The original varnish had long since given up the ghost: it was peeling and flaking off in dirty yellow-brown scabs where it wasn't gone altogether. The wood was bleached out to driftwood grey in spots, water-spotted dark in others. The door panels were the worst, likely because they get more direct sun and got rained on more often when windows were left down inadvertently. The dash panels faired better with less drying-out and staining but still, not that pretty to see.   All that aside, the wood didn't look to have much potential for beauty-- there wasn't any noticeable veining or pattern in the wood, and it mostly looked like old, weather-worn balsa wood or plywood or something, despite the glamorous build-up given to the wood in the 1966 Imperial brochures:

"Paneling of 100-year-old claro walnut, 7 foam-padded armrests, and electrically powered windows are among the thoughtful extravagances which help make the Crown four-door Imperial the incomparable luxury car in America, if not the world.

Stands of claro walnut trees are found only in two places in the world. Northwestern United States, and Eastern Kashmir. Out of every 52-1/2 lbs. harvested, only 8 ounces are fit for Imperial. Nonetheless, it is lavished across the breadth of the Crown four-door instrument panel in a 6-inch swath, across the massive steering wheel spoke, and along the full length of front and rear wainscoting."

Even re-done, I only hoped it would look like real wood, but nothing special. Wow, was I wrong-- the stuff looks stunning in daylight now. I sanded and sanded until I began to fear that I might run out of wood before damage, and thus hit the metal plate the wood was bonded (to for structural rigidity and to facilitate securely mounting the wood). To avoid "gouging" through the wood  or making obvious hills and valleys in the surface, I used a 3M sanding sponge thingy which I wrapped the sandpaper sheets around for the preliminary sanding passes, then use the ultra-fine grit sanding sponge thing itself for the last sandings before the stain/sealant. The block helped to ensure a level, flat sanding action across the wood surface, and I was careful to sand with the grain direction. As I only did 2 solid coats of sealer, the wood looks like *wood* -- you can see and feel the subtleties of the grain. As opposed to, say, the current school of real wood in cars which is so heavily encased in sealant that it just looks like a well-done bit of plastic. As noted on the previous page, I used a Minwax product that incorporated stain color and sealer in one product. I purchased--on impulse-- a few .99 cent bags of 4 asst'd size foam "fake paintbrush" things on handles that are quite handy for doing house trim/moldings as they have a flat, brush shape with a molded bevel edge. I thought these things would be disposable and would not leave stray brush hairs or brush marks in the stain/sealant. This theory was born out: I achieved a perfectly smooth, even coverage which dried nicely. I found the Minwax product, the 3M sanding block/sponge thingy, the foam "brush" things, and the asst'd grits of sandpaper all at Wal-Mart, quite cheaply priced, so the actual expense of this project was minimal --certainly no more than $15.00, and of course, my time to take off and break down the door panels, cleaning, prepping, staining, and reassembly. The results: fantastic!

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The above picture shows my passenger front door BEFORE. There are no rips, tears or blemishes in the door panels--the holes in the area above the wood are where the big chrome door pull/light hardware bolts in. The sloped area at the front is the cavity for the switchpanel for the vent & main window switches and the power door locks. Between that and the armrest is where the door handle emerges. The front, lower edge of the wood is badly bleached and dried out, nearly white-grey as can be seen.

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Here's a closer look at a portion of the wood panel removed from the door. Not very promising, huh?

Below is a (left) close up swatch of the wood BEFORE and (right) AFTER! In real life, the wood looks lots better-- the scanner seemed to have a hard time getting a good, clear scan of the wood; probably the light reflecting off the finish!

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Here's a look at a portion of the wood panel AFTER: again, much more impressive in real life than my scans convey, but still an obvious improvement of several orders!

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HERE's a door panel reassembled with the wood panel redone and in place: despite the picture's glare from the flashbulb and the hot-spots from the ceiling light coloring the chrome gold in places, you can get an idea of how vibrant and rich the wood now looks. As a side note, I'd mention that this bottom picture is over-lit and thus the blue color looks much lighter than it does in real life. The door panel picture at the top of this page shows the blue much more accurately -- it is a dark navy blue which almost seems black in some lighting.

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I'm going to take some good daylight pictures of the car's interior with my "new" wood as soon as I get the dash wood panels refinished, and post them here to show off  the total effect in place.
 

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