It looks to me that it just hasn't been flatted and polished. There's obvious orange-peel in the photo.

 

Flatten and polished?
Doesn't sound like I did that!!
I gave I a rub down with wet and dry between each spray. Color looks bad. Just received my car polisher in the post today but have already stripped the old new coat so need to start from scratch anyway.

 

I'd be careful with the polisher, small areas, veneer, fragile, hard to match if it's broken...

It doesn't take particularly long by hand, or by hand with a sanding block as mentioned above. Especially in the beginning, it should be flat/smooth. But it also should be flat and smooth between every coat. Watched my mother refinish a mahogany veneer dining room table long ago, by hand. That took a while. Recommend power tools for that.

You can also polish after, as noted above, by hand.

 

You needed to flatten the final coat with fine wet&dry paper until it is flat and the orange peel effect has been removed, then use a polish (something like G3) to bring the shine back to the surface. It's the same process as removing orange peel effect after spraying a car - have a look on youtube, there are plenty of examples that explain it.

 

The beginning...


And the end! (For now anyway)

This was one of the more ambitious projects I've ventured into, especially considering that wood is not my medium. Closing thoughts:

• It is obviously doable with patience and care.
• Stripping with heat worked for ME. I've got experience with one car, so I can draw no conclusions on whether it will be the same for you.
• The veneer is tougher than you think, so short of rushing the stripping or being too aggressive with rushing the initial wood prep (I did both) the wood is pretty safe.
• Applying the poly finish is a study in tedium . Applying, waiting, sanding, reapplying takes time (x6) . I am very happy to be done with it

Overall I am very happy with the results and don't regret doing it one bit!

Now, back to the suspension rebuild.

 

Looks great. Well done

 

Nice
Now if I could get your address I'll drop one of mine off.

 

Some amazing work on here. Luckily my XK8 wood is in great condition, but my XJS needs this treatment, so it's encouranging to see the incredible results.

I do have a question, for those of you that know this process - what is the benefit of sanding each layer of lacquer before applying the next? Why not apply all the layers and then just flat the final coat?

 

If you do not lightly sand between coats, you are likely to wind up with a rather bumpy final finish due to tiny imperfections that build up as each coat is applied. Some call it the "orange peel" effect....

 

As Jon89 noted (i.e. propagation of underlying error making each coat successively worse), and, also important, adhesion of the next coat.

 

Adhesion definately. I tried skipping the sanding once and found that when I did sand later that I got what could best be described as a 'gummy edge' as I sanded through the top coat into the coat beneath.

 

That's great - thanks for the info. I'll have a stab at my XJS in the near future.

 

Fantastic job! How about booking a flight to Puerto Rico after the Covid-19 pandemic is over so you can do my car?

 

That is a very tempting offer!

 

I think I have the correct stuff for the job now.

 

If you are using spray can clear coat pay attention to whether the brand you use has a recommended humidity range for spraying. When I was coating the overhead console the Krylon stuff I used would have a cloudy result if I sprayed when humidity was higher than 50%. That got me to pay attention to their warning. Fortunately the next coat I sprayed in lower humidity cleared it up.

 

Well I have sealed the navigation panel with a 50/50 mix of mineral spirits and minwax.
Very hot here today so was dry in an hour. Then I gave it a light sanding before my first layer of clear coat.
3 hours later it was dry enough to take it to the car to check for colour differences. Unfortunately I can see that it's going to be darker than the other two surrounding pieces.
I understand that if it was lighter I could add some stain, but to get it lighter, seems to be impossible task, the more layers go down, it will most likely look darker!!
Maybe bleach it in the Sun!!

 

... or chlorine bleach or oxalic acid can be used to bleach wood, but I wouldn't do it on this. Hopefully a bit more drying will lighten it up...

 

well done - looks fantastic

 

You are correct on it getting darker with more coats. Not a bunch, but it does shade that direction.