Those flaking door cappings again

[alangraham]

Well I started this thread and I have now finished my door cappings so I thought I would tell you how it went. I got finished results I am happy with. What I will say will have experts throwing up their hands in horror, but here goes.
Having tried chemical paste strippers, and a hot air gun (the latter has its uses) I eventually found that the best tool was a stanley knife. I used it firstly to lift off all the peeling stuff. Then I used the blade horizontally, i.e. resting the blade flat against the wood and flicking it sideways- using the weight of the tool - to chip the rest of the coating off. I found this worked quite well; it didn't seem to hurt the veneer and left the best bare surface. If it didn't seem to shift a particular bit, I'd turn the wood the other way round - that often made the difference.
It was very slow, each door capping took half a day (so good job I'm recently retired) and you have to watch it because bits of the stuff can fly up in your eyes.
The worst bits are the two ends, the pointed bit and the opposite end. The more flakey it is when you start, the easier it is but the two broad ends will always be the worst and the pointed end will probably be the worst of the two and will not have flaked at all. The tops are always easiest to clean off; they've had all the sun and peeled the most.
Once the stuff was off, I set to with sandpaper. Yes sandpaper; the stuff you're never meant to use. I found they would take quite a bit of this without ever going through the veneer. Then wet and dry paper to finish.
Then I applied Colron antique pine wood stain (it's a light oak colour). Optional: I have wondered whether they needed it.
After that I applied 5 coats of yacht varnish, rubbing down each coat with wet and dry. There are doubtlessly loads of other products you can use but I used yacht varnish because I read somwehere that it doesn't peel or crack. (I got a nice glassy finish). This is a job you don't want to be doing again!
And here's an interesting bit:
One of the cappings I used was from a set I bought from the club stand at Stoneleigh a few years ago. I thought they were of precious little value because they were so far gone. On one of them the veneer was half missing along the top. Then I saw a programme on TV called car SOS where the professionals took a plane to some Herald ones. So I took a plane along the top of mine. And would you believe it, you couldn't see an edge between the planed and still veneered sections, and the newly planed wood - being a hardwood - looked identical to the veneered - or even better. So I gave it the woodstain and varnish treatment and that was the one I ended up applying to the car. You couldn't tell that the top veneer had gone.
I'm definitely not claiming this is the right way, best way or only way to do the job, just that after taking 10 years dodging it and getting round to it, this way worked for me and the cappings look just like I wanted them to ; i.e. how they looked when our cars were new.

[xvivalve]

Aha Alan, only the vertical face is veneered, the top horizontal and the chamfer are solid timber, no veneer

[xvivalve]

Someone on the facebook site asked what the original coating was and I understood it to be shellac. Reading up on that it is soluble with ammonia solution, of which I have a couple of gallons, so I'll give it a test on a spare capping.

[Jon Tilson]

Years ago I used "shellac" on an MG magnette dash top and it lasted about 3 days before bubbling up in the sun.

Ive done pretty much what Alan did with all mine. Mechanical means to get off the flakey bits, then variously down to about 800 grit and then
stain and a clear spray on acrylic lacquer.


Does the job...and I also left the ends....

Jonners

[Galileo]

Someone on the facebook site asked what the original coating was and I understood it to be shellac. Reading up on that it is soluble with ammonia solution, of which I have a couple of gallons, so I'll give it a test on a spare capping.

Don't wish to appear arrogant, but it is without doubt a polyester coating.

[Galileo]

Stop teasing us Alan, post a picture of the finished article!

[marko]

What about using a 2k satin lacquer?

[markas]

What about using a 2k satin lacquer?

I've considered using 2k, but in the end decided to go with a cellulose satin lacquer. Will post some pics once I've given my test pieces a few coats to show how it looks. Getting some decent weather to do the spraying is the problem now, as I don't have any indoor facilities.

[Toledo Man]

I ended up doing my door cappings the same way. The varnish was all yellow and lifting so it came off easily with a knife blade. I still had my Ronseal wood varnish from many moons ago so that's what I used.

[alangraham]

I took some photos and uploaded them to my computer so I could show you all, but had the usual problem (for me), in that when it came to the last part of the process I hadn't the I.T. skills to attach them. It's always the same and most frustrating, and I admire the skills of those of you who can do it.
I couldn't even upload a single picture, all I get is a message saying the file is too big, the maximum size allowed is 1 MiB. That probably means something to some people but sadly I'm not one of them.
Alan

[GTS290N]

Hi Alan,

The file size is limited to save the server becoming full.
Try this translation....the size of your photograph is too large 'in computer terms' for the forum. If the forum was a table and you spread your photo's on it, they would be so big and heavy the table legs would break.

The best way to do this is to upload your photo's to a photo sharing website, if you can master this then post on here again for advice on how to let people on the forum see the photo's. Flickr is one such website, there are others.

I hope this makes sense....

[Galileo]

If you want to email me the photos (I'll send the address in a private message) then I will make them smaller for you and upload them, alternatively here is a quick guide:

This may help, but I only have access to Windows 10 right now, it will look a little different with older versions.

Go into Windows Explorer - Shortcut is press the Windows Key and 'E' together.

Find your file, right click and in the menu select 'Edit' or if that is not an option select 'Open With' and then select 'Paint'

select.jpg (165.86 KiB) Viewed 1226 times

When in paint, select 'Resize' and change the figures to those shown (a reasonable size), ensure that 'Maintain aspect ratio' box is checked.

resize.png (527.04 KiB) Viewed 1226 times

Then most importantly do not click on save, instead click on "File" > "Save As" and save it with a new name ie. 'img35345_s.jpg' or 'Door capping small.jpg', you do not want to overwrite your original file!

[alangraham]

I am so grateful for the help I've been given. As Windows 10 had installed itself on my computer by itself, I was able to follow the instructions perfectly. So here goes.
You might even see on my door cappings where the heat gun has scorched one - however everyone thinks it's a natural feature of the grain so I got away with it.
I've also enclosed 2 pictures of my ancient JVC music system (the changer is in a box supported under the parcel shelf; speakers are above and in doors. It handles cassettes, CDs and radio.
Also 2 pictures of my finished 1500 which was featured in the magazine 2 issues ago - it took 10 years (and £13k) to take from a scrap car to be finished.
Alan

[markas]

Beautiful car and a great job, Sir!
Thank you for sharing your efforts with us. Is the wood stain as good a match for the original timber in real life as it appears in the photos? If so, I shall be using some of that on the cappings I'm going to re-veneer.

[Galileo]

It was worth waiting for the pictures, and may I say an excellent job sir!

Jaw dropping amount to spend on the restoration, but it certainly shows and is quite the head turner.

(Pleased that my quick and dirty guide helped out.)