GarciaJ
4th September 2019, 12:25 AM
After seeing some of my furniture projects, friend of a friend asked me whether I would take on the restoration of the wooden box for this old valve radio.
It's supposed to look like this:
460862
But this is what it looks like now...
460863 460864
Dark stain appears to have been slopped on quite roughly over the original finish and then top coated with polyurethane.
The box itself is made from plywood (ie nothing exotic or worth much effort salvaging, and the rounded top/front and bottom front edges are achieved by bending a large sheet of veneer over the quad edged plywood panels. There are two smaller pieces of highly figured veneer (silky oak??) on either side of the speaker/tuner panel holes, but this is virtually hidden away by the application of a thick coat of stain and top coat (polyurethane??). I can see that at some stage, someone has sanded across the grain on a few locations.
Now stripping and sanding are not my favorite pastimes :no: and some of those decorative edgings look like they will be very fiddly to strip back to the orinal surface anyway. The client has said that he is willing to pay me to do the job :rolleyes: But I am sure that he does not understand how much work is involved and how tedious and dirty that work will be.
Does anyone have any suggestion for this job that will not involve hours and hours spent stripping with nasty chemicals and or sanding? Is it even worth the hassle? Sometimes restoration actually detracts from the value of the vintage good... But this finish is so bad that I don't think that's a consideration.
Some ideas that have occurred to me are:
1- Stripping and sanding and finishing with a darkish stain and clear satin top coat. (Does anyone have any tips on how to do this cleanly, fast and effectively?)
2- Removing and replacing the veneer. Perhaps painting the rounded trim on the side edges and the face black, using an enamel paint. The veneer may be hard to remove - perhaps I can glue new veneer straight over the top of the old one? (What do other s think? any pitfalls I should be aware of?)
3- Sanding the best I can and then painting with a black or dark blue spay on enamel. this will hopefully cover up all the old finish beneath.
Any suggestions welcome.
Regards
Jorge
It's supposed to look like this:
460862
But this is what it looks like now...
460863 460864
Dark stain appears to have been slopped on quite roughly over the original finish and then top coated with polyurethane.
The box itself is made from plywood (ie nothing exotic or worth much effort salvaging, and the rounded top/front and bottom front edges are achieved by bending a large sheet of veneer over the quad edged plywood panels. There are two smaller pieces of highly figured veneer (silky oak??) on either side of the speaker/tuner panel holes, but this is virtually hidden away by the application of a thick coat of stain and top coat (polyurethane??). I can see that at some stage, someone has sanded across the grain on a few locations.
Now stripping and sanding are not my favorite pastimes :no: and some of those decorative edgings look like they will be very fiddly to strip back to the orinal surface anyway. The client has said that he is willing to pay me to do the job :rolleyes: But I am sure that he does not understand how much work is involved and how tedious and dirty that work will be.
Does anyone have any suggestion for this job that will not involve hours and hours spent stripping with nasty chemicals and or sanding? Is it even worth the hassle? Sometimes restoration actually detracts from the value of the vintage good... But this finish is so bad that I don't think that's a consideration.
Some ideas that have occurred to me are:
1- Stripping and sanding and finishing with a darkish stain and clear satin top coat. (Does anyone have any tips on how to do this cleanly, fast and effectively?)
2- Removing and replacing the veneer. Perhaps painting the rounded trim on the side edges and the face black, using an enamel paint. The veneer may be hard to remove - perhaps I can glue new veneer straight over the top of the old one? (What do other s think? any pitfalls I should be aware of?)
3- Sanding the best I can and then painting with a black or dark blue spay on enamel. this will hopefully cover up all the old finish beneath.
Any suggestions welcome.
Regards
Jorge