Staining/varnishing woodwork August 22, 2014, 04:10:28 pm Yahoo Message Number: 148064The tops of the under-counter doors and drawers in the kitchen have lost their varnish and are down to bare wood. Jim and Gayle from Life's Little Adventures blog repaired their woodwork "by removing the hardware, sanding with very fine sandpaper, touching up worn areas with stain stick and then painting everything with a coat of fast drying satin finish polyurethane" (see the Dec. 20, 2010 post). Makes sense to me and the posted photo of the finished work looks great. Anyone else have a different approach or tips to handle this job?Chris 2002 30' IB Denver
Re: Staining/varnishing woodwork Reply #1 – August 22, 2014, 04:30:14 pm Yahoo Message Number: 148066I'm also interested in this topic. A number of our cabinet and drawer fronts could use some sprucing up. Art
Re: Staining/varnishing woodwork Reply #2 – August 22, 2014, 05:03:55 pm Yahoo Message Number: 148067I re-did some of the drawer and cabinet door tops and trim in my 2003 in a similar manner to what Chris described (and they need it again!), but with a couple of differences: Sanded the worn, to-be-coated areas with 400 grit paper; "feathered" the sanding into the still-sealed areas.Vacuumed the dust and wiped down the surfaces with a soft dry rag.Re-stained the sanded areas with MinWax Wood Finish ("Penetrates, Stains, and Seals"); the "Puritan Pine" stain color was a close match.Coated the re-stained woodwork with MinWax Fast-Drying Clear Semi-Gloss Polyurethane.Lightly sanded (600 grit) the first coat of poly, wiped it down, then applied a second coat.(Note: Used 1" disposable sponge brushes for stain and polyurethane.)As ever, YMMV.Joan
Re: Staining/varnishing woodwork Reply #3 – August 22, 2014, 09:58:49 pm Yahoo Message Number: 148070I haven't refinished any Truck parts yet, but my experience on boatsand house bits endorses Joan's method. One worry I have had is maybe the new stain is immiscible with what's on there. Min-wax worked for Joan, so I'd stick with that. (Even found the color for us; thanks) A quibble: maybe spend a couple extra bucks and buy a real polyester brush for the finish coat. Also there is a product "tack rag" that picks up every last dust particle.John
Re: Staining/varnishing woodwork Reply #4 – August 22, 2014, 11:01:39 pm Yahoo Message Number: 148071Thanks, John. You sent me to the online dictionary to search for "immiscible" which I guess is how it sounds when one says "not mixable" with a mouth full of mashed potatoes. Regarding the Min-Wax color: I have an '02 which was the change to a lighter wood color and have been told that Golden Pecan 245 is the matching color. I have a can of it but will test it out to make sure.Chris
Re: Staining/varnishing woodwork Reply #5 – August 23, 2014, 09:27:39 am Yahoo Message Number: 148076"maybe spend a couple extra bucks and buy a real polyester brush for the finish coat" --- A good idea; I did the job in stages and was just too lazy to clean a "real" brush between each session. ;-)Joan
Re: Staining/varnishing woodwork Reply #6 – August 23, 2014, 12:34:29 pm Yahoo Message Number: 148086Our 2011 TK has cherry stained cabinets and draws. We've had possession of our LD 2 1/2 years. The cherry stain is now bare wood in just about any place your hands touch. We are very meticulous in caring for our LD. I have tried matching stain pencils. Waste of time. Taking the cabinet doors and drawers apart to sand and re-stain is a big project for a coach this new. A quality control issue I hope the mothership will address. Allen