I had been sanding with 60 grit paper all along - as I had worked on these interior partition/furniture pieces.
The pieces will be getting a variety of finishes. On each piece, some surfaces are to be stained in golden oak and then covered with two coats of maple tinted poly, just like the other original woodwork in the camper.
But each piece ALSO will receive some areas of primer white. Those areas are of course the behind the scenes basement and utility areas. That is unless I decide to cover up those regions with the darker green found in some OTHER cabinet areas. The final decision will be a combination of "how to enhance visibility" in the hard to reach and see places, and "whatever I decide at the moment".
But down low like this, and in the "not open to the public" places such as these, it will probably remain white.
And EACH piece will receive a THIRD color. That is the dark bronze with copper metal flake paint covered in mahogany tinted poly, as found elsewhere.
You see, Lil' Queeny likes to dress up in her accessories, not just a beautiful coat of "nude" color or something else as mundane when she rolls in to accept her Oscar! No - she reveals her true beauty with class! As does any woman of vintage model and life-long learned wisdom.
But I digress, yes I'd had the 60 grit flashing away here and there through the building process, but in preparation for stain the 100 grit came out, followed by the 220.
You don't really go over it all "once with each" like the how-to pages might say, because if you lose track of where you are, then you're doing it right. Just keep moving and rubbing, with the grain of course and in doing so you become intimate with the wood. Your hand learns quickly how much pressure to apply, the multi-focal point corrective lenses come down and are often misplaced, and it's only discovered that you can't see, when you have to look up from your work to find another tool or something and it is then you realize you haven't been seeing in quite some time anyway. You are moving forward on feel. Yeah - you could do this work in the dark! And at my age and sight correction, it often is!
But you get my drift. After some quality time with the pieces you conclude, it's time for stain.
Whew! It got hot in here. Sit tight for a sec - I have to close the damper.
So here are some pics of the sanded pieces.
Most of this unfilled gap will be unseen. The small portion that is seen will eventually receive crayon style filler as it takes the vibrations and movement better than does the hard dry stuff.
Notice the green areas on the bottom board? These areas of the original camper had seen some water. Most areas of the camper with black mold were replaced, but some were retained and sealed with paint or poly, and these areas will be as well. But I'm not sure if it is green mold, or oxidized copper. So I'm going with the latter because we intend to have other copper touches throughout the camper. The stain and tinted poly will darker and enhance these copper areas, giving a nice rich look such as the copper found at the bottom corner of the bathroom/dinette wall (if you look close). ;)
I haven't yet said much about the drawer fronts and cabinet doors. Let's do that now.
This piece is a drawer front from off one of the small galley drawers in the parts camper. It goes in the new small width section along the floor.
The drawer fronts are the same design and build as the doors. Two 1/8" panel pieces with spacer boards sandwiched on the inside; much is hollow. The plastic cream colored trim edges start life as stock, then are mitered to the 45's needed for the corners. Each trim piece profile has two grippy channels that slide over the 1/8" panels (front and back) and the corners are held together with little brittle L shaped plastic pieces like you might find on a window screen frame but smaller.
Having lots of extra doors and drawers,I found a suitable candidate to test my processes on before using my "retention" pieces and found the best way to clean them up was 0000 steel wool. The steel wool cleared away both the 45+ years of surface grime and crud as well as the original sloppy application of the woodwork finish, poly or whatever it was back then. It also slightly buffed the surface into a sort of matte finish.
The steel wool also started out the prep on the wood parts of the drawer fronts. Then came along the 100 grit, and finally the 220, doing each drawer front with the grain of course! Yes - lots of finger work. I am finding that it's probably smarter to do these pieces as I go, rather than all at once at some later date, due to cramps in the hands and fingers.
The doors are all still packed under Lil' Willy so those will have to wait for now.
Alright, let's get stain on these pieces.
Now we'll let that set and dry right.
