A tale of woe....I had been storing some supplies behind the drivers seat (not a good idea but you never have enough storage space) and an item shifted back against the slide and it was not noticed. We stopped for the day and put the slide out and heard a loud snap that got our attention. The approximate 5 inch cherry board that trims out the front of the slide edge had cracked and split from the floor level upward about two feet. When it did, it flaked and cracked all of the lacquer type finish all the way up the wooden cracked area so the finish appears a dull white color where it was no longer adhered. I bring this all up, so that if you run into some damage issue like this, you would need to make a repair that looks close to the original. The gloss finish is not the easiest to deal with.....
I removed the board and put it on the workbench. I then tried to remove the loosest finish flakes with the tip of a sheet rock knife and had some success but not much so skip this step. I have one of those small oscillating/vibrating sanding tools with a triangular sanding disk on it. I used the tip of to basically sand out a groove back to the wood level which followed the crack. I ended up with about a 1/2 inch wide furrow in the finish +/- being careful not to sand the wood surface much. I then opened up the crack with some popsicle sticks and spread some wood glue in the crack for repair, then removed the popsicle sticks and clamped the board to close the crack. Remove any excess glue using a dampened cloth if needed and let it set until cured.
I then scuffed the existing finish lightly with a red scotchbrite pad until dull. I used some cherry colored Elmers wood filler (comes in a tube from Lowe's) on the surface of the crack to blend it in and seal it. Wipe any excess off while it is soft and let it cure. You can lightly sand that surface with the scotchbrite pad or fine sandpaper (220) if needed. I then wiped on a little cherry stain with a cloth and quickly wiped it back with a dry cloth until I was happy with the color match. I then used a foam brush and Minwax gloss polyurethane finish to coat the whole board, in the area with the crack I would use more varnish to work towards releveling the furrow and less of a coat elsewhere. I lightly scuffed between the first two coats. After the third coat I sanded with a 5 inch round orbital sander (I think 220 and then 320)getting back to near level where the crack was by sanding back the finish on the flat surfaces on either side of the crack. Continue sanding up the board to just scuff the whole length lightly with the 320. I then put one last coat of Polyurethane on and let it cure. It actually has a little more gloss then the other woodwork but is very close. I will let it be for awhile and if needed rub it down to dull it a touch. All in all it looks like nothing ever happened and the two finishes blend together very well. This took about an hour a day for 4 or 5 days to get the board repaired. Hope this helps.
Later Ed
