Also, a TON of really nice cars they've bought, restored and sold. Really excellent work. Nice to see someone continuing to "carry the torch".

Pertinent info starts at 26:00 on this one.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjO6Ma3lN00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WqHdcvuqXM

One wood console for my W123's looked horrid so I scraped off the lifted parts to recover in vinyl w/ Zebrano pattern. I posted here. You have to look close to tell it is vinyl, though did need to butt 2 sheets since too long for the vinyl roll. I wish I had been less aggressive since I found the ugly was just cracked veneer and the wood underneath looked pristine so might have just been re-varnished, but I had gouged it too much for that. I have another sitting on the bench I try the smarter approach. Wish I had a large bench sander to make quick work of it. Also replace the plastic rear pin which a prior gomer surely broke off. I used a small carriage bolt, so you see the head at the aft end, though no rear passengers have been offended by that.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

The finish on the MB wood interior is a polyester resin. No stripper is going to dissolve it. I have not found anything that works well to make cracks disappear either. I used a heat gun to flake the material away. Then, you pour the clear gloss epoxy countertop material. Sand level, then sand down to a finer grit. Polish.

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Theseus

Instragram: doss_project
1984 300SD - 930 Blue, OM 617
Murfreesboro, TN

Theseus owned a ship in Greek mythology, and when a part of the ship needed replacing, it was replaced. Eventually, everything was replaced. Is it the same ship? (I own the car of Theseus. )

I stripped all the wood in my w126. The veneer is too thin to sand so don't destroy any by trying, don't ask. Fortunately I had more than one complete set to experiment with.

The stripper that removes the varnish the best is off the market. However, with enough time you can strip the finish off without much trouble.

Staining and clear coating is another animal. Anyone who decides to go that way should drop by Sherwin Williams and have them match the existing unless you want to go to another color or shade. They only charged me for the quart of stain and did the matching free.

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

(sorry, no pictures, this was a previous car) I used an acetone bath to remove the old finish, stained the wood and sealed with a pour-over (also called tabletop or self-leveling) epoxy. If I were doing it again, I'd tint the pour-over epoxy instead of staining the wood, which is what I think the factory did.

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1980 240d
1999 SL500

Nonsense. Acetone takes care of it in 24 hours tops.

I addressed all the wood in my 240 but rather than rewrapping it in urethane or whatever, I used hard wax oil and went for a natural look.

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1981 240D 4sp manual. Ivory White.

Yes acetone is what I have read on this forum.

Good job.
Nice natural look!!

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1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
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1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD

I'm pretty sure they mixed the stain in the finish. I don't know about pour over. That's new one to me.

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