Rescuing an old glove box
Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 5:56 pm
As you know, the bay window buses (at least the early ones) had a glove box made of cardboard. After 52 years, mine has started to deteriorate and crumbles to the touch.
Since the only aftermarket I could locate was made of "fiberboard material" which sounded suspiciously like the original cardboard and cost $83.84 from Wolfsburg West, I decided to see if I could restore the one I had. Gorilla Tape wasn't going to do the job, since all it could stick to was crumbling cardboard. So I took another approach.
I painted the exterior of the glove box with Deft "Clear Wood Finish," which is a brush-on lacquer. I chose that type for two reasons:
1. I had some in my shop, left over from some some musical instrument build I'd done before I found a brand of lacquer that was specifically for musical instruments.
2. I wanted something that would soak into what was left of the cardboard and, when it cured, would stabilize it. I knew that lacquer was better at this than, say, a wipe-on polyurethane coat.
3. When applying a coat over the previous coat, the new coat partially dissolves the older one and sort of "melts" into it, eliminating the need to sand between coats.
I used three coats of the finish, applying them a couple of hours apart (that stuff dries fast). As I suspected, the first coat immediately saturated the cardboard, disappearing almost as soon as it was brushed on. I kept applying it until some of the lacquer remained on the surface. Then I applied the other two coats. When I was done, the glove box was indeed harder and more stable than it was before. You could flex it slightly and it would bend, but not break.
Is is a real cure? I don't know. But I guess it will do until a real cure shows up. I don't know of anybody who makes aftermarket ones for bay window buses, and I suspect that all the originals are as prone to breaking as mine was, so I really haven't lost anything but time and a little bit of lacquer.
Since the only aftermarket I could locate was made of "fiberboard material" which sounded suspiciously like the original cardboard and cost $83.84 from Wolfsburg West, I decided to see if I could restore the one I had. Gorilla Tape wasn't going to do the job, since all it could stick to was crumbling cardboard. So I took another approach.
I painted the exterior of the glove box with Deft "Clear Wood Finish," which is a brush-on lacquer. I chose that type for two reasons:
1. I had some in my shop, left over from some some musical instrument build I'd done before I found a brand of lacquer that was specifically for musical instruments.
2. I wanted something that would soak into what was left of the cardboard and, when it cured, would stabilize it. I knew that lacquer was better at this than, say, a wipe-on polyurethane coat.
3. When applying a coat over the previous coat, the new coat partially dissolves the older one and sort of "melts" into it, eliminating the need to sand between coats.
I used three coats of the finish, applying them a couple of hours apart (that stuff dries fast). As I suspected, the first coat immediately saturated the cardboard, disappearing almost as soon as it was brushed on. I kept applying it until some of the lacquer remained on the surface. Then I applied the other two coats. When I was done, the glove box was indeed harder and more stable than it was before. You could flex it slightly and it would bend, but not break.
Is is a real cure? I don't know. But I guess it will do until a real cure shows up. I don't know of anybody who makes aftermarket ones for bay window buses, and I suspect that all the originals are as prone to breaking as mine was, so I really haven't lost anything but time and a little bit of lacquer.