wood dash refinish

[tahoe healey]

As winter approches I am getting my "to do" list going. Has anyone tried removing the wood dash on a BJ8 without removing some of the more delicate (ie; oil, and temp)gauges? I hate tampering with that tube since it works perfectly.

 

[wim janssen]

'Guess that you will not get around it if you want an "A" class job dear friend.

So, good luck and let the people know!!

Greets

Wim

 

[67BJ8]

To do a first class job you are going to have to remove the gauges. I have done woodworking for about 30 years now, and refinished the dash on my 67 BJ8 a few years ago. I ended up with 11 coats of clear lacquer on it, rubbed down with rottenstone in between coats. You have to get the finish FLAT or it will not look right. One point - You can polish high gloss coatings to a beautiful shiney finish. If, however, you use a semigloss, you can never increase the shine
of it more than semi gloss because of the small silicon content in the coating.

Good Luck,

Larry

 

[XK4]

Lacquer is good as Larry points out but you might also consider using "Deft" spray for the coating.
This product is similar to lacquer but it is IMO a little tougher and more weather resistant. It is often used for Bar Tops.
Use the "gloss" if you want that type of finish. Also visit a auto body shop and see if you can buy some of their 1200 grit "wet/dry" carbide paper. Use this with water just enough to remove the little "peaks" you will get in each coat of spray.
When you have built up 6 or more coats using this process you can rub it to a high gloss using rottenstone (kinda messy stuff and you won't use a box of it in your lifetime) or use your wifes Silver Polish. I use it on the high gloss Kentucky Rifles I build and it (with a lot of elbow grease) will produce a amazing gloss.
Jim

 

[lawguy]

Lacquer is certainly the preferred finish, and wet/dry 1200 or even 1500 is perfect, but you want to use very little water, but enough. If you use to little, the paper will load up and either not cut at all, or scratch. Try dipping the paper in water often, rather than applying the water to the surface.

Personally, I would get at least 3 coats on before I wet sanded at all to help prevent going through the finish and staining the wood with the water. Slow on the sanding- you can always do more, but you can't do less after you've gone too far. Watch it particulatly around the edges, just like color sanding a car.

After you have built up enough coats (6 to 12 as above is good), you can give it a final wet sand, then compound and polish it like you would a lacquer car finish. If you never touched anything lower than 1200 grit, polishing will likely be enough and compounding will be too harsh. Just buff it out like a car finish, and you will be fine. This may take numerous times to get it to the sheen you want.

Obviously, you can't do this with the gauges in place, or you risk damaging them and doing a less than optimum job.

The products I like are Mohawk. I refinish antique radios too and the Mohawk products are by far the best I have used. If you have stripped the wood, a toning lacquer (lacquer with a hint of brown pigment it is very light and transluscent) for the first couple of coats will even the color, followed by a high-gloss, if that's the look you want. You can get Mohawk here:

https://www.tubesandmore.com

Go to the Radio Restoration, then Cabinet Restoration page. They have all kinds of refinishing supplies that may be of use to car nuts like the aforementioned toning and gloss lacquer, and wrinkle finishes.

Don't forget the sanding sealer to seal the pores before the lacquer, or you will get grain marks showing though. If it is a particularly porous grain, like some walnuts are, you may need to mix up a thinned, colored filler to spread first to seal the grain, then sand most of that off. Filler should be put on extremely thin and should mainly be in the pores and not on the surface. If you have a reference book that talks about it, I would bet that's how the high end shops finished automotive wood originally.

Careful sanding the wood, most is very thin veneer, though some cars have solid wood. After sanding and filling, apply a couple of coats of sanding sealer, sanding with 400 or 600 between coats, dry. The sanding sealer is porous itself, so you don't want to get it wet. Then apply toning lacquer, then gloss lacquer.

I know the mohawk isn't cheap ($6.95 a can) but the stuff you get at Wal-Mart or Ace for $2.99 doesn't flow out and self level like Mohawk. That is a particular issue with lacquer because it dries so fast.

Good luck

 

[tony barnhill]

Lawguy...We're redoing the dash on my '53 TD & I want to go with natural wood instead of the vinyl overlay...what about using the same thing one uses on brightwork on boats?...it comes in either gloss or satin & is spposed to protect against sun's rays

 

[lawguy]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by tony barnhill:
Lawguy...We're redoing the dash on my '53 TD & I want to go with natural wood instead of the vinyl overlay...what about using the same thing one uses on brightwork on boats?...it comes in either gloss or satin & is spposed to protect against sun's rays<hr></blockquote>

Like marine spar varnish with UV inhibitors? That would be fine, but it is harder to work with than lacquer. The main disadvantage to varnishes and polyurethanes is that they take hours to dry instead of minutes (or seconds) like lacquer. However, each coat is thicker.

The problem is that the longer open time means more time for dust to settle in (necessitating more sanding between coats) and takes considerably more time to build up coats. Polyurethane with UV inhibitors may be best for what you are doing because it dries harder, making it sand and buff better than varnish. Of course, poly is anathema to old radio guys like me, but, oh well,

As an aside, the use of a toning lacquer would cut down on the actual UV that gets to the wood, but how much, I can't say. You're probably better off with something designed to stand up to the elements if you think it will get exposure, but remember, most old wood dashes are either shellac (really old) or lacquer (old), and lasted pretty well for 50 years or so. Hopefully, the wood on boats gets alot more abuse than our dashes.