How To Repair Cracks In Rolls Royce Wood Dashboard
Restoring Classic Motorcar Wood Trim
Repairing and revarnishing woods trim
To restore real woods trim strips and dashboards is very different from trying to imitate a photograph-printed grain pattern, and—thank goodness—considerably easier. Virtually original finishes deteriorate, due to the effects of sunlight and condensation, and in some cases they tend to develop white streaky patterns, where the grain filler, which was inserted to fill the pores of the woods, has bleached back to its natural color. Decide whether you volition go the whole squealer, and refinish all the interior woodwork in the automobile, or whether y'all volition merely make clean information technology, and wax it, to retain the slightly weathered expect which some people associate with the older vehicles. But, as with painting the metal work in the interior, if you practise only part of the job y'all will never friction match the colour completely, and the two different colours will offend your eye every fourth dimension you go into the car.
Ideally, you should accept all the woodwork out of the auto earlier starting to refinish it. Where there are instruments mounted through the forest you accept to face up the complication of all the wires and pipes that go to the back of them. While it is possible to strip and refinish a dashboard by easing the instruments slightly forward so that you lot tin go admission to the edges of the holes, this is a very fiddling business concern and there is the existent danger that a pigment stripper used to take off the old varnish volition drop some spots on to the instruments and the wiring, and mayhap fix a lot of future trouble. If yous decide to do the piece of work with the instruments still hanging on their wires and pipes, I would advise roofing each instrument with a plastic handbag and taking this back as far through the dash equally possible to protect everything from the pigment stripper.
Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn 4-Door Saloon 1954 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
To use pigment stripper is the only practical method of removing the erstwhile varnish. Many of the panels will be covered with veneer, and this is most literally newspaper sparse. If you lot try to remove the old varnish dry with a scraper in that location is an excellent chance that you volition cutting direct through the veneer. Most any paint stripper will remove the sometime varnish successfully, simply exist wary of the very powerful ones which might comprise the chemical chosen lye. While this is an excellent paint softener and stripper, it also has the unfortunate belongings of turning some types of maho- gany and walnut a deep purple in the grain, and this purple colour is almost impossible to remove. I have had no such troubles with Polystrippa, which has another advantage, that it can be rinsed off with water. No doubt there are many other brands of stripper which will do an splendid job without staining the forest, simply having institute one which works well for me, I recommend information technology. I accept always been a piddling wary of other paint strippers which need to be neutralized with white spirit or methylated spirit, because the simply time I had the misfortune to inflict the purple colour on mahogany it was with i such stripper.
Earlier starting to put any stripper on the interior polished woodwork on your auto, make absolutely certain that you are dealing with polished wood. Around the 1950s one or 2 manufacturers used wood for the master part of the interior finishing, but used a Bakelite blazon of plastic with a photo-printed wood grain in one or ii places, such as the lid of the glove box. In case y'all think this practice was bars to cheaper cars, I should state that information technology was used on Bentleys and, as far every bit I know, on the Rolls Royce Silver Dawn every bit well.
Provided you take been dealing with real wood, the stripping of the old varnish will accept left the surface slightly rough, where the liquids have raised the grain, and mayhap there volition be open pores in the grain, where the stripper has lifted out the grain filler. This is a type of coloured plaster mixture which is rubbed into the forest beyond the grain to fill up the open pores, and save on the amount of varnish needed to produce the smooth surface, also equally to save fourth dimension with the varnishing coats. It is a production method of saving time which I would not recommend to you, because no home restorer counts his fourth dimension; if y'all use successive coats of varnish to fill the grain, you will never suffer from the bleached out white hairlines, which so frequently occur when sunlight affects the filler and bleaches out the colouring.
Before going any further, though, yous must attend to any repairs which are necessary. These may range from quite major glueing operations (where alternate clammy and rut has dried out the old glue on sections formed from a number of pieces of woods) to scratches and cigarette burns. Where the wood is solid, apply a cabinet maker's scraper, and glasspaper, to get rid of scratches and dents, just where whatsoever damage has cutting into the veneer, the only feasible method of repairing information technology is to insert a new section. Veneer to match almost types of grain can be obtained from craft shops, which sell it for marquetry work, just information technology is not always easy to match the color of the wood when it is dry out, as the colour deepens considerably when you lot utilize varnish.
A very close approximation of the varnished colour can exist made if you dampen the wood slightly. Though the assistant in the craft store might expect a little askance if you go into the store carrying a automobile dashboard, then ask to meet a selection of veneers which yous can dampen to come across whether they match the colour of the dash, it is worth taking the trouble. A patch which ends upwards as a unlike colour stands out fifty-fifty more than the original blemish would do.
Putting new veneer on to the edges ought not to nowadays any difficulty, only where the blemish is in the middle of a console it is non equally simple to hide the fact that new veneer is being used. Any cuts which run across the grain of the wood will evidence upwardly subsequently it is varnished, so if there is some impairment, or a cigarette burn, in the centre of a panel, the just fashion to tackle it with whatsoever reasonable chance of success is to cut out an elongated diamond at to the lowest degree two or three inches long with the points of the diamond rounded off across its shorter axis. Offset cutting a patch out of the new veneer, and so lay it on top of the panel. Marker it and go round with a precipitous craft pocketknife until you lot accept achieved a perfect fit.
Some purists suggest that because nearly cars built up to and including the 1950s had woodwork joined together with animal glues, then the same type of gum must be used in the restoration, for authenticity'due south sake. This is nonsense, and I practise not subscribe to such fussiness. I would recommend using a modernistic resin woodwork adhesive. For a closed automobile I suggest that you tin can use the ordinary milky-looking white adhesive, simply that for an open motorcar it is advisable to use a waterproof blazon, because the more normal types will soften when they become moisture. If you can handle them, you lot tin can use a modern impact adhesive but to my mind this has 2 disadvantages. One is that information technology is thick and rubbery and tends to hold joints autonomously with a slight gap. The other is that once you press the parts together there is no chance for 2nd guessing. In repairing a split or a break in that location is no take a chance to push the two parts together, and then wriggle them slightly around to obtain a perfect join.
On meridian quality cars, all the woodwork and veneer should take been matched for color by the manufacturer when assembly was in progress, but on cheaper cars, and on some others where solid wood was used rather than a veneer, you may detect when the one-time varnish is stripped off that the woodwork may wait rather piebald. In some places it could be a fairly deep dark-brown, but in others it may be most white. If the manufacturer was non too careful in his choice of solid wood, particularly with some of the cheap mahoganies, you may even find that there are lite or white coloured streaks running in the grain of a single piece of forest.
When the car was new these were probably all disguised by colouring. The reason that the wood returned more than or less to its natural colour when the old varnish was stripped off is that the colouring was in the varnish and non applied to the wood itself. Information technology used to be quite mutual practice at ane time for the workman spraying on the varnish to have two guns, 1 containing a nighttime varnish and 1 containing a medium varnish. He would first cover the lighter panels with the darker varnish, and then—while it was nevertheless wet—blend in the medium colour varnish to produce an approximately even colour. Some of the operators using these guns became so skilled, that they could even blend together ordinary white bargain and quite dark mahogany.
Rolls-Royce Silverish Dawn 4-Door Saloon 1954 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If you try to exercise the same thing without a great deal of practice you lot volition probably produce something looking absolutely awful. Fortunately the wood can exist brought dorsum to an even color all over the auto in almost every case past using spirit stains. These are much preferable to varnish stains considering they sink into the wood and color it, rather than prevarication on the surface and merely produce a colouring by reflected light. An culling to a spirit stain is a h2o-base stain which some people adopt. Actually this is but a matter of choice.
Some parts of the woodwork may have patches where the varnish has worn off, or been flaked off, and a previous owner of the car may take coloured the wood with some sort of stain. When the rest of the varnish is stripped off, you will see patches darker than the residual. Bleaching out these darker patches is always something of a problem, merely there are 2 methods to be tried. First, employ a solution of oxalic acid crystals in warm water, but be conscientious with the oxalic acid because it is poisonous—keep information technology well abroad from children and pets.
You should also be careful when stopping for a repast or sandwich suspension, if you take oxalic acid on your fingers. It dissolves quite readily in hot water, so normal washing is quite sufficient to get rid of it. It takes from three hours to an overnight halt to practice its job of bleaching, and is more effective on some stains than others. An of import point is that after using oxalic acid information technology must be washed absolutely and completely out of the grain of the wood. Only swabbing downwards with a damp textile is non sufficient, as any oxalic crystals left behind will then attack the varnish or whatever other colouring which is applied. There is only one way to get rid of the acid—by using copious amounts of warm water.
As an alternative to oxalic acid, attempt using ordinary household bleach in varying dilutions. Sometimes this has a much better effect on some stains than oxalic acid. As with all colouring and bleaching operations, yous must endeavor it out start, in adequately dilute form, to see what happens. Once over again, it is important to wash out whatever traces of household bleach thoroughly, before you lot go along to the adjacent stage.
Other blemishes which may have to be tackled are bruises and dents, oil stains (where someone has lubricated a starter or asphyxiate cable), cigarette burns round an ashtray, holes in the woodwork where previous owners have added either extra instruments, or a map reading calorie-free and, in the instance of solid forest panels, possible splits from fixing spiral holes. On veneered woodwork, it may also be necessary to deal with blisters where the veneer has lifted from the base of operations wood.
Bruises and dents can often be 'lifted up' out of the wood by soaking them in hot water, but it is more effective to connect a safe or plastic pipe to a kettle spout and play the steam locally on to the bruise. Recall that the pipe tin can go very hot, then exist careful how y'all tackle this job, and always clothing some gloves. Steaming volition too enhance the grain of the wood, as well as raising the bruise, only this can be sanded downwardly afterwards, just so long every bit you expect until the wood is thoroughly dry—not simply dry out on the surface.
Oil stains can exist a real problem, for many of the penetrating and other oils which people are tempted to use on dashboard controls contain graphite. I tin can never be sure of consummate success in removing oil stains, but the all-time way to tackle the job is commencement to get rid of the oil or grease itself (with something similar methylated spirit or carbon tetrachloride), and then to endeavor to bleach out whatever colour is left behind. Graphite powder cannot exist bleached out, just successive washing with methylated spirit, or rubbing with carbon tetrachloride will ofttimes take the graphite away from the summit surface of the wood; if y'all and so seal it afterwards with a thinned-down coat of varnish, the chances are that, with luck, the rest of the graphite will stay down in the pores of the woods, and not emerge again.
In veneered panels, the only way to deal with cigarette burns which take charred the woods, is to cut out the veneer and replace it with a new slice, simply with solid woods the problem is that the surface of the wood will accept been destroyed and no amount of steaming can raise it up over again. Effort careful application of undiluted household bleach on a minor brush, followed by gentle scraping with a razor bract or craft pocketknife to lift out the woods which has been charred beyond recall; then proceed with the bleach to effort to go rid of the darker stain in the woods which has not actually turned to charcoal. To fill the low left by getting rid of the charred surface, endeavour using a plastic woods or similar sort of filler but remember that these will react differently to any varnish or stain which you may use subsequently on. Some fillers will even blot the clear varnish to such an extent that they darken quite considerably — others are completely impervious to any varnish or stain and once they are dry will stay the same colour no matter how they are treated. I recommend that you try out the filler or plastic wood you have chosen on a spare piece of forest, and mix some colouring dye or stain with it, to bring it as well-nigh equally possible to the colour the finished panel volition take on after it is varnished.
Equally an alternative to using a plastic type of filler, try the old cabinet makers' method of melting shellac into the low, then scraping it down level with a craft knife or like sharp blade. Sticks of shellac in various colours tin still be obtained from some craft shops, though they are no longer then easy to find every bit they used to be. If you take difficulty in finding a good filler, or the correct colour of shellac stick, effort the type of store which caters for people restoring antiquarian article of furniture.
Holes and splits in a solid wood panel are nearly impossible to disguise. If you are unfortunate plenty to have a solid woods dash where a previous owner has cut fairly large holes to take switches or even actress instruments, the but practical solution is to fill up the holes with glued-in plugs of wood, and then veneer over the whole surface.
There is nothing difficult about veneering a flat instrument panel. Once you have removed whatever old varnish which would stop the glue from adhering, coat the surface of the panel with a white resin glue, lay the called canvass of veneer on the top, follow this with a sheet of polythene to prevent any mucilage which squeezes out from sticking to the clamping board, lay a canvass of rubber or fairly difficult plastic cream over the top of the polythene, put a board on summit of it, and clamp the lot together.
A little more than care is needed when you come to trim down the veneer to the edges of the panel. The easiest style is to cutting forth with a sharp craft knife, or a small model maker'south saw, to within well-nigh a sixteenth of an inch from the border, then finish off with sandpaper wrapped round a cake, remembering to rub the sandpaper down from the pinnacle of the veneer to avoid lifting information technology. If the edges of the console are to be veneered it is best to do this chore before you put the top surface of veneer on, otherwise the edge of the veneer will testify as a rim, all the style round the panel.
Smaller blemishes such every bit spiral holes from a map reading light, or boom holes where the original car supplier fixed his advertizement plaque, should exist filled with coloured shellac and non, as some people say, with a tapered plug of wood. If a plug of wood is pushed in, and and then cutting down level with the surface, an end grain is left which will soak up whatever colouring or varnish, then turn darker than the flat surface of the surrounding wood.
Splits from screw holes tin exist very awkward to repair. No matter how difficult you lot try to clamp the panel together once again, the split seldom closes upward properly, especially if it has been in that location for some years. An effective way of dealing with such splits is to gouge them out slightly with some sort of pointed tool—even a screwdriver will do—then insert a piece of veneer into the split, edge on. If a strip of veneer is cutting near half an inch wide, then the border tapered by laying it flat on the bench, and going along with a sandpaper block, information technology will wedge itself into the split or crack and, helped by a coating of a colourless glue first, information technology will never be dislodged. When pushing it down into the separate, carve it off with a knife only proud of the surface, and then tap it downwardly gently with a block of woods. After the glue has dried cutting information technology once once more with a craft knife, so sandpaper again, finally to level it.
Once whatsoever repairs are finished, rub down the surface again with fine drinking glass-paper; it is now gear up for varnishing to start. The type of varnish you choose is actually a thing for personal preference, only I have always brash using a clear polyurethane varnish. I accept found that it gives a very skillful finish, and does non deteriorate, nor get cloudy, in strong sunlight, unlike some oil-based varnishes. It has the advantage that a final drinking glass finish can be obtained on it, with a torso cleaning compound such as T-cut, followed past a rub with ordinary metal polish. I like to use the water clear varnish which in my opinion, best brings out the grain of the woods, but some people remember this looks a little too clinical and they prefer to utilise one which is tinted slightly yellow. This again, is actually a matter of personal selection.
Whichever type of varnish you cull, a much more durable and improve finish volition upshot if y'all thin the varnish well, then apply a large number of sparse coats, rather than a minor number of coats straight from the tin. I would thin down the varnish at least fifty-50 with the advisable thinners, which could be white spirit, or a special thinners made by the manufacturer.
The first 2 or three coats of varnish seem to take no effect at all, every bit they will sink right downwards into the grain, but as you keep with glaze after coat—leaving each one to dry out first of class—gradually y'all will build up a smooth surface to the wood. As before long every bit you see the varnish starts to dry on top of the wood instead of sinking in, let it harden for at to the lowest degree a 24-hour interval, and preferably longer; then work over it with the finest glass-paper you can find. If you tin can find a cabinet maker's garnet paper, this is even finer than the finest of glass-papers, but it is not very piece of cake to find. Otherwise take the finest grade of glasspaper bachelor and rub ii sheets together to take the starting time harsh cutting away from it, otherwise the surface of the varnish will exist scratched. Go over the surface lightly until the beginning coating of varnish which laid on top of the forest has been removed. You should finish up with a completely polish satin-like surface to the wood with all the pores of the grain filled.
Now you can offset to build upward the gloss coats. For these I usually thin down the varnish less than for the first few coats used to make full the grain—in some cases merely past nigh ten or 15 per cent of thinners. If the gloss coats can be sprayed on, and so much the improve, but if not, the thinned varnish will menstruum quite easily, and nigh all the brush marks will disappear before it begins to fix.
To produce a skillful gloss surface at to the lowest degree 4, preferably half-dozen coats of varnish will exist needed, and I accept constitute that it makes very little difference whether or non the surface is rubbed downwards between the coats. Subsequently the final coat has stale and hardened, and preferably left for at to the lowest degree a couple of days, go over it with very fine—almost worn out—drinking glass paper, rubbing equally lightly equally possible, merely to take out the nibs and dust marks which will inevitably accept formed on the surface.
There should now exist a finish to the wood which looks like slightly frosted glass; the terminal polish and polish tin be brought upward by using cellulose rubbing compound, a mild abrasive such as metal smoothen and finally a coating of wax. When you have finished the woods should have an absolutely drinking glass-like surface, which brings out all the beauty and colouring of the wood grain. Even though the cease has hardened it will nevertheless be relatively soft for a week or so, so take neat care of it and, if y'all can, avoid fitting the panels back in the car for at to the lowest degree a week, or preferably x days, to give the varnish a take a chance to harden thoroughly and absolutely.
Source: http://www.diyinfozone.com/restoring-classic-car-wood-trim
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