Steve Austin writes:

Not many shops will tackle these factory painted hoosiers, but,

I've done quite a few of them, and I know what I'm going to run

into, and how to deal with it.

They're very difficult to do, and very difficult to make halfway

decent looking. This finished one is a Sellers, and it's a

combination of oak, maple, and poplar. Stain alone, won't be

enough, you usually have to use a toner over a light stain, which

is what I did with it. It's not a primo piece, but, it's presentable,

for what it is.  Darker stains have a tendency to make them go

grundgy looking.

There's no sense screwing around, everything on the top has to

come off, including the back, which is very fragile. You can

replace those, but, they never look right, unless you're really

good with dye stains, and know what they should look like, most

people don't.

No matter how well you strip them, you're going to get ghosting

because of the type of paint it is, and it's a waste of time to try

because it's going to need to be sanded any way. The main thing

is to spend your time stripping the places that are difficult to

sand, like the edges and moldings around the door panels, and

the joints, really well. The ghosting on the flat areas will sand off

faster than you can scrub it off with stripper, so once you're

down to wood, don't worry about it.

The bottom is a different story, it's not neccessary to do more

than take the door and drawers out, and hopefully, you never

have to replace a bottom in one of those, it's a miserable, time

consuming job.

The other photos are of the Napalee hoosier, showing the

ghosting, and the tambour groove and circle.  The owner wants

to refinish it himself, heh, heh, heh, so did the owner of the

Sellers, until I explained what he needed to do. Actually, the

doors on this one stripped surprisingly clean, it should be a much

easier job than the Sellers was, and this one is going to look

much nicer, if it's done right.

Steve Austin-NY