Drawer and cabinet doors peeling

[galaxy24]

I have a question for those of you that have older TTS. Our TT has the fake wood paper adhesive on the drawers and cabinet doors. It is starting to peel off. What have you guys done to repair this?

I was thinking of sanding down the drawer faces to remove this fake wood paper adhesive and stain the wood underneath. Any other recommendations or ideas on how to clean this up?

Thank you.

[galaxy24]

Thank you all for the recommendations! Now I am going to come up with a plan and see the best way to tackle this.

[coolmom42]

I would handle it as gently as possible to get rid of the peeling material. Then go over it with some stuff called "Goo Gone" to get rid of the adhesive goo. Use this only with really good ventilation, or you will get a buzz promptly followed by a splitting headache!

Sand it lightly with fine grit paper to smooth it down a little, especially on the edges.

Depending on what it looks like then, either paint it, or put a satin finish polyurethane on it, or cover it with some faux wood grain stuff.
There is all kind of faux wood wallpaper that's pretty durable stuff.

[Gdetrailer]

Sand down lightly to get rid of the rest of that pealing top layer.

Be careful, I suspect the grained wood under it is a thin veneer of some type sort of like Luan (but there are many types of wood veneers) it won't take much to go through the veneer.

Luan can actually look real nice when lightly stained and covered with semi or glossy polyurethane.

Then you can experiment with a stain/polyurethane to see how it looks.

You might be lucky and that veneer may look nice without the faux wood look provided the faux wood grain wasn't hiding blemishes.

[Fisherman]

Birch or Maple. Poplar is too soft, if you walk by and fart, poplar will dent. Same with any other softwood such as Pine. Don't know if it's still widely available, Home Depot and Lowes used to sell rolls of veneer, easily applied with contact cement. https://www.homedepot.com/p/EDGEMATE-Edgemate-24-in-x-96-in-Mahogany-Wood-Veneer-with-10-mil-Paper-B...

[MSchu]

Poplar is great for painting, but doesn't stain well. I would be tempted to just sand and paint everything as long as it's still solid.

[galaxy24]

As much as I don’t want to admit it I have the feeling to do this properly would be to replace the drawer front. If I was to go this route would you recommend poplar?

[gbopp]

It looks like Luan Plywood. Maybe you can sand it lightly and apply stain?

[galaxy24]

I attached an image of my worst drawer front. I am not sure on the type of material that is used here. I’m guessing pair all board. Hopefully, the image is good enough for you to tell.

[Gdetrailer]

coolmom42 wrote:
Do you have real wood underneath? It may be particle board, which you are not likely to be able to sand.

^^^THIS^^^

Pretty much all RVs with the exception of high end luxury RVs the manufacturers will use "Particle board" otherwise know as "MDF" (Medium Density Fiber board) with a thin paper or vinyl veneer layer glued over top of the MDF..

When the veneer layer starts coming off, the MDF looks pretty ugly and the only DIY option I can think of would be to paint it after sanding/striping off the veneer layer..

The bad thing of MDF is moisture makes it swell and when it dries out, doesn't go back to original size and then it crumbles.. Dang cheap skates..

Might be a pretty expensive upgrade but you might want to check with some woodworkers or custom cabinet makers and see if they could make new doors and drawer fronts for you out of real wood if you plan to keep your RV for a long time.

I can't seem to find my pix of my trailer rebuild right now, I had gutted mine and custom built all new cabinets, drawers and doors. Custom stuff looks nice..

[gbopp]

I agree, they're probably particle board. If you want to replace the adhesive paper you could sand lightly and polyurethane the wood. That will give a smooth surface to attach the adhesive paper.
Another option is remove the adhesive paper and skim coat the wood with joint compound. Sand and paint the doors. It will give you a smooth finish.

[coolmom42]

Do you have real wood underneath? It may be particle board, which you are not likely to be able to sand.

Possibly your best bet is 1) to re-glue the peeling stuff or 2) completely remove it and replace it with some other adhesive material, such as a wood-look wallpaper.