Re: Re-Varnishing Wood Veneer

In alt.autos.jaguar olivia_49 <[email protected]> wrote:
> Looks like you're doing a really thorough job! The sanding
> approach makes sense given how thin the veneer is, heating
> or chemical strippers always risk lifting it off. For the
> varnish, Cabothane Clear Gloss should be fine indoors,
> just go slow with multiple thin coats to avoid runs or
> bubbles. If you're worried about UV, an exterior-grade
> varnish could help, but it might be overkill unless the car
> sits in strong sunlight a lot. Overall, sounds like a
> careful, logical approach. Patience is key here!

Thanks, all finished now, I might follow up later with a photo when
I have time to find one. In a couple of places where I did make a
small hole in the veneer, mainly when I tried using heat to soften
the varnish, I mixed up the fine sawdust from sanding with PVA glue
and this worked well enough to fill the gaps. Since it's not
normally in direct sunlight I did go with the interior varnish.
Where I did go wrong was, in my ignorance, using a brush to apply
the new varnish rather than using a spray can or gun, so I didn't
get the perfectly smooth surface of the original parts. But it
looks good from some angles at least.

The main issue now is of course I stained that bit of veneer to
something like the original darkness, but now I have to do the same
to all the other wood of the car to match. At least I have spares
for most of the other bits in my parts car, so I won't have to
drive around with holes where the veneer is meant to be like I was
doing for that piece. Although since the old varnish isn't flaking
off the other parts yet, other jobs get higher priority - mainly
fixing spots of rust.

-- 
OmberJag's Jags:
1990 4L Jaguar XJ40
1986 3.6L Jaguar XJ40 (parts car)
1983 4.2L Jaguar XJ6 SIII