1967 250S interior wood question

[dmtinker]

I'm going to restore the interior wood on this car and was wondering a few things.

Is it solid wood or laminate?
What type of wood is it?
What stain/coating (i.e. poly, varnish, shellac?) is recommended?
Has anyone done a wood restoration on this model?

Any help would be appreciated?

[daidnik]

I have done this job on a '68 250S and a '61 220Sb.

The wood on the W111 220Sb was solid. The wood on the W108 250S was laminated.

With the laminated wood, one has to be very careful in stripping off the old finish. You must use a chemical stripper. I like the high quality Jasco products. You must be careful in putty knife scraping of the old finish softened by the stripper. You can carefully use steel wool as well.

The care must be taken because the outer layer of wood veneer is not very thick. When you start cutting thru that, it shows and you won't have any feasible fix for that, so it pays to take great care in stripping. Sandpaper is not an option.

Once you have stripped the wood, if there is water damage causing some degree of de-lamination of the layers, you will need to fix that as best as you can. Epoxy is not a bad choice. You can get it to wick in and then clamp it with spring clips during cure and jewelers file it after cure.

Staining and top finish is more your preference. In the old days, I think Mercedes may have used varnish, but nowadays, they definitely use polyurethane.

Polyurethane is not as easy to brush on, but dries faster. Varnish is easy to brush on and is more UV resistant, but does have more amber color to it and darkens somewhat with age.

A quality spar varnish is probably the most durable transparent finish for wood. I've used a number of them over the years and found Epifanes to be the best. I've used their "Rubbed Effect" varnish as a topcoat and it is an outstanding satin finish. Very nice on the kitchen cabinets. Epifanes also has a bit more of a neutral hue to it (less yellow than most).

Whatever finish you use, make sure to coat all sides of all the pieces. This helps to prevent any further de-lamination.

[300SDog]

Being '67 108 concurrent with 111 "S" sedans maybe it's solid wood and not veneer. Deluxe coupes and cabrios got fancy striped walnut and spotted maple veneers that included speedometer binnacle too. And the grain on them runs consistent from dash across glove compartment, incredible craftsmanship.

If it was me I'd brush it down in place with toothbrush and linseed oil. Existing varnish gonna possibly lift and loosen up, rub it with #0000 steel wool if it does. You'll be amazed how much linseed oil the wood will absorb. "Fornby's" makes excellent furniture wood restoration products.

Actually pulling the wood from dashboard and windshield front sill for perfect restoration is lots of work but can be done. I once transfered and restored wood dash trim from w111 220Sb into w110 190c, was 3 day project but worth every minute with amazing results.

[dmtinker]

I think my laminate is already damaged. I wonder if I could re-laminate it?

[dmtinker]

Actually, the dash piece is already out of the car. It was fairly easy to take out. I guess I'll know once I get a chance to take a close look at it. If it is laminate, I may just have it redone.

[Adenauer]

Great reference:

http://www.mbzponton.org/valueadded/other/wood.txt

[sjefke]

Any chance you can post the articles? I need to refurbish wood too down the road...

Bert

[Adenauer]

I do not have scans of the articles though you can contact Jay Brosius (author of some of the articles) directly at Silver Star Restorations... 828-321-4268.

Jay's work with dash wood restoration is unequaled in my opinion.