I used some fine wet sand, like a 800 grit to finish, before buffing.

For large chipped areas, you can try stain or paint to get the wood color close, then build up the area with super glue in multiple coats, till it is higher than the surrounding finish, then sand smooth and buff. It may take several applications of glue, to get it built up enough, but dont be afraid of thick glue areas, as I have had no problems building up areas aup to 1/8" thick.

Thanks for the details busman1965! I Gotta try this... I will report back with pictures.

BTW - NICE boat!!!

__________________

1987 300TD 147,000 miles- Palomino leather interior, 1995 facelift and body cladding, E350 wheels, Rebuilt suspension and sport springs, rebuilt turbo, New Monarch injection pump and injectors....and the list goes on and on...

Thanks, the boats actually my job, wish it was mine, but I do get to use it!

The cracks in my TD's wood have all just disappeared, including a 1/4" chunk of veneer that was missing. I cant wait to re-install it, as it is 1000 times better than it was when I started.

Total time invested 2 hours, total cost $8.00 in glue, sandpaper and sparay lacquer. Now my dash will look like a nice vintage Mercedes, rather than a cracked, neglected mess. Sure its not like new wood, but it looks like a nice patina'ed wooden dash.

I have a thing about keeping as much of the original pieces on a vehicle as possible. I would rather fix an original piece than replace it with new one.

Good thread... thanks for the info. I have a small piece of veneer that I snapped off, and a few cracks. I think I now have the courage to try this myself..thanks
BTW are you east coast or west coast of florida? I am in jax

I am on the east coast, in the Palm Beach area.
Good luck on the repair, its really easy once you get started.

Thanks, Busman for sharing this. This will be one of my winter projects.

I will add that I had some loose veneer on the strips on the front of the dash. One piece of wood actually fell off of the metal backing from the glue drying out. I chose to take all of the veneer off the metal backing, flatten the backing, then re-glue the wood to the metal. I used a very strong interior trim contact cement. There may be a better cement for this but it has held up so far.

The piece of wood that snaps over the CCU seems especially vulnerable to curling over time and I will be working on this piece with your method.

Thanks again!!

__________________
85 300D 75K Anthracite Grey 0-60 in 13 seconds **For Sale**
84 300D 333K Black (The Velveteen Rabbit) 0-60 in 14 seconds
00 Toyota Sienna 208K (Sold)
15 Subaru Outback 43K
11 Subaru Outback 67K
98 Ford Taurus 100K (Gertie - Was Grandma's - drove it to church and shopping - really) Daughter's car now.
30 Model A Ford 2 Door Sedan (Sold) 0-60 in . . . Never reached 60

I noticed the same thing with the edges curling on my TD. The glue to the metal backing seems to let go over time. I also noticed that the veneer seems to let go of the backing wood, at the edges, which causes a lip to form.

I found that clamping the piece face down to a flat board, and very carefully flowing the superglue in the loose edges (dont want to glue the piece to the backing board) will help stabilize it. After it is stabilized, some of the lip can be sanded down, as the original finish is so thick.

This gives the impression of a flat piece, even if it is not. Of course the finish is now thinner at the edges, but it still looks pretty good to me!

I remember when I worked at a dealer, when these cars were new, we often would get cracks in the wood, sitting on the lot, from the Florida heat and sun. I had a bucket of new, cracked wood trim pieces in my shop. Wish I had known about this trick back then....

Here's the wiki for superglue (cyanoacrylate)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superglue

It is an epoxy of sorts. It's an acrylic resin, and water is the catalyst.


Other glues that will do the trick for wood repair include the WEST System epoxies. I have some experience with them, having owned a series of sailboats over the years, both wooden and fibreglass. I'd personally rather work with WEST stuff as I've got enough experience with it to predict its behavior and I always make a mess of cyanoacrylate ;-). WEST's new G-Flex stuff is pretty neat for plastics.

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/

__________________

1987 300TD Turbo Wagon "Ti Blanc Stella!"
Carpe cervisium.
"If I owned Texas and Hell, I'd rent out Texas and live in Hell." -- William Tecumseh Sherman

Hi, I may have missed it but. What adhesive are you using to attach the trim pieces back in place. The piece at the glove box door and at radio face panel are pulling away and starting to bow a little.
Thanks

__________________
92 500E Silver 66k
82 Porsche 911SC 84K
68 Cadillac ( Gone Now )
03 Suburban Z71 200K
85 300SD 217k From Original Owner ( Dad )

Very well done. I used to work for a furniture company back in the 80's and they had a very talented gent who would repair damages in furniture...would amaze me what he could do.

__________________
'95 E300D 313k miles
http://www.ourfullhouse.com

Tami, you mentioned using West system, which would be great for doing a full refinish with. For this kind of quick and dirty crack repair stuff, superglue is far superior, because it dries fast ,and very hard. This allows it to be buffed and sanded to a nice gloss, which you could never do with West System.

I use alot of West system products, and they are great for many things, but I really don't think crack filling would be one of them, unless you are taking the pieces down to bare wood. West would be a great glue for lamanating the metal back on to the wood, but it seems like overkill, as it is so expensive. That being said, there are lots of ways to skin a cat, so experiment on, thats the way I found the superglue trick.....

The stuff I used to re-attach the wood to the metal backing was Permatex Super Weatherstrip Adhesive. It is a contact cement. You will need to thoroughly clean any dried glue off of the metal and wood after you separate them. It did not look like the original glue was a contact cement, but this worked for me. A bit messy. Be careful not to get it on other stuff.

Richard

__________________
85 300D 75K Anthracite Grey 0-60 in 13 seconds **For Sale**
84 300D 333K Black (The Velveteen Rabbit) 0-60 in 14 seconds
00 Toyota Sienna 208K (Sold)
15 Subaru Outback 43K
11 Subaru Outback 67K
98 Ford Taurus 100K (Gertie - Was Grandma's - drove it to church and shopping - really) Daughter's car now.
30 Model A Ford 2 Door Sedan (Sold) 0-60 in . . . Never reached 60

Very excited to try it......Just bought some super glue and clear lacquer spray paint from Lowes today for under $8. We'll see how it goes over the next week or so. I'll report back.

__________________

1987 300TD 147,000 miles- Palomino leather interior, 1995 facelift and body cladding, E350 wheels, Rebuilt suspension and sport springs, rebuilt turbo, New Monarch injection pump and injectors....and the list goes on and on...

RML, Thanks for the info. I will give it a shot.

__________________
92 500E Silver 66k
82 Porsche 911SC 84K
68 Cadillac ( Gone Now )
03 Suburban Z71 200K
85 300SD 217k From Original Owner ( Dad )

Glad to see another diesel and guitar guy (I've been playing for years) in south Florida!

Scott

__________________
Scott
1982 Mercedes 240D, 4 speed, 275,000
1988 Porsche 944 Turbo S (70,000)
1987 Porsche 911 Coupe 109,000 (sold)
1998 Mercedes E300 TurboDiesel 147,000 (sold)
1985 Mercedes 300D 227,000 (totaled by inattentive driver with no insurance!)
1997 Mercedes E300 Diesel 236,000 (sold)
1995 Ducati 900SS (sold)
1987 VW Jetta GLI 157,000 (sold)
1986 Camaro 125,000 (sold - P.O.S.)
1977 Corvette L82 125,000 (sold)
1965 Pontiac GTO 15,000 restored (sold)