I’m trying to Re-veneer a part of my cars console and the piece has a bend of about 80 degrees. I’ve glued the veneer down with contact adhesive, but around the bend it has developed a crack. Is there any way to repair it? is it salvageable or do I need to redo the veneer? How can I repair the crack before I start polishing?

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  • Hi welcome to SE. This is a prime candidate for the prevention is better than cure mantra. With a bend much gentler than this it would have been advisable to make the veneer more flexible before even beginning. With a bend this pronounced however there's still no guarantee of success. You're in luck though, because this is a burl you can hide a multitude of sins in the 'busy' colouring. Just fill and sand, tint here and there and move on with the project. – Graphus Sep 4 at 7:09
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    I agree that you're not probably not going to be able to completely "fix" this now that it's glued down. Next time use a "veneer softener" to make the veneer flexible before you attempt to bend it. They can allow pretty extreme bends without cracking. – SaSSafraS1232 Sep 4 at 21:46
  • Also, you might be able to remove the whole sheet with some combination of heat and solvents (acetone, MEK, stripper, etc.) but I honestly probably wouldn't bother, as I think you'd probably just do more damage to the veneer. – SaSSafraS1232 Sep 4 at 21:57
  • @SaSSafraS1232, oh if removal is being contemplated you've got to go into it assuming it will trash the veneer. Burl veneers have no strong axis so there's no one direction that you can favour, and as this is a modern veneer it's also likely to be very thin. And that's even before taking into account that it's contact adhesive, not known for letting go gracefully. – Graphus Sep 5 at 6:09
  • Steaming it prior to application would have probably helped. – Andrew Sledge Sep 5 at 16:44

I reached out to a friend-of-a-friend who does parquetry. He suggested applying heat with an iron to try smoothen the ends out. It was relatively successful in that the crack is no longer sticking up, however there is still a visible line where the crack is. I’m going to try fill/sand this and hope it doesn’t stand out too noticeably when polished. enter image description here

  • Do share the final result with us and the processes/steps you used. – Greg Nickoloff Sep 9 at 20:30

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