Cleaning original woodgraining

I would think steel wool would be a bit savage and cause scratches. Just like Ken said, Give it a gentle polish in one small corner area first to test effect. Regards, Kevin.
 
Be real careful, this paint is nothing like the paint on the car body. My son-in-law put a small piece of scotch tape on mine and then ripped it right off. It took about 60% of the paint with it. I have decided to just leave mine alone but if you have any success with improving yours please post and let us know.
 
Go over the dash with a polish first. This will put moisture to an extent back into the paint. Then try to clean it with a very gentle cleaner. Then polish it again and then wax it to seal it. Even if you are gentle with the dash you are going to lose some of the wood grain off the dash. Maybe best to just leave it along and learn to love it.
 
Maybe the wax is the way to go but You could possibly give it a clear coat of lacquer but try it on the back side of the glove box first, or underneath on the lip, any old wax on it could give you fish eyes so caution is advised .
 
Try some toothpaste with baking soda. It is an extremely light rubbing compound. I have used it on several items to include furniture, good to clean discoloring where a hot pot may have been set on your eating table. Then spray it with some clear spar varnish with a few coats. after this dries good, use the toothpaste again and then some wax. It will look great but new. [ Toothpaste has aluminum hydroxide in it to make it clean your teeth and other things]
 
Hi, No experience at all with wood grain, but I'd vote for trying some distilled water on a microfiber towel for starters. I try to use the gentle stuff first just in case it will work. I love the suggestion of finding a hidden place to experiment.

-VT/JeffH
 
I do wood graining at Honest Charley Garage and we often restore customers original woodgrain when the customer wants to keep the original patina and wants it preserved.
We clean them gently with soap and water/ micro fiber cloth and then very carefully we use an ultra fine scuff pad (light grey, not to be confused with scotch brite) tack cloth and touch up any blemishes then clear coat using the desired sheen. once it has been clear coated it will last forever and be as tough as the exterior paint. you can try waxing and possibly using a very,very light compound, but remember the finish used over the original garnish moldings and dash is very thin. best bet is to clear coat!
 
I used Meguirs Fine cut cleaner then a coat of wax on my never restored, all original 37 Ford.
 

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I did my 39 standard dash. The dash was pretty nice to start with, but someone cut two 1 inch by 1 inch holes on each side of the radio area. I pulled out the dash first, not that hard, filled the two holes with fiber glass from both front side and back sides. I masked off the area to as small as I could , test fit the radio head of course, then primed. The original base coat that the factory used will be on the back of the dash in most cases. But I didn't use that color. When touching up the primed areas, the goal was to come close to what the existing dash looked like , being that it was 73 years old.To do do this, I looked at the coloring on the existing dash. On a 39 standard, there are two colors for the most part. I think that 37 was the same. I had two spray cans mixed at a custom paint mix shop, and began to experiment with old sheet metal. I quickly learned that " spray " wasn't going to work. Back to the paint store. She mixed two small bottles of paint. When we started the process, we actually mixed a little of each, along with a little thinner to first do a background. We used artist brushes. My big concern was that anything we put on the dash, would show ridges. We worked in very small areas and once we were happy with the base, we would drag a little of the stripe color thru the part dry base, to soften the effect. The goal was to try to improve what we had, by a percentage, and to " fool the eye " we did NOT want this to come out new looking. Our goal was to make it look 20 years old , instead of 75 years old. I was not really happy when we were finished, you could see a little too much of what we tried to do. I then took the dash to my local body guy, who put 3 coats of clear on it. That did it ! It softened all of the extra touch up we did and seemed to almost take away the flaws from our work. After assembling every thing, I was very happy with the result ! If your dash is pretty good already, and does not need touch up I think 9 out of 10, will be very happy with a couple coats of clear. But go to a professional DO NOT USE SPRAY CANS ! will try to get pics up.
 
You might try using a spray can of silicone.
Then rubbing the dash gently with a soft cloth.
Shouldn't hurt anything.
 
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