TheSaint

Is this a way to fix hairline cracks in the wooden interior pieces on theMercedes SL, R230?

Have any member here tried to sand down the clear coat on the wooden interior panels that have hairline cracks and paint the parts again with clear cloat?

I would think that will repair the hairline cracks

Not that i have any hairline cracks in my car but i just think that this will fix hairline cracks since i think the cracks are in the paint and not the wood veneer

Tokyoite

better to just wrap them with a seal paper. you will get a new interior mod in the process (Carbon wrap, anyone?).
It is too much work for that piece IMHO, with zero guarantees the hairline cracks will completely go away. (unless you are a very skilled woodwork technician).
If you must keep the original wood style interiors, then it is easier to buy similar ones from ebay.

kittyandgary

I have stripped, stained, and refinished wood trim from my Porsche 928 GTS. The clear coat that was on those pieces was extremely difficult to strip, but with 5-6 treatments with paint stripper it was all finally removed. I sprayed about 6 coats of spar polyurethane on it, with light wet/dry sanding between coats 3, 4, 5, and 6. Turned out great, I used a flat finish product, but I think the finish on my 2003 SL55 is more of a semi-gloss.

There were no cracks in the veneer, only in the finish - which was probably 2 component epoxy. There is a post on a Ferrari site describing how to re-finish a wood steering wheel with epoxy clear coat. Send me a Private Message with your email address and I'll try to get a copy to you.

Good luck - not a quick and easy job, but much improved when done.

Gary

TheSaint

Thanks for the reply
It is not that i am in need of repairing any hairline cracks on the wood veneer on my SL, R230 since it is all in tip top shape

I had a look at some pictures and thought that the cracks must be in the clear coat and not the wood veener itself

If i was to do anything with the wood veneer in my SL i would rather have it all painted black piano that is used on newer Mercedes.. I think that looks much better

One thing i have noticed on a lot of newer sporty cars is that there is lot of carbon and black colours on the cars like mirrors, front spoiler, rear spoiler and so on.. This original from the factory

I i bought, lets say a red SL with black mirror housings the first thing i would do is to paint the mirror housings the same colours as the rest of the car.. The same goes for both front and rear spoilers..

I have been looking a little bit on a car brand i have never liked before
I only like one model and that is the Audi R8. I think if i bought an R8 i would paint the side blades the same colour as the rest of the car there as well

kittyandgary

Added to my previous post.