08-26-2021, 07:08 PM
Today I began work on the cabinet of the 48-482 whose electronics I just finished. The cabinet had the usual scuffs and scratches on its outside, and on the top there was an area about 2 1/2 inches in diameter where the finish was beginning to "buckle" as if someone had left something damp on there, but not bad enough to discolor the wood itself. I didn't want to completely strip the cabinet since the faux finish on the front control panel and the decals were perfect, so I tried something else. Minwax maxes a product called "Antique Furniture Re-finisher. It is a combination of three solvents. It re-softens the old finish when it is applied. It is applied with 0000 steel wool, and, depending on how vigorously you go at it, you can remove just a little of the old finish and redistribute the rest, or keep going and remove as much as you like. I chose to just do the minimum necessary to spread finish over the scratches, and fix the "buckled" finish on the top. While the finish is wet with the re-finisher you can get an idea of what the wood will look like when the piece is all done, but when the piece dries after working it with the re-finisher, and re-spreading the old finish, it is going to look TERRIBLE when it dries ! Hazy and swirly ain't in it! DON'T fret ! Once it dried, and it dried very quickly because of the kinds of solvents used, I sanded the surface lightly with 320 grit just to get off any little nubbins from the steel wool. Then I put on the first coat of tung oil finish. It looks great already. All the haziness is gone, the scratches are gone, the finish is smoothed and evened out. No damage to the decals, they look fine A couple more coats and this radio is going to look GREAT ! I just thought I'd let folks know about my experience. It's another tool to add to the toolbox.