saw an ad in the AACA mag for a guy who refinishes woodgrain metal mouldings. asked him for a quote on doing two 26" by 1" door garnish mouldings. wants 150 frogskin. i think that's a tad on the high(better yet HIGH) side. anybody got source for the base coat and stain. did a 51 chevy pseudo-woody wagon 40 years ago with a kit i got at the local hardware store for a couple bucks. thanks guys.mike

Sometimes it pays to shop around. A few years back when I was refinishing mouldings in what I called "Simulated African Dark Red Mahogany" I would have charged about $40 for that. My process doesn't work well in cold weather so I only do it in the summer. I only use two colors, one is black and the other one isn't.

A base coat with a glaze stain then covered with clear works well. Hardware store glaze will work well. The problem is getting the grain to look like real wood. Takes some time and talent but the result is worth it. Some use crumpled paper, rubber graining tools, cheese cloth, brushes or other tools to make the grain required.

Use red oxide primer and top it with a jell type stain,like you use on fiberglass doors. Zar or something similar. I did mine with a shade darker and a shade lighter than what I wanted ,put one color on and added the other in spots and blended it together ,then used a stiff bristle brush to make the grain .I added a very small amount of black enamel [just a streak here and there] when it suited me I topped it with clear coat. results were real good.And the whole project was only about twenty dollars and a little fun time.I made a few practice runs and then did the whole car.