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Refinishing the dash

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jjbunn

jjbunn

Jedi Knight
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I extracted the dash from my '71, and am now peeling off the translucent uppermost varnish (?)layer, which is badly cracked and missing whole chunks.

For this I am using a heat gun to slightly soften the varnish and then carefully prying it away from the next layer down, which is the veneer.

The veneer maybe good enough to re-cover with a polyurethane gloss varnish, but I wont know until I've got all the existing varnish off and rubbed down the veneer with mineral spirits.

However, there are small slivers of the veneer that have come off, and I'm wondering how easily those are replaced. Or if I should just buy a new piece of veneer and remove the old.

I'll post a couple of photos later when I've cleaned it up a bit.
 
Veneer is cheap. Your frustration of looking at a project your not happy with is expensive.
 
Yes, veneer is cheap. Get a good book on how to work with it. I used an article from British Car Magazine (2/91) when I did my first one. I learned a little more the second time around.
I have to refinish mine as the finish went from beautifully smooth to topigraphical map in one season. DO NOT use MIN WAX urethane. My father and I followed woodworking magazine tips and used their product. It produced nothing but a lot of work and more work down the road.
Find a good finish and you will be dollars ahead.
 
Consider, after stripping, woodfilling and staining.
I think some imperfections add a certain character you
couldn't get, even if you tried, in the finish. You'll
know more after a stain. Stain is cheap and goes on
quickly to give you an idea.

I used Rotten Stone and Pumice to rub my finish.
Happy with the result.

Of course, look for product finish to stand up to
sun, rain and temp changes....and yes, do seal the back
somehow so she doesn't go wrong.

Never tried it, but how you gonna argue with a gun stock
finish? I like it.
Here is what mine looked like.
IMG]https://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u222/2wrench/005.jpg[/IMG]

004.jpg
 
Nice counter tile job indeed!
I'd have gone with a very pale silver/grey
grout myself. The white on white looks very
clean and well put together.
 
Professionally done, I must admit; but, I did do a patch
job to repair broken end tiles. Can you tell??

If another one breaks, I think I'll powder coat it.
 
tomshobby said:
That is what I used. I have some pics and how to on this page.
https://smithtr6.com/welcome.htm

A trick I used to use when working on gun stocks that had small imperfections was to use clear epoxy to fill them. Most often after the finish was applied those imperfections could not be found unless the person knew exactly where they were.
Click to expand...

Now that sounds like a good idea!

I will try that, and also the stain suggestion, just to see how it looks. I got all the varnish off, and rubbed the surface with mineral oil. It already looks a ton better.
 
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