Re-finishing Bentley interior woodwork

[tigerturnings]

A friend is restoring a 1980s Bentley and has enlisted my help in repairing some damage to the finish of the interior woodwork. The damage is to the two rear doors. The original finish is a fairly thick film, I'd guess it must be at least 1/4mm thick, and it has a somewhat dark colour. The pores of the grain appear almost black under the coating.

The original finish has peeled away from the wood in some places, as shown in the photo below (click for a bigger version). I'd be most grateful for any suggestions on the best way to make a repair that blends in with the existing finish where it is still present and sound. My initial thought was to reach for the Rustins Plastic Coating, but I've read the leaflet and it doesn't mention any way to change the colour of the coating itself. Is that possible? Are there better alternative methods?

TIA

Neil

 

[Oryxdesign]

Speak to the Rustins technical people they will be a ble to send you in the right direction. I have always found them very helpful.

 

[JonnyD]

The black pores in the grain is most likely grain filler to allow for a smooth finish. The lacquers I use (morells) are able to be tinted with spirit based stains up to 10% I think. Rustins is a similar product so I would imagine you would be able to do the same.

The problem I think you will have is blending the new finish in with the old one and getting it looking seamless. You my be better off sanding back the whole area then grain filling and then polishing.

Jon

 

[Setch]

Rustin's are very conservative in their advice about colouring PC, at least in print, but it can actually be done pretty simply and with very good results.

You can tint the PC with alcohol soluable aniline dyes, and I have done this very sucessfully using the powdered aniline dyes from LMII, a luthiery supply company in the States. You can also (apparently) use alkyd oil colours to create coloured (ie: pigmneted, not tinted) PC, though I've yet to try this.

This guitar was shot with PC, the sunburst is a base colour of waterbased amber dye applied to the maple top, then the darker colours are alcohol soluable dye suspended in dilute PC and sprayed in several coats to achieve the transition. The back is all coloured with dye suspended in PC.

Finally, I have experimented with colouring PC using Rustin's wood dye added 10% to the lacquer. IMO this is a pretty unsatisfactory - the coluring is very, very, subtle and you would have to apply dozens of coats to achieve a decent tinted finish.

 

[tigerturnings]

Thanks all for the advice... and that's a very beautiful guitar Setch!

Rustins have also pointed me towards aniline dyes, and told me that Chestnut Products sell them. Chestnut's secretary is sending me a brochure but was unable to tell me more over the phone.

I've also found aniline dyes** from a company called J Hewit & Sons, who seem to be supplying primarily to book binders. I'll get some ordered, and mock up something similar to the Bentley's panel in scrap before I try the real thing.

Cheers,

Neil

**EDIT: For anyone who finds this thread in the future. I have now tried the dyes linked above. They come as a powder and in the case of the shades I have used, fail to dissolve in the Rustin's plastic coating, leading to a very poor finish and a colour that easily rubs off. However, Chestnut Spirit Stain appears to be miscible in the RPC and is giving much better results.