[MatthewL]

I see… So the credit cards will stop the clips scraping the plastic door car? Makes sense.

By the way I was gobsmacked at the quality of the wood trim on the dash. Having dismantled a Ford Escort and a Mercedes w126 I was not expecting quality this good. Thick wood with veneer nicely attached - no danger of it snapping. Solid clips, no danger of mis-locating. Mercedes W126 quality in short. Possibly better in fact.

[carfixmobile]

Yep. I recovered the dash wood strip when I got my Gsi some years ago. It had discoloured and the lacquer was lifting and cracking.

After removing the lacquer and a light sand to remove any staining, I recoated with several layers of wood varnish.

Once sanded I buffed up with a car polish. Looks factory now.

[MatthewL]

Think I should have asked you before buying dove better ones from eBay!

[Plodder]

Yep. I recovered the dash wood strip when I got my Gsi some years ago. It had discoloured and the lacquer was lifting and cracking.

After removing the lacquer and a light sand to remove any staining, I recoated with several layers of wood varnish.

Once sanded I buffed up with a car polish. Looks factory now.

Sounds like wood varnish was a better way to go.
I used lacquer on the strip and it doesn't have the same gloss finish as the rest of the wood work.
Might strip it off and have another go with varnish and car polish

[carfixmobile]

The painted gloss varnish gave it the thickness to level off the surface, wet sand and then buff to a shine using a variety of Farecla brand of cutting compounds.

The Farecla cutting compounds were regular paste G3 then an extra fine grade of liquid cutting compound, G10.

[MatthewL]

I’m a big fan of Farecla G3/G10 as I’ve used it after spray painting and then flatting with wet and dry. Never tried on varnish so that sounds like a great idea.

I’ve just fitted a new thermostat so now I have a working temp gauge, a car that warms up quickly and a fan that kicks in. Confidence building!!