Chalky Finish - Can This Be Fixed?

[markpj23]

Newbie and my first post. I have some solid wood cabinets in an RV that have developed a 'chalky' appearance. It almost looks as if they are dusty - even after I wipe them down with Murphy's Oil Soap. I have tried using the Restore-It finish in mahogany but that had no effect.

Is there something other than a complete strip & refinish that can be done here? It looks as if a previous owner had done spot touch-up as those are the shiny spots on the cabinets.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Mark

[lew]

@kmealy should be along shortly. He is our resident finishing guru.

[kmealy]

It's hard to say what it might be.   I would probably start with a cleaning with Dawn & water, then a wipe with mineral spirits or naphtha.  If the touch-up work was done with a different sheen level, you might have to buff with a light abrasive or use some touch up lacquer over the whole area.  Go slow and trial and error.

[Gerald]

I was wondering if maybe a rub down with a compound like one of Meguiar's would help?

 

Second thought could be the result of moisture levels, and would clear when dry.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Gerald

[HandyDan]

It looks like the haze that cigarette smoking leaves behind.  Spray cleaner like 409 0r Fantastic cut it easily but may harm the finish.  Test on a small area first.  

[markpj23]

On 12/24/2023 at 12:56 PM, kmealy said:

It's hard to say what it might be.   I would probably start with a cleaning with Dawn & water, then a wipe with mineral spirits or naphtha.  If the touch-up work was done with a different sheen level, you might have to buff with a light abrasive or use some touch up lacquer over the whole area.  Go slow and trial and error.

I tried the Dawn followed by mineral spirits, then another try with the Restore A Finish. The piece looks cleaner but still has the chalky / cloudy looking finish everywhere except for the shiny spot where it was touched up in the past.

I have some fine sandpaper I can use to rough up the surface a bit. Is there a wipe-on lacquer or is it best to spray this? Will be difficult to spray inside the RV - hoping there is another method.

[markpj23]

13 hours ago, HandyDan said:

It looks like the haze that cigarette smoking leaves behind.  Spray cleaner like 409 0r Fantastic cut it easily but may harm the finish.  Test on a small area first.  

I don't believe the coach was ever smoked in but we are the 2nd owners. I'm very sensitive to smoke and would have noticed & walked away from this one.

[lew]

Just a thought, but if all of the cabinets look like this- except the touchup spots- could that have been the look of the original finish?

[HandyDan]

2 hours ago, markpj23 said:

I don't believe the coach was ever smoked in but we are the 2nd owners. I'm very sensitive to smoke and would have noticed & walked away from this one.

 

Candles can do the same thing.

[Smallpatch]

Don't even put touch up lacquer on your problem like that. All lacquer will do is soften up what ever finish was applied and then you have many days of work for you and a few other folks. Also, if something else was applied other than lacquer to start with and you don't know what they used the lacquer will become sticky

  I have had a few experiences with the same looking finish and every time it was caused by trapping moisture between the wood and the top coats of clear...

  My fix was to spray a few coats of clear to make the time for getting the top coats much longer to set up and wa-la the cloudy would disappear...  Sounds strange but I always used lacquer so I could trust my past experiences. 

[Cal]

17 hours ago, Smallpatch said:

Don't even put touch up lacquer on your problem like that. All lacquer will do is soften up what ever finish was applied and then you have many days of work for you and a few other folks. Also, if something else was applied other than lacquer to start with and you don't know what they used the lacquer will become sticky

  I have had a few experiences with the same looking finish and every time it was caused by trapping moisture between the wood and the top coats of clear...

  My fix was to spray a few coats of clear to make the time for getting the top coats much longer to set up and wa-la the cloudy would disappear...  Sounds strange but I always used lacquer so I could trust my past experiences. 

 

I've not finished my coffee this morning Jess, but I'm having a hard time following you...  You say not to use lacquer, but you ended with always using lacquer.

So, on a touch up or refinish like this one - what type of clear would you use?  If this cloudy appearance is caused by moisture trapped between the wood and top coats won't that remain a problem going forward?

 

Maybe this is why a lot of RV updates I watched on you tube choose paint

[kmealy]

If it is moisture in the finish, I've used these many times with success.  Same exact thing sold in a different colored package and labeled Jasco.  Test in a hidden spot first, just in case.  It leaves a bit of oily finish so I cleaned that off with Guardsman furniture polish.   I'd personally ditch the Howard's products, like Restor-a-finish

Edited December 29, 2023 by kmealy

[Smallpatch]

I'm sorry Cal.  When I had my furniture repair shop I always used lacquer...When we had very high humidity I watched the first coat of lacquer and if it started turning cloudy I immediately applied a couple of heavy coats on top of it to slow down the drying . This would be somewhere more than 2 to 4 regular coats of sprayed lacquer4 regular coats of regular lacquer. And with the heavy coats it would make it longer to dry and would stop the blushing of the finish.

  I meant to say when a person does not know what kind of finish was first applied and was not lacquer, you are looking for a terrible mess so don't chance it.

  Back when I had my shop when buying lacquer a person had to thin it like they wanted for it had no thinner and you bought lacquer thinner separate I bought lacquer thinner 55 gallons at a time which was cheaper. That way costing 70 cent a gallon and if bought by the gallon was 90 cents a gallon. I took off the cap and screwed in a long 3/4" pipe with a faucet and the other opening I screwed in a nozzle thing to put air in the drum for a little air pressure. Or you could pick the heavy barrel full of lacquer and and lay it on a saddle  up high enough to let the thinner flow out...This way took too much area so I used the airing up of the drum and let the air pressure force it out. I had a 30 x 40 foot shop but with all the stuff to refinish was not much space left to work in. 

[Cal]

18 hours ago, kmealy said:

If it is moisture in the finish, I've used these many times with success.  Same exact thing sold in a different colored package and labeled Jasco.  Test in a hidden spot first, just in case.  It leaves a bit of oily finish so I cleaned that off with Guardsman furniture polish.   I'd personally ditch the Howard's products, like Restor-a-finish

 

Keith, if the water is in or under the finish - how does this product work?  And what's in it?

A WD-40 of the finishing world perhaps?

[Smallpatch]

Mark, I will suggest trying Johnson's paste wax on a part of the trim where if it don't work it will blend in.....but I do think it will work. 

 As I said before, spraying lacquer over what I can see will make it worse  then it all would have to be stripped back down to the wood to start over again..

I'm wondering if there was a fire and the door was shut for a given time where it could not get any oxygen then a simmering hot spot could burn for a long time cause this......I did retire a fire fighter and have witnessed similar conditions many times. If so, we recommended Johnson's paste wax right then and not to let it sit for a while before using it.

I

  I'm still wondering, did you buy the RV looking like this. Does the inside of the cabinets have any strange odor like smoke of some kind. If you bought the RV looking like this , what did the original owners say about the problem? It seems like we are getting the tail end of a problem that happened many moons ago. I have a 38 foot motor home and after we sat for a week in a poring rain no moisture ever formed like this looks. And if smoke, all the cloth materials should have  bad odors.

Edited January 1, 2024 by Smallpatch

[kmealy]

On 12/30/2023 at 7:45 AM, Cal said:

 

Keith, if the water is in or under the finish - how does this product work?  And what's in it?

A WD-40 of the finishing world perhaps?

From the SDS: This product is a cloth impregnated with an emulsion of Hydrotreated heavy paraffinic distillates (CAS# 64742-54-7), Oleic acid (CAS# 112-80-1), Stearic acid (CAS# 57-11-4), Nepheline syenite (CAS# 37244-96-5), and Silicones (CAS# Unknown).

[John Morris]

Coming in late here, and it doesn't solve the issue but just an observation, to me the entire woodwork looks like it has a satin finish on it. And the shiny spots are where the previous owner used something to clean areas before showing the rv for sale.

The image of the crown molding looks like greasy finger prints. Is that the kitchen area possibly? It'd be nice to see images of the woodwork head on, instead of from an angle where light bouncing off the surface.

 

More pics like this one would be nice with even lighting, and in this one, it simply appears to be a satin finish to me, that's all. And that shiny spot, don't know, could be anything, cleaning agent caused it, touch up attempt. It's impossible to know unless you reach out to the original owner and ask them if they did anything to cause that shade difference, I am sure they'd be cooperative.

 

[John Morris]

On 12/25/2023 at 10:36 AM, markpj23 said:

Is there a wipe-on lacquer or is it best to spray this?

 

@markpj23, if you do decide to refinish the woodwork, I'd use a wipe on like Tried and True, spraying would be messy, and complicated in those tight quarters, you could however remove all the doors and spray them outside, and hand finish the trim.

But I'd go with a wipe on, #0000 steel wool everything and wipe it on, you'd be done in a day.

 

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TOOLSFORWORKINGWOOD.COM

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[John Morris]

Just had another thought, are we sure the wood surface is really wood? Often in RV's, they'll use an engineered core with vinyl or paper wrap to simulate wood.

[markpj23]

Many thanks for all the replies. The cabinets are definitely solid wood. I will give the steel wool & Danish oil a try.