1985 345 MoHo: Trying to Refinish Cabinets
Hi Folks,
Another question for you all. This one is regarding refinishing the solid oak cabinets in our 1985 345 Airstream Motorhome. We purchased it 5 years ago from S. Cal, and now we have it in Tucson, Az.
Over the last couple of years, as a result of our ‘dry heat’, the solid oak cabinets, drawers and valences seem to be “dripping” the old varnish/finish (whatever they used after staining).
See pics 1&2 below, although its hard to see the ‘dripping’ finish.
Note: These are solid oak cabinets, not laminates etc.
1) Stripping the wood: I pulled a few of the drawers/cabinets out and used “Citrus Strip” to strip off the old finish. Once finished stripping, I used steel wool and sandpaper to get the remaining finish off, and smooth the surface.
2) Staining the wood: I used an oil based, MinWax Golden Oak stain. I try to apply 2-3 coats of stain. While doing this, I let the stain sit/soak into the wood, and wipe away the residual stain after about 15 minutes.
3) Finishing the wood: For this I’m using a Minwax Poly Urethane. The specific type I’m using is for higher temp environments.
Here’s the “UGH” part… 2-3 of the pieces I did, came out lovely….Unfortunately, the remaining pieces came RIGHT BACK with that awful melted look… some even worse then before!
See Pic 3.
This door took the first coat of Poly just fine… and once I put the second coat on…. I came back nasty/dripping…..
Has anyone else experienced this?
Has anyone successfully resolved this issue?
Do I need to use a wood-treatment of some kind? If so, do they make that in a Oil based? (I have a water based, but am afraid to use it… Oil & Water isn’t good together? Right?)
Help? I've re-done 4 of these drawers multiple times.... I'm not sure what else do consider.
Thank you in advance !@
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