[Nick3092]

I have a Philco 39-6 I am looking to redo the finish on. I have never done the whole lacquer process, but have stained and poly'd an entire house worth of trim and doors. I know that won't help me a lot in this process, just a little background on my current refinishing skills. I would like to do this properly with lacquer.  Here is the front and right side (left looks pretty much the same) of it.  I did get some #14 cloth from RD and have taken out the hideous cloth in there and put it on the cardboard backer.  I will probably get a new dial cover as well from Mark P, as this one is yellowed and cloudy.  Novus didn't do much to help it either.

   
   

The finish is not great on here, and it's small, so I figure it would be a good candidate for a first try.  There was a split on the top.  Someone recommended putting a steam iron on it and compressing the split and letting it cool to reseal the glue.  It seemed to work for the most part.  I'm guessing it will need a little extra work yet.

   

There are two small-ish chips out of the veneer at the top back edge of the radio. The larger one is in the walnut veneer and the smaller in the inlay. Not sure how to fix that, or if I'll just let it go. Thoughts?

   

I want start collecting supplies. I'm not worried about supplies I can get at the local hardware or big box store (I have a Rockler local too in a pinch, but not sure if they stock everything I would need). Mainly the stuff I will need to get online and shipped.

As I understand it, the proper process at a high level is:

• Strip (with a commercial stripper or just lacquer thinner)
  
• Make any repairs to the veneer
  
• Apply grain filler
  
• Sand grain filler
  
• Spray several coats of toner
  
• Spray coats of clear
  

Do I have the basic process right?

Stripper I can get the citrus stuff and/or lacquer thinner locally.

Grain filler I have never seen locally. I've seen a lot of votes for Constantine's wood filler paste. Should I get it natural, or walnut tinted?

Toner I have not seen locally either. As I understand for this radio, you want Medium Walnut and either Extra Dark Walnut or Black for the edges. I'm assuming since you want to see the grain on the main surfaces, I would use the dye based Ultra Classic Toner Medium Brown Walnut, and for the edges the pigment based Tone Finish Toner Extra Dark Walnut/Black. Any thoughts on the extra dark walnut vs. black?

For the clear, I've seen a lot of recommendations for Deft. I'm assuming Interior Clear Wood Finish Satin Lacquer would be what I want. I don't think I can easily find this locally either, so I would have to order it.

I'm assuming the rest of the supplies I can get locally. Anything supply wise I'm missing here?  In WI, we are entering prime time for this (warm and not humid), so I probably have about 1-1.5 months to get his done.  Otherwise it will have to spill over September as July and August tend to be fairly humid here.

Thanks!

-Nick