John, my dash was in very poor shape but responded well to an orbital sander
with various grades of high quality paper. Be VERY careful to avoid sanding
in other than the exact plane of the dash as you will quickly bore through
the nice but thin top layer as you motor unknowingly around the edges.
Once it got clean, I put a nice light oak stain on, then followed that up
with, yes, ten coats of slightly thinned spar varnish, with light sanding
(use a small block) of high spots between coats. You see, I did this in
January, when the cruel wind was howling out of the North and I didn't have
anything better to do. I used gloss because I'm not a concours kind of guy,
and it came out pretty well. Mr Jensen, my late wood shop teacher from circa
1960 would have beamed.
Peter FIrla
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