W108 Refinished Wood Trim

[Palolo]

I popped my dash bow back in today, after several coats of spar varnish for UV protection, ending my wood efforts for the time being. The dash is in decend condition, and I don't want to tear in to it just yet.

A few weeks back, I started with the door trim pieces of my 71 280SE.

They were flaky and peeling. Not a pretty sight at all. I read up on this DIY and used it as a guide, since I hadn't done this before.

I used a liquid stripper to carefully remove the old finish, then used MinWax Pre-Stain Conditioner, Stain and then ultimately their Helmsman Spar Varnish in Clear Satin finish.

Pulled the dash bow out a week or so ago, and was repeating the same process with it.

Received lots of "whoa, no way that's the same piece of wood" comments from people wandering past my carport workshop.

Little by little this car is getting ready for the Gravel Beach Concourse. Not as fine as the pebble one, but hey, we DIY, right?

[pj67coll]

Wonderful work on that wood. Many years ago I totally destroyed my 108's dash bow by sanding away the wafer thin strip of veneer on top of the underlying wood. That's long before I knew what I was doing and before this forum. Looking forward to more reports of your progress.

- Peter.