Search the Community

This is a pretty simple upgrade project that I'm working on, one door at a time. Basically, our 91 Warrior is full of these old cabinets that are darkened and weathered, finish peeling and flaking off, etc. We had originally planned on painting them all white or grey, which seems to be pretty common. But, I have to say, I like real wood, and these are quality oak cabinet doors, so I decided to go with a simple sand-and-refinish. Here's what I did: Remove cabinet doors and their handles. (Easy to do just a couple doors at a time, which is a nice thing about this approach—you can take your sweet time, spread it out over a few weeks or whatever.) Sand each door in the direction of the grain with 150-grit. Do it again with 220, and then remove all dust with shop-vac and wipe down with tack cloth or slightly damp, clean rag. Wipe on a light coat of polyurethane (I'm a big fan of the Minwax satin) with a clean, soft cotton rag. Wait 4 hours. Sand the new finish very lightly with 220 again. Remove dust and wipe on another coat of poly. Leave it alone to cure for a day or two. Reinstall doors and hardware. Here are a few photos of the before-during-and-after. (I also decided to clean and polish the dingy old handles, too. Any decent metal polish should work.)