If your RV has real wood cabinets you will eventually get water damage to the lacquer around the door handles and the tops of drawers. This is especially true in the bathroom and around the kitchen sink. My motorhome has walnut cabinets and with walnut, cabinet makers don't normally stain the wood but apply several coats of lacquer instead. The walnut then ages, highlighting the natural wood grain. Here is an example of one of the cabinet doors where wet hands have caused damage to the lacquer finish.
You may have oak, maple, cherry or another hard wood species in your RV and all these woods will experience wear and deterioration of their finishes. No matter what type of cabinetry wood you have in your RV, the principles in this article will apply. Since I currently have access to a wood shop, I decided to refurbish the water damaged drawers and cabinet doors of my coach. You can easily take a drawer that looks like this: 
And make it look like this:
This is how I did it: After removing the bathroom cabinet doors I masked the mirrors.
I then used steel wool to sand off the white patches of water damaged lacquer.
I used a wood stain that closely matches the color of my cabinetry and applied a light coat to the damaged sections, working it into the wood with a rag. 
Next I prepared my clear coat varnish. I used a polyurethane mixed with about 10% mineral spirits.
I like to use a compressed air sprayer. These are inexpensive (you can pick one up at Harbor Freight for $20.00) and they are environmentally friendly because they use compressed air instead of aerosol propellants. 
Fill your paint cup with whatever lacquer you prefer and lock down the lid. 
Connect the paint sprayer to an air compressor hose and set the pressure at 60 psi. (Note, different paint sprayers use different recommended pressures so be sure to read the instructions).
Wear rubber gloves and a respirator mask rated for this type of project. Work in a well ventilated area away from any spark or flame. 
Adjust the sprayer to the desired pattern and begin spraying.
Spray the doors and drawers using moderate to slow sweeping motions, being careful not to overspray. This back and forth spray motion should move beyond the edges then sweep back again. If you stop at the edge of the material you may cause runs and drips. The first coat should not be a heavy coat, but just enough to hold the stain in place. Allow the lacquer to dry for the allotted time according to the directions on the product you are using.
Repeat this process until you have applied three coats allowing adequate drying time between.
Bathroom cabinetry has a lot of exposure to water and water vapor. This causes deterioration of the lacquer on the cabinet face frames above the bathroom cabinet doors. After removing the doors, I masked off the area around the face frames and used steel wool to prepare the area for stain. After applying the stain, I used a foam brush to apply a coat of polyurethane.
Once the face frames were dry I reinstalled the doors and removed the masking. 
The finished product looks as good as new. 
With a little effort you can make your cabinets look good once again. Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing
8 comments:
Wow Jim this is valuable information... We have no damage yet but I can see where that would happen easily. Thanks for the directions... I will keep this info.
Have Fun & Travel Safe
Donna
They look great! Congratulations on such a great job.
Great job, filed away for reference. But, a little knowledge being a dangerous thing - was your top coat the thinned poly varnish or a lacquer?
Great info, and I love the walk-thru-it pix. I was confused at first, but writing out my question cleared it up, the last step applies to the cabinet front, not a final step for the doors.
Reply to "Com's" question. "was your top coat the thinned poly varnish or a lacquer?" I used thinned polyurethane. You can use any type of lacquer you want. I use the term "lacquer" in a generic sense meaning a protective coating. It can be an oil based or water based product (I prefer the oil based polyurethane products of which there are many). I would also like to say that I am not by any means an expert on wood finishing or woodworking. I am just an amateur woodworker who likes to putter. I just wanted to give readers one idea on how to spruce up water damaged wood. There are other approaches to doing this including completely stripping the wood using chemicals, sanding or both. My approach is easy and gets the job done fast. Hope this helps - Jim
I appreciated all the good tips, our doors need this and the way you explained everything made it easy to understand....what about door handles, ours look similar to yours but the gold has wore off and replacing 30 door handles in the kitchen and living area is way too much....any ideas on how to and what to use that would last a few years? jp from Texas
Hi Jim,
This is very good information. I have worked with Lacquer and it is a very nice product. I do have one more suggestion to add to the cabinet face lift project though, you can get what is called a "face plate" that is a flat plate that goes behind the cabinet pull or knob to help protect the wood from damage like you showed. Thanks,
Dan, North Dakota
Re: RVers can install their own tow bar system.
I cannot find correct bulb kit (bulb sockets all too big, socket with ground wire needed). Where will I find one like the diagram in Jim Twamley's article of August 7, 2007?
I also have a 2000 Honda CRV.
Thank you.
email address: bajasunrise@telus.net
Bill.
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