Help.. Need advice for wood speaker grille....

[mmizesko]

Helfen sie mir, bitte.

I am completing my project, and my speaker grille is fairly aged and dark.  We refinished the wood stays across the windshield and they look great. I can't find a way to refinish the speaker grille.  Is there a way to soak it in solvent to remove the glue from all the wood, take it apart, refinish it, and glue it back together?

I hope someone out there has done this before.  I am worried about braking the wood splines.

Please advise.

Mike Mizesko
Columbus, OH

[Flim]

Mike,

If its the stain/varnish that you require to be stripped I would suggest that you use a paint stripper (Nitromors in the UK, not sure if available in the US?).

This is brushed on and left a few minutes. It is then cleaned/wiped off, aided by gentle sanding, and has the desired effect of stripping old stain/varnish.

I renewed my dash wood a few years back , without the need for dismantling the speaker grille using this method, and it worked well.

Charles

[KevinC]

Mike,

My dad tackled several speaker grills last year (for me and others here locally). He painstakingly removed each individual lateral strip using a razor then liquid stripped everything; re-assembled and stained it as you describe. My goal was for the wood to look as if it didn't need refinishing as opposed to just being done.  This was actually kind of tricky but I was pleased overall with the outcome.

Kevin

[Markbhai]

I stripped mine down and disassembled it as you are suggesting, it need great care as under the long 'horizontal' strips there are a finer 'vertical' short strip which are more fragile.

Take care with 'soaking' though as you may find this warps the wood.  I would suggest using stripper and a craft knife to tease it apart.

If you want a good fit you should also get some black felt to stick to the front underside of your lateral wood strips (about 1cm wide along the length).

M.

[mmizesko]

Thanks Charles, Kevin, and Mark,

I guess I'll break out the old Xacto knife and get cracking.  Mark, mine currently has felt on the front-to-back pieces. Is that the lateral you speak of?

Wish me luck.  Kev, can I fly your dad into Columbus for a day???

Mike

[KevinC]

Mike...at 92, what he can accomplish is unbelievable!!

[Flim]

My grill after stripping (without breaking down).

Charles

[Neil Thompson]

I've just done my wood and didn't dismantle the speaker grills bit just took time. I sanded rather than stripped, then stained then sprayed satin varnish and was pleased with the outcome.

On a similar note, does anyone have the correct speaker screws as attached for a 280, the earlier cars had pins.

Neil

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

My grille stands up a bit like in Neil's photo (see screen shot below. Did any of you have a similar problem? if so what did you use to correct it? A screw like in Neil's photo I don't like to use. Perhaps some sort of double sided tape would be the way to go. Anyway, I'm wondering if any of your grille's out there stands proud (showing a little gap) as in Neil's photo.

[DickLewis]

Hi there,

I just recently did all the wood myself.  I had never done this before and my wood was very very dark.  I got a RYOBI dremmel kit and played with some other wood and became very proficient at taking off the old varnish and paint.  The dremmel has an attachment that allows you to hold this wand in your hand like a dentist with a drill bit.  There are many different dremmel bits and it is actually a lot of fun.  Again I have never done this and the final results were as good as original.  You need to be very careful as you point out but once you get the hang of it --- presto.  You can use the dremmel for so many things you should get one.  Once I got all the old wood off I used fine sand paper, tack cloth, and then began to apply slowly the stain.  I only needed two coats, with fine steel wool sanding and then tack cloth in between.

If I can figure out how to attach a pic I will.  THe console box really turned out spectacularly as well as the wood pieces around the winshield as well as the one in the hardtop on the rear window.  Just take time and patience.  You will be greatly rewarded.

After  the wood adventure I began to use the dremmel to remove rust from some of the underside of the chrome parts which were also removed since I am doing a total restoration.  That is even more amazing.

[Neil Thompson]

Dieter, my wood isn't screwed down as the screws are wrong in the photo, I borrowed the correct screws from a different car as photographed and everything is flush fitting, I now need to find a pair of correct screws if anyone can help?

Neil

[66andBlue]

You can get the screws here: http://www.authenticclassics.com/OVAL-HEAD-SHEET-METAL-SCREW-DIN-7983-2-9-x-16-p/auth-005230.htm

[dseretakis]

I would suggest  product called antique furniture refinisher. It gently and very effectively removes varnish and shellac based finishes from wood. You rub it on with steel wool and the old finish just washes away. It's not effective against polyurethane finishes though so if your wood was refinished in the past with polyurethane then you will have to use regular old paint stripper.