Been re-veneering my wood trim for the past couple of months and finally got it done. I decided since I am doing it myself, I went with WaterFall Babinga veneer. Have bought an extra ski slope on ebay and intend to do it the same.

 

these are the pics of the process I took for re-veneering. Since I did not have a vacuum pump I used one of those Space Bags LOL

 

Excellent job, and always satisfying when you can say I did it myself.

 

Great job. Looks fabulous. I've been meaning to redo mine for a while, although I've been finding it difficult to find a veneer supplier in Australia.
Obviously the space bag is a good substiutue for a commercial vauum bag.
Cheers, Scotty.

 

What a superb job.

I'd always thought this was one for the professionals. How do you do it?

Graham

 

Very nice!! Well done.

I really like the wood choice too.

 

That looks really great.
Project costs will vary with choice of veneer, but, what do you estimate was the total cost of this project?

 

the veneer I bought on EBay for $55.00, I already had the Polyacrylic in my shop, the spray Poly was $3.50, and already had the spacebag. Not including the time to strip, sand and finish. But being winter I enjoy spending time in my shop. Since I have a woodshop in my garage, I also had the glue, brushes etc. Now then take a rest from the shop, then onto recovering the toA & B pillars and the under dash trim

 

I have been doing wood work for over ten yrs, but this is the first I worked with veneer, found a lot of info on YouTub and the net. normally I do scrollsaw work

 

Bought my veneer on Ebay from a place called JSO woodproducts.

 

I did mine too, I have never done any kind of wood work but if one has patience anyone can do it.

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If you can get strong glue there is no need to vacuum the veneer to stick it. Of course vacuum will give better result though. Just sandwiching the veneer between a wooden plate and pressing it will do.

The key is which clear lacquer to use.
Most pros use polyester, which is identical to Jaguar's original. But that means it will turn yellow and crack in next 10 years.
But it is cheap and gets hard very soon, so very easy to work with.
I used epoxy, which is much stronger and flexible than polyester. But it is thicker in viscosity than polyester and it is easily hold tiny bubbles in it. I think spraying will solve the problem, but I used brush to paint it, so some bubbles are visible when you take a close look at my veneers. Plus they are expensive.
Another option is polyurethane. It is expensive too.

That's why polyester is most popular, I think.

Whichever lacquer will do as long as they are two-liquids type.
Don't use clear lacquer with solvent, or it is very hard to produce thickness.

Once you paint the veneers, you will have to polish them like forever...

 

I have my ski slope out and want to give it a shot at refinishing the existing veneer. I think its just the laquer that is cracked. I see in your photo that you have citri stripper on your pieces. Is that what you used to take the laquer off, or to remove the wood veneer from the metal?

I am stuck trying to get the lacquer off. I do not feel confident enough to sand it off and take the time to not sand through the veneer also. I am trying to take it off with stripper. I tried Cleanstrip and Strypeeze. It didn't seem to do a thing to the lacquer, even though it said it works for lacquer. I put it on pretty thick and left it for about 15 min. I have used it on varnish, paint and stain before and it seems to work pretty quick. I figured if it didn't do s#@t in 15 min, then it probably wasn't going to work.

Any advice on products that work to strip the lacquer, but leave the veneer? Or how to do it without sanding or an iron?

I do a fair amount of wood finishing and would like to give this a try. Worst case scenario is I mess it up and I send it in for professional re-veneer and finish and it looks great. Best case, I get the lacquer off and finish it myself and love it even more when I get in and look at it.

 

Like how yours came out, looks good. Type of finish you use is a personal preference.

I used raw veneer to do the dash and door fillets. that is why I had do use the vacuum bag. raw veneer is about a hair or two thicker than paper backed. PSA(pressure sensitive adhesive) backed is even thinner. I will be using paper backed veneer for the console due to it bendability and usually does not crack and split like the raw veneer. As far as finish choice, it is totally up to what you like. I mainly use polyurethane as a choice of finish on a lot of my wood projects so it is readily in my shop. I just recently tried polyacrylic.

 

I wasn't all that impressed but mainly because it took over a week to strip it down. I mainly chose that because I usually try to get bio degradable products. I even prefer waterbased poly finishes as well as paints. anyhow I usually don't strip a lot as to making and finishing. I did let the citrus base stripper sit on overnight most times,a bit heavy as you can tell, and since I was not worried about the veneer, when I reached down close I sanded with a orbital sanded. If your going to save the veneer, I would do hand sanding. I is a long tedious job, but to me its worth it.

 

The lacquer is Polyester resin and it comes off easy with a heat gun. Do not get the gun too close or you will burn the wood. Just enough heat to blister the polyester and a paint scraper.

I used 2 pack polyurethane to refinish mine. Then wet sand and buff.



Before being buffed.

 

Warren, I didn't know the heat rips the lacquer off from the veneer. I took so much time to scrape it off, if I had known that it would have been much easier. Thanks for the info!


I don't think after all from my experience that epoxy resin is not suitable for re-lacquering. It is so thick that it easily holds bubbles. They are really durable, so it might still be used as last coating, but polyurethane is easier to use in general.
Incidentally, polyurethane top coating is used in Bentley.

 

I got the lacquer off... bad news is the veneer came off too in places. I am thinking of following Daveb's lead and re-veneering myself.

What did you use to adhere the veneer to the metal? I was advised from a veneer store that West System F-flex650 would be the best to adhere raw veneer with no backing to metal. However, I have been warned by others that many adhesives used to adhere wood to metal may bleed through the thin veneer. I'd love to hear what other's used and their thoughts.

Also, I love the color of Warrjon's finished wood. Is that the natural wood with just the poly finish, or did you stain it with something first?

 

Nice work!

 

I am a big fan of the West System. I used to build boats as a young fella. We started using West as a glue and sealer, it was a great product. Far better than the marine epoxy glues we were using.

The first coat of varnish was Feast Watson marine single pack polyurethane. Not sure if it was tinted. I don't think so. The next 4 coats were Wattle 7008 3 pack polyurethane clear. My wood is Bur Elm and would expect it to be lighter than it turned out. Although I am very happy with the colour.

 

FWIW - Many pro woodworkers use Unibond 800 Urea adhesive for veneering.
Here's some info on it:
A Review of Urea Resin Glue | The Wood Whisperer
Google will give more details.