Perfect DIY wood trim - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Bruce Kennedy · #1 12-01-2006, 11:38 AM

You dont need a dust free environment of even a spray gun to do beautiful varnish work. Just a little elbow grease and paitence. If you trim is crazing or checked you will have to strip the old finish. It will take a pretty strong chemical stripper and I would experiment on an extra piece first! If it is just hazy or cloudy looking you can probably get away with just sanding most of the old finish away.
To get it looking like it did when new will require many coats (10 to 12). My preference is to use a foam brush. Work clean ! Dont dip your brush in the can and strain the varnish you are applying. You must sand between each coat, but very lightly for the first couple of coats. Also dont sand in the same area that you are varnishing in and make sure each coat is thoroughly dry before putting on the next coat ( sunshine really helps cure vanish but if thats not available the oven on very low after its dry to the touch will speed it along).At first it will be easy to burn through because you dont have any depth yet. You also want to wipe the pieces down with denatured alcohol and a tack cloth after each sanding. After the third coat I use 320 grit. When you get to the final coats your sanding should make each piece look a uniform milky color with no shiny spots. For your final sanding start with 800 grit, then 1000, then 1200. Then polish with 3M finese it and perfect it. You may even want to wax it for a little extra protection.
It sounds like alot of work but it really isnt because the area you are doing is so small. I used to have a small shop and did wooden boat restoration. I used these technics to get flawless dust free results in a very dusty environment. Happy sanding!

85 300td
85 300d
83 300d
81 240d
84 300sd (just picked this one up for $1500 and its incredable)

rrgrassi · #2 12-01-2006, 11:50 AM

Do you use marine varnish since it is in a car? Also what about the "decapour" stuff that pours thick that is used in restaurant wooden tables?

Bruce Kennedy · #3 12-01-2006, 12:08 PM

I know nothing of that restaurant stuff. You could use marine spar varinsh but I would use an exterior urethane with good UV resistance. Still ,cars in the south or out west might want to put on another coat every few years unless they are kept out of the sun alot of the time. The two 85's I have came from the south and the wood is cloudy while the ones from up here look great.

rrgrassi · #4 12-01-2006, 12:13 PM

Ok, thanks for the info! It looks like a better alternative to buying new, and also is a great DIY progect.

Bruce Kennedy · #5 12-01-2006, 12:20 PM

And you will have the satisfaction of doing it yourself. Which is why so many of us have these diesels in the first place.
When I get a chance I'm going to redo one of mine with a different veneer possibly burled walnut.

Cephallus · #6 12-01-2006, 12:31 PM

I actually stripped one set and refinished with...just a few coats of tung oil! It's a very different look...but equally as beautiful, imho. It looks warmer, to me...

Hatterasguy · #7 12-01-2006, 12:58 PM

Careful it is a veneer with a poly on top. Sanding would take forever, and you and risk busting through the veneer. Chemical strippers work but make a mess, I found a good heat gun will pop the finish right off.

As to re finishing it, that method would work fine, but you will still have dust in it. The trick is to how noticeable it will be when you are done. Under the high intensity shop lights you can see every imperfection, and we use a magnifying glass to inspect the wood as well.

220 works fine for the build up coats, 8 is about all you want. The final coats you can go to 400 but you don’t gain to much. On the final coat you can buff it out it’s a ton of work but looks good.

We do a lot of bright work on boats to a very high level.

Every winter I say I'm going to do this, I should just get off my butt and do it this year.

Bruce Kennedy · #8 12-01-2006, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

Careful it is a veneer with a poly on top. Sanding would take forever, and you and risk busting through the veneer. Chemical strippers work but make a mess, I found a good heat gun will pop the finish right off.

As to re finishing it, that method would work fine, but you will still have dust in it. The trick is to how noticeable it will be when you are done. Under the high intensity shop lights you can see every imperfection, and we use a magnifying glass to inspect the wood as well.

220 works fine for the build up coats, 8 is about all you want. The final coats you can go to 400 but you don’t gain to much. On the final coat you can buff it out it’s a ton of work but looks good.

We do a lot of bright work on boats to a very high level.

Every winter I say I'm going to do this, I should just get off my butt and do it this year.

Good to know that a heat gun will remove the factory finish, but I have to respectfully disagree with you about getting it dust free. I have restored wooden runabouts ,using the method I mentioned, and under bright sunlight or high intensity lights no dust specs were visable. These were boats that were judged at shows, but none of the judges used magnifying glasses and I doubt if any car shows would do that either. If you want this kind of finish you cant take any shortcuts. The number of coats matters if you want that depth of finish. Remeber your sanding alot of it off. You must go through the various fine grits I mention, It does make a difference, and use the two different rubbing compounds.(For those that havent used 1200 git sandpaper, you can barely tell its sandpaper)
This technic will work on paint to get a perfect finish as well.
Refinishing a whole boat to these standards is alot of work but redoing dash wood would be a piece of cake. The only difficult part would be to have enough paitence for the drying between coats.