Refinishing a VDO wood wheel

[Stan]

I got a wood wheel from a 2800 CS that I would like to refinish.
It is in decent shape but the varnish has chipped off and the spokes have cracks.
I started removing the rest of the varnish with an Exacto knife and wonder if there is a better way

 

[rsporsche]

have you tried a varnish remover (stripper). they usually turn varnish to a bubbled gel that you can wipe off. you need to protect the plastic ... not sure if you can remove the wood from the plastic or not

 

[Stan]

have you tried a varnish remover (stripper). they usually turn varnish to a bubbled gel that you can wipe off. you need to protect the plastic ... not sure if you can remove the wood from the plastic or not

Do you think it is varnish? I made that assumption due to the age of the material.

 

[rsporsche]

its probably a polyurethane varnish ... that would be my guess.

 

[brea]

I have used a heat gun and gently scrapped it off in little sections at time but you need to be very careful and not to allow it to get too hot and burn or darken the wood.

 

[bavbob]

There is a recent post on this. I think this is varnish rather than poly given its age. This is a wood veneer with fiberglass below, veneer is quite thin. I found 220 grit then 0-wool then 0000 wool did fine. Stripper will melt anything in its path. Finished with a oil-based stain and then 2k poly from a rattle can, like 4 coats. Someone here had a fix for the cracked spokes.

 

[rsporsche]

polyurethane varnish was around at that time frame. i refinished the wood on one of my sailboats in 1971 with poly.

 

[bavbob]

May be right as poly is harder, less flexible and so cracks easier.