door compartment armrest cover

[typhon]

i had a problem with the cover of the storage compartment cracking. don't know exactly what caused it. i decided to just buy another compartment door. retail: $1100 :o sale price: $785 :o when i looked inside the compartment, i noticed that the cover of the door is attached by 13 small torx screws. i removed the cover and will now attempt to save a little cash and repair the original one.

does anyone know what the clear finish on this part is made of? epoxy? urethane?

as i get it done, i'll post pics and hopefully it will help someone else as well.

thanks

[RFM]

I was told epoxy a couple of years ago, by an employee of a wood finish manufacturer, but i cant say it for sure.

[Dharn55]

I have a brand new set that includes both covers and the handles as weel that I will sell you for alot less than that, but it you are interested we will need to find out if they are the right wood color. Do you have the part numbers off of yours?

[typhon]

I was told epoxy a couple of years ago, by an employee of a wood finish manufacturer, but i cant say it for sure.

thanks. i'm going to do a couple of test spots on a piece of scrap wood that i have and see how it looks.

[typhon]

I have a brand new set that includes both covers and the handles as weel that I will sell you for alot less than that, but it you are interested we will need to find out if they are the right wood color. Do you have the part numbers off of yours?

now that i have it apart, i'm going to give the repair a try. if it doesn't work out, i'll send you a pm.

thanks

[typhon]

success!! somewhat. ok, it's taken 3 months of tinkering, but i think that i have a solution. i don't know if anyone else had this problem or not, but here is what i did: after removing the top panel from the armrest, i drilled about 20 small holes in the back. with a hypo, i injected clear hobby cement (modeling glue) into the holes. i can't even remember how many tubes i used. could have been as many as 10 to 15. i just did a little each day and kept doing it until the top didn't flex anymore. then, i sanded the top and sprayed 3 coats of clear polyurethane, wet sanded to 1200, 3 more coats, sanded, 3 more coats, sanded. the problem i had was: now the wood grain look was gone where i had done the repair, so i took the finish almost completely down to where i started. i took an air-brush and blended in some dark ebony stain to simulate the wood grain color that was there originally and then went through the finishing process again. buffed it out and this is what i got. i know it's not perfect, but i can live with it. don't know if it was worth it, if you are just counting the dollars and time, but i learned a lot and hopefully someone else can use it too.