Burled Walnut Repair Possible?
#1
#2
Yes, someone more knowledgeable in woodwork will probably chime in, but what the wood veneers in these interiors amounts to is a thin panel of wood with a lacquer on top. The lacquer is similar to a clear coat. The cracks are on the lacquer/clear coat, not the wood itself. The fix is usually to sand it down to bare wood and reapply a lacquer.
#3
#4
Glandaniel, thanks! I've always wondered exactly what the finish is. While lacquer is the most beautiful, its not the most durable finish around. But it'll be easy to repair. Please don't take this wrong but, are you pretty sure the modern Jaguar finishes is lacquer?
To the poster, if your tempted to do it yourself, look into "crack repair guitar lacquer finish". Nearly every acoustic guitar I can think of is lacquer finished, though by design they use a much thinner coat. My point is that cracks in a guitar finish are so easily noticed that folks want them repaired Asap.
John
To the poster, if your tempted to do it yourself, look into "crack repair guitar lacquer finish". Nearly every acoustic guitar I can think of is lacquer finished, though by design they use a much thinner coat. My point is that cracks in a guitar finish are so easily noticed that folks want them repaired Asap.
John
#6
Johnken, thank you. I'd be a bit nervous to try it myself, especially after seeing prices for replacement parts, which would likely mean replacement of all 5 pieces in the cockpit with like pieces from one other car, or the differences in the shades of wood may not match. I''d really love to keep the car as close to original as I can, within reason. It's really been a saga of my own fault, since I neglected the car for awhile, to my great regret. Now I have the engine parts fixed, so I want to make the interior as nice as I can, and get the car re-painted, but the cracks will really take away from the aesthetic.
#7
The problem with sanding down to bare wood is that you will likely end up with a color change. The lacquer does age. And of course the veneer is very thin so you must be careful. One member had all the wood refinished and it looked pretty good, but after a year the grain was showing because the finish shrinks and it wasn't really thick enough.
I had some limited success by filling the cracks with a few layers of super glue, wet sanding with 400 then 600, and spraying a couple of layers of acrylic clear coat. After a couple weeks of drying I wet sanded with 1000 then 2000 and buffed. When the light was right it was still possible to find the filled cracks, but only if you knew where to look.
I had some limited success by filling the cracks with a few layers of super glue, wet sanding with 400 then 600, and spraying a couple of layers of acrylic clear coat. After a couple weeks of drying I wet sanded with 1000 then 2000 and buffed. When the light was right it was still possible to find the filled cracks, but only if you knew where to look.
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#8
The problem with sanding down to bare wood is that you will likely end up with a color change. The lacquer does age. And of course the veneer is very thin so you must be careful. One member had all the wood refinished and it looked pretty good, but after a year the grain was showing because the finish shrinks and it wasn't really thick enough.
I had some limited success by filling the cracks with a few layers of super glue, wet sanding with 400 then 600, and spraying a couple of layers of acrylic clear coat. After a couple weeks of drying I wet sanded with 1000 then 2000 and buffed. When the light was right it was still possible to find the filled cracks, but only if you knew where to look.
I had some limited success by filling the cracks with a few layers of super glue, wet sanding with 400 then 600, and spraying a couple of layers of acrylic clear coat. After a couple weeks of drying I wet sanded with 1000 then 2000 and buffed. When the light was right it was still possible to find the filled cracks, but only if you knew where to look.
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#10
Google "retired woodworkers clubs" for your city or surrounding area and see what results turn up. Go to the club websites and call or e-mail the listed contact person. These guys have decades of experience in repairing all sorts of different issues with various applications of wood and are usually more than willing to help you....
#12
Google "retired woodworkers clubs" for your city or surrounding area and see what results turn up. Go to the club websites and call or e-mail the listed contact person. These guys have decades of experience in repairing all sorts of different issues with various applications of wood and are usually more than willing to help you....
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credit where credit is due..... afaik, that is a Willie Nelson quote.
Z
PS. I have a small crack also, but mine appears to be in the wood itself. In my case, I fear making something worse, or even start a new problem, so I'm inclined to leave it alone.
Z
PS. I have a small crack also, but mine appears to be in the wood itself. In my case, I fear making something worse, or even start a new problem, so I'm inclined to leave it alone.
Last edited by zray; 04-21-2019 at 07:26 PM.
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Glandaniel, thanks! I've always wondered exactly what the finish is. While lacquer is the most beautiful, its not the most durable finish around. But it'll be easy to repair. Please don't take this wrong but, are you pretty sure the modern Jaguar finishes is lacquer?
To the poster, if your tempted to do it yourself, look into "crack repair guitar lacquer finish". Nearly every acoustic guitar I can think of is lacquer finished...
To the poster, if your tempted to do it yourself, look into "crack repair guitar lacquer finish". Nearly every acoustic guitar I can think of is lacquer finished...
It is possible that the finish used on the wood in X100s was solvent-based, but it is not nitrocellulose lacquer. It is probably a high-solids urethane or polyester. The finishes used in more recent Jaguars are almost certainly water-reduced UV curable urethanes or polyesters, since these have become the industry standards. Even some smaller guitarmakers are now using UV finishes. Here's an example:
Hardwood floor refinishers are now using this type of finish:
These modern finishes can still be repaired by a good luthier or crafty do-it-yourselfer by the superglue (cyanoacrylate) "drop fill" method that RJ described. Depending on how much the cracked areas have lightened, a little stain or aniline dye may need to be worked into the cracks first. This method can even help when the wood itself is cracked. Here's a video of master luthier Dan Erlewine showing how it's done:
I replaced the veneer on some of the panels in our '93 Vanden Plas with Carpathian Elm burl veneer I found at the local Woodcraft store. I took a couple pieces of trim into the store and picked the raw veneer that had the most similar grain, then used aniline dye to achieve a close color match. I used grain filler and many coats of a high-solids water-based acrylic "lacquer" clearcoat, which I then wet-sanded and rubbed out in the traditional manner to a mirror gloss.
Cheers,
Don
Last edited by Don B; 04-23-2019 at 08:12 AM.
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On my main crack, the lacquer is unblemished but you can look thru it and see the crack. So I'm calling that a wood crack. It's always a possibility that my eyesight is playing tricks on me, but the other wood dash "cracks" I've seen had an obvious lacquer flaw that you can feel with a fingernail. I've tried taking a photo of it, but the shine makes the flaws impossible to see.
I do have a small lacquer flaw at the edge of the wood, but it is nearly invisible, so I'm ignoring it for now.
Z
I do have a small lacquer flaw at the edge of the wood, but it is nearly invisible, so I'm ignoring it for now.
Z