'94 Jag V12 Convertible. Wood is a light yellow/white. Needs to be taken off & refinished. Got the air conditioning grills and doors off.

How do you take the wood off the SRS AirBag panel safely?

How do you take the wood off the Trip Computer safely?

XJSPaul
'94 V12 Convertible

 

have you figured this out? I just cracked my trip computer before realizing that there are two screws on the side that can be accessed by pulling out the switches on the left and right side of the trip computer.

I'm still trying to figure out the srs air bag piece...

 

This website has videos for removing all wood trim.

Jaguar XJS wood veneer video fitting guide : Myrtle Productions, fine wood car interiors and luxury steering wheels

This may not be the exact URL but at that website on the tob menu there is a selection: "xjs fitting videos"

 

I'm almost done with this project and thought I would share what I learned along the way.

I wont get into what not to do so Im just going to list what workied best for me after some trial and error.

Start off hand sanding with a 50 grit, just to cut the surfae a little. Do not do this for long! You just want to cut the surface down a tad and not damage the veneer. Then use paint and lacquer remover. It will take you about 10 coats. i left heavy coats on overnight for three nights and added coats throughout the day. Its a long process but it will prevent you from what I call faux ups. I had to faux paint a little from going through the veneer with a belt sander (due to my impatience...). The lacquer removal will eventually eat its way through and it will cost you minimal effort. Just let it do its thing while you do other things.

When the lacquer comes off you can use a 120grit disc on an orbital sander. This works very well to get the small pieces off and you can use it without ever going through the veneer. i didnt have one faux up with the 120 grit orbital disc. Just stop when the lacquer is gone.

Give it a final sanding with a 220-400 grit just until you get even color. Wipe the dust off.

Then give thin varnish coats. I used polyuretane and then found out that it will fade quicly like what was on there. It will also crack. The factory uses this type of finish because of the quick drying times. Varnish takes 24 hours between coats but it will resist cracking and has UV protection for the convertibles. Go to the boat store and get Spar varnish. I'm now looking for a UV protectant that I can use over the poly...

I just left the airbag cover on the car. It seemed impossible to get it off. There are four screws holding it on but they have lock nuts on the inside which I could not get a hold off. The nuts just turned on me. I put two thin pieces of cardboard (from the sand paper) in the crack on the top and bottom of the wood and covered the interior with a blanket. I then just put on several coats of lacquer like the other pieces. I had to add more coats to this pieces to avoid any type of sanding near the vinyl. I carefully used the orbital sander to get some stubborn pieces off in the middle areas. This method seems way easier than tryig to take the piece off. Just cover the interior with a blanket and use something to cover the dash vent holes, etc. so you dont make an extreme mess.

I'll post some photos when I am done.