Speaker grill refinishing

[dseretakis]

My speaker grill needs attention. It was refinished at some point but the finish is flaking now. The rest of the dash wood is original and I've scrutinized original cars at shows so I'm familiar with what a correct original finish should look like- satin with wood grain visible. I'm not sure what to use to achieve this. Satin wipe on poly, tung oil....? Will these stand up to uv?

[dseretakis]

As nobody had any input I decided to go it alone! I used a soy based chemical stripper to remove the old finish. After stripping it was revealed that a previous "restorer" had sanded through the veneer at the edges of the speaker grill!
I then applied two coats of stain by General Finishes which I bought at Rockler. The color was American Walnut which is a perfect match for the original color present on the untouched original dash bow wood.
Following the stain, I applied three coats of outdoor oil which is an oil based clear finish fortified with UV resistant compounds, also made by General Finishes. I chose an oil  because it allows the wood grain to show while giving a matte to satin finish. I sanded between coats with 320 grit sandpaper. Despite all this effort, the area where the veneer was sanded off looked darker and unsightly. I decided to fix it by using artists oil paints and a fine brush to replicate the grain and color of the missing veneer. When the paint dries I will apply as many more coats of the outdoor oil until the final finish and sheen is correct.

[mmizesko]

What is the name of the soy based stripper?  That's a winter project for me, and I didn't want a regular stripper eat up the glue holding all the slats together.

Thanks,

Mike Mizesko
Columbus, OH

[dseretakis]

It's called Soy Gel also purchased at Rockler.

[waltklatt]

Dseritakis,
Looks good there, be wary of the fine joints between the slats and the cutout base.
Are you using a hard bristle brush or a soft metal wire brush to take the finish off?
Are you sanding lightly or steel wooling the surface before putting the new finish on?
Keep it up and you might get requests to do ours too. 
Walter

[dseretakis]

I fold up a small piece of sandpaper to sand between the joints. It's very time consuming!  I'm not using steel wool to sand between coats because that can slide over raised areas rather than shearing them off like sandpaper.   After application of the stripper, I used a scotch brite pad to remove the old finish.

[vande17941]

Make sure to finish the wood on the BOTTOM of the grill or that side will dry out, causing the grill to warp up in the middle. I have had to wet, clamp for weeks, and refinish a few because the bottom was left unfinished

[Bonnyboy]

Mr Vande17941    do you have any pictures or description of process involved.   My grill is very warped.  What does "wetting" entail.

Thanks,

[Michaelg]

can you email me a list of all the products you used to redo speaker grill.  i need to do this, this winter along with the wood trip piece at the base of the windshield!!
I also need to re do my wood stering wheel. have you done this as well??

thanks happy new year.
cheers 

michaelg

[Shvegel]

As long as we are on the subject of wood finishes I just wanted to caution everyone not to use any waterborne clear finishes like Minwax Polycrylic.  This stuff doesn't like moisture at all so after a few years it tends to get very sticky and it is almost impossible to get back off.  I build furniture for fun and when my daughter was born I switched to "Safe" finishes to avoid toxic fumes etc.  Everything I built from that period is turning to junk.

[Michaelg]

upon further inspection my wood speaker grill is rough at best. very tough part to replace.
Do any of you have any sudgestions???

happy new year.

Michaelg

[Michaelg]

mine is really rough.. any replacement options?

[Garry]

They do come up on eBay every so often second hand but are usually warped.  They can be straightened using the wetting method but this runs the risk of loosing all the wooden cross slats of the grill that then potentially warp whilst out.  (don’t ask how I know)

Otherwise maybe one of the listed regular suppliers like Classic Centre, Buds, Millers or SLS may sell one separately from the whole dash wood kit.  If you did buy the whole wood kit I am sure you would not have any trouble selling off the dash window wood items separately to recover a large part of the cost if not used.

Garry

[perry113]

As nobody had any input I decided to go it alone! I used a soy based chemical stripper to remove the old finish. After stripping it was revealed that a previous "restorer" had sanded through the veneer at the edges of the speaker grill!
I then applied two coats of stain by General Finishes which I bought at Rockler. The color was American Walnut which is a perfect match for the original color present on the untouched original dash bow wood.
Following the stain, I applied three coats of outdoor oil which is an oil based clear finish fortified with UV resistant compounds, also made by General Finishes. I chose an oil  because it allows the wood grain to show while giving a matte to satin finish. I sanded between coats with 320 grit sandpaper. Despite all this effort, the area where the veneer was sanded off looked darker and unsightly. I decided to fix it by using artists oil paints and a fine brush to replicate the grain and color of the missing veneer. When the paint dries I will apply as many more coats of the outdoor oil until the final finish and sheen is correct.

Sorry for not contributing to this this posting earlier.
I have doing some wood refinishing after having recently restored the wood in my 1963 Mercedes 220SEB coupe. I am now refinishing a wooden dash board on a 1964 Morgan 4/4. Using 320 grit is far too course as it will leave deep scratches in the wood. I have been using Omni clear (2nd stage car clear) on these applications and using initially 800 grit after 1st coat. After 2nd and 3rd time round in the paint booth I work with 1500 grit and wet sand and also grey scuff pads. This whole process takes hours and hours and patience.
Stripping the old finish carefully and cleverly and without deep abrasives is the key. The veneer is very thin and delicate.
My next project is to restore the wood for both my 230SL's. I may go with a semigloss clear finish as I think this will be more representative as to how the wood was originally. I will be sure to post this process once I get it off the ground.