Sanding, or not?

[mordzy]

Hi there,

i have a cab thats scratched, dinted and warn round the edges. i think its laminated is some black material. a friend said not to sand this off as the wood would crumble.

is this accurate?

should i fill and sand back my filler then clean with panel wipes before painting? im not sure how the undercoat would take to laminate.

[orchidius]

About the crumbling: this COULD happen, but it all depends on the kind of wood that's underneath it, the age of the wood and what it's been through. If we're talking about a 30-year old cab with a lot of water damage, then the wood underneath the laminate is most likely heavily damaged and might crumble if you take away the laminate.

Sanding it down a bit with very rough sanding paper and applying a couple coats of high quality primer should be fine though. Then you can proceed painting as normal (paint/sand/paint/sand/paint/...).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but afaik, you can laminate on about anything. So there shouldn't be a problem there. Just make sure it's an even, flat surface and use the proper techniques.

Damaged edges, corners can also be fixed by soaking them in wood glue and clamping them together very firmly. Look around, it has been done before and there's a nice guide around with pictures.

Cheers!

[saleem]

use a good quality filler,bondo as americans say,i use p38 car body filler,its basicly 2 part filler.then leave to dry then sand it down.as for painting ontop of laminate.i would suggest a pimer first,get a good quality one so you get a good covergae of the laminate.preferably a couple of coats of primer,i would recommend zinsser bin myself.its good at covering and adhering,it is also god for sanding down.put a couple of coats then sand with finish sandpaper.that will remove any dust particles etc that stuck to the primer.

then use a good quality top coat.a couple of coats nice and even put on,use a fine foam roller.tyhen when its dried use 000 wire wool and give it a good sand with it.that will smooth the paint out removing small particles etc.i am not a fan of shiny finish's so wjhen you wire wool the top coat it will make it slightly duller.but,i mean how many shiny cabs do you see?

i am in same boat with a gremlin/sega cabinet.i just finished filling and sanding but,its laminated.see here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=102922.0