Gear knob restoration
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2019 8:10 am
Not sure this is the right area in the forum, but here goes...
The wooden gearshift knob on my Plus 2 is looking a bit sorry for itself. About half of the lacquer has worn off the top and the wood is ingrained with dirt and sweat.
It's quite sticky (yuck!) so I decided to try and fix it. I've been following a restoration series on YooooTooob by a guy called Serge Sleurs who has an Europa and in this video he shows how he restored his gear knob.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1ykpfB-tks
I thoght I'd give it a try. So far I sanded all the old varnish off and cleaned the knob with a kitchen cleaner that contains bleach (about three times, letting the wood dry off between successive scrubbings). Finally, finishing the prep work with fine grade wet & dry (used dry of course) to leave a nice smooth finish which feels very tactile. As Serge found, the wood goes a bit grey so I will do what he has done and use a water based light oak wood stain to bring out the grain.
The problem is the little metal badge on the top. It looks to be some sort of plated metal, possibly copper. I cannot see a way to remove it without damaging the surrounding wood (it's a very close fit as you can see).
I thought I could attempt to fill the recessed parts of the decal with black paint using a syringe as Serge does with the ELAN badges in another video, but this would not look original. Problem is, it's copper coloured now so not original anyway.
Any other options?
The wooden gearshift knob on my Plus 2 is looking a bit sorry for itself. About half of the lacquer has worn off the top and the wood is ingrained with dirt and sweat.
It's quite sticky (yuck!) so I decided to try and fix it. I've been following a restoration series on YooooTooob by a guy called Serge Sleurs who has an Europa and in this video he shows how he restored his gear knob.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1ykpfB-tks
I thoght I'd give it a try. So far I sanded all the old varnish off and cleaned the knob with a kitchen cleaner that contains bleach (about three times, letting the wood dry off between successive scrubbings). Finally, finishing the prep work with fine grade wet & dry (used dry of course) to leave a nice smooth finish which feels very tactile. As Serge found, the wood goes a bit grey so I will do what he has done and use a water based light oak wood stain to bring out the grain.
The problem is the little metal badge on the top. It looks to be some sort of plated metal, possibly copper. I cannot see a way to remove it without damaging the surrounding wood (it's a very close fit as you can see).
I thought I could attempt to fill the recessed parts of the decal with black paint using a syringe as Serge does with the ELAN badges in another video, but this would not look original. Problem is, it's copper coloured now so not original anyway.
Any other options?