After three months of removing the old finish from the zebrano interior pieces of my 1987 300D, I finally got the pieces all clean and applied stain to one of them. On the advice of a Woodcraft employee, I used a cherry gel stain ... well, it looks ridiculously bright red and came out extremely uneven. I had better success with Minwax on test pieces (yeah, I didn't test the gel stuff ... dumb move but I ran out of test pieces) and would like to get rid of the stain I put on and start over. Is that possible at this point, or am I stuck with barn-red, mottled interior pieces? I have applied only one coat and no finish to this. Mad at myself for jumping into the staining process, but hoping to resurrect the disaster after all the work I put into cleaning this wood.

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1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

It would be better if it hasn't fully dried........then you'd wipe it thorougly with mineral spirits and weaken the stain.

If it's fully dried, you're going to have to sand it to remove the stain. It's not all that deep........but, you don't have all that much material to work with either......

Mistake No. 2: Starting project right before I had to leave for work for nine hours ... It's dry. Guess I'll have to sand and hope for the best.

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1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

You "might" get some better results if you try to "wet sand" it with mineral spirits. I have never tried this...........YMMV.

Would hurt to try, right?

Here's the wood, BTW ... doesn't look that bad in the photo, but it is RED ...

Attached Thumbnails

 

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1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

Sanding? If the zebrano is a veneer, there's not much to sand.

Carefull sanding that wood, you will bust right through the veneer! I wouldn't use anything more than 220, light, light, light pressure.

Chances are you are stuck with it.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

That's what concerns me ... it's pretty thin. Although if the stain isn't too deep I may have some wiggle room. The piece I chipped off (and managed to repair quite nicely, I might add) was of decent thickness.

__________________
1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

Yeah.........that's my concern as well..........no way to completely eliminate the stain, but it might lighten a bit.

No......mineral spirits won't hurt it.......whether it will lift the dried stain is another issue..........

You might also give Acetone a whirl.........it's got more capability than mineral spirits.

Carefull with acetone, its a veneer don't want to seperate the glue.

What stain did you use? I played with a few on a junk piece and was never happy. I have no idea what MB used. Minwax actualy makes some really good stains, better than the super expensive marine ones actualy!

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Yep........good point........the acetone will do exactly that if you use too much.

Aww,*****fingers...Tri Sodium Phosphate or TSP. Available at Home Despot,et.cet.

Mix it with warm water and apply,always removed stains for me.

TSP mixed with bleach is what I used when running a couple of paint crews to pressure wash mildew off houses. Wouldn't that be kind of caustic for a veneer?

No Sir,not if applied sparingly and with care.

I've used it on 18th Cent,Chippendale tables,1810 Sheraton sideboards,all of which were Mahogany{or Monogamy,thanks Gramps}veneers.

As I've stated,experience is the best teacher,and if the bleach is too much do what I do and mix some Aniline stain powder with alky{denatured solvent for you bourgeoise hooples}Practice makes perfect as they say.