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Hi Forum members.
Did our cars come from the factory with gloss finish to the wood work especially the dash and panel above the dash? My car is a1964 Daimler 250 V8.
Replies appreciated.
David B.
As far as I am aware and looking at all the promotional photos in my collection of S Type brochures all the wood had a gloss lacquer finish.As the Daimler was an upmarket Mk2 I would assume the wood finish would have been like glass.
Even if it was not supposed to be gloss a glass like finish looks superb and cannot be beaten.
Gloss is so much easier to repair too, try and repair a scratch or some other sort of damage with a "mat" finish.
It's very easy to polish something to a bright shine, but not the opposite.
Get yourself a descent air brush, a small compressor and some disposable in-line water traps.
Use 3 part clear coat, thinner, hardener and clear-coat.
You will also need a full face shield.
Use the clear coat to fill the grain, that's key.
Spray on 3 coats and let the product "gas out" for a good month, cut back and repeat until the grain is filled.
Then apply your top coats.
More then 5 coats at any one time gets the thinner trapped and it can't gas out properly.
The time may seem excessive, but I've seen so many so called professional jobs where the finish has not fully hardened and the grain starts showing through.
This commonly happens because of impatient people and businesses simply do not have the time to leave projects sit around for such long periods of time.
When I did the wood in my car, I spent the winter doing it.
You can use varnish or even some sort of plastic finish, but those air harden and it will take a whole winter for your project.
Plus the build qualities of those "over the counter" finishes are very poor, it takes forever to fill the grain with them.
Jeff, Pleased that you mentioned using a thinner. It was my experience years ago with old types of finish that mixing thinner in the first coats gave a major improvement in durability and quality of the final result.
Would the two-pack be isocyanate or epoxy? I've read that epoxy may become milky or chalky if exposed to a lot of sunlight.
I am very happy with my finish which you can read all about on my thread & sanding between coats. British Autowood bakes his finishes between coats. I used months of sunlight exposure to prevent sinkage into the softgrain (6 months). A good idea is to use products designed to cope with local ambient conditions of UV etc.
That said. Today I would use low VOC nano ceramic automotive clear coat as designed to go over water-based base coats. The Glasurit system would be my preferred.
Reason: tough as hell, not easy to scratch & ease of spot repair. Compatibility with stains. Also familiarity of use with known spray guns/airbrushes.
Today ~ nano ceramics bring us a whole new world of durability.
For our US colleagues. What PPG calls "Ceramiclear"
Last edited by Glyn M Ruck; Apr 12, 2021 at 11:04 AM.
Jeff, Pleased that you mentioned using a thinner. It was my experience years ago with old types of finish that mixing thinner in the first coats gave a major improvement in durability and quality of the final result.
Would the two-pack be isocyanate or epoxy? I've read that epoxy may become milky or chalky if exposed to a lot of sunlight.
I mentioned the thinner, because with automotive clear coat, it is necessary to use it so the product will atomize properly in ones spray gun, it depends on how hot and dry it is.
I use PPG, and if I stick to their proportions, it works well.
I don't know about epoxies, I've never used them, but I don't like the final result of them, they look too thick and I find in the right light, they have this sort of rippled look to the finish.
Anyone ever use a marine varnish on the woodwork? Trying to figure out what clear coat to use since certain finishes are not easy to get here in California. This product looks interesting.
Anyone ever use a marine varnish on the woodwork? Trying to figure out what clear coat to use since certain finishes are not easy to get here in California. This product looks interesting.
When I did the wood in my Bentley, I experimented with different finishes and I tried using a marine varnish like you show there.
I used it to fill the grain with to achieve a mirror finish; there in which lies the problem.
It took ages to dry in between coats and to fully cure, hence it took weeks to fill the grain with the stuff _ waiting 2 weeks for the stuff to cure, then wet sanding it down until the grain was filled.
It's still on the lower dash today and if I look carefully, I can still see the product has sunken into the grain slightly, most people would not see it and I have to point it out to them, but I can see it, and it bugs the hell out of me.
Products that have no catalyst and rely on air drying to cure just take too long in my opinion.
Even automotive clear coat takes a long time to cure and I've seen cars that have been resorted to a very high standard, with the grain showing through.
That's just me though, I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to anything.
What's good enough for Pebble Beach, I would "poo poo" it.
If you have a UV light and clear designed for UV cure that helps a lot. I used Dupont Snap Dry clear, it was intended for spot refinishing of a car, not for doing an entire car and it would air dry in 45 min or UV cure in 45 seconds. I've only used it on body panels, not on wood though.
Thought I'd update on the work I've been doing on the wood. I went with the Epifanes Clear Gloss Varnish which is fairly easy to work with however takes a long time to dry. They say 24 hours before sanding and re-coat. I found it necessary to wait 48 hours here in southern California by the coast. I think the high humidity here over the last few months may have slowed down the drying process. I'm very happy with the results so far. If I had a spray booth they would not require further sanding and polish which I will need to remove dust particles in the final coat. I got a lot of great and generous advice from Saul Chaplin from British Auto Wood. I will be purchasing one of his shift knobs in payment for his help. He is a true gentleman!
Total of ten coats on all the wood except the dash and console parts that got twelve after block sanding to remove irregularities from the grain of the wood which can be seen in the above picture. The top door caps got same treatment since I wanted a little extra UV protection on them as well.
Now I have to let them cure for at least a month then sand and polish.
Years ago I redid the wood on an Austin Healey 3000 dash. Admittingly it was only 3 pieces, but the dust problem is the same. For those pieces I took a appropriately sixed cardboard box and lined it with I believe wax paper or AL foil. Anyhow I made sure the inside of the box surfaces were wiped clean. Immediately after coating the pieces, the box was put over the pieces and did not even peak at them for several days. Of course with the MK2/S-Class wood one would need several boxes, probably custom made to cover the pieces. So in time I will redo the wood on out MK2 and will try this method. This time am looking at the large see thru storage containers sold as the inside surfaces can be wiped clean.
I have heard of others wiping down the inside of an oven spotless and placing them inside on the trays. Would have to remind the wife not to use the stove/oven for a while which might be a problem. Take her to dinner for a few nights!
Luckily I didn't need a vacuum bag for the small repairs the wood needed. From what I've seen and read a vacuum bag is necessary for large repairs and re-veneering. Here's a write up on another forum on a MKII re-veneer.
Luckily I didn't need a vacuum bag for the small repairs the wood needed. From what I've seen and read a vacuum bag is necessary for large repairs and re-veneering. Here's a write up on another forum on a MKII re-veneer.
As well as the area to be covered, the need for a vacuum bag may be sensitive to the type of adhesive you use. Years ago, I veneered some boxes for a stereo that I'd put together. The biggest area was about 250 mm by 750 mm. It worked OK using only a hard roller. However, the adhesive was an old style contact adhesive (probably Dunlop Thixotropic) with a very high VOC.
The polyurethane varnish I applied would have been oil based and high VOC. Brushed on, it dried quickly and produced an excellent, strong finish. I think I gave it 3 coats with wet and dry sanding in between and a final polish with Brasso.
Last edited by Peter3442; Jun 11, 2025 at 09:20 AM.
wood finish.
