Friend needs help with table finish issues

Try posting this in the Finishing Forum.

-- Martyn -- Boxologist, Pattern Juggler and Candyman of the visually challenging. http://www.theartofboxes.com

That is a fair comment, Martyn, I don’t think this a an appropriate place for this post…

-- Drink twice... and don't bother to cut... @ larrysworkshop.wordpress.com For lovers of all things timber...

It needs to be stripped and refinished, plain and simple. Doesn’t matter the kind of wood.

-- Clint Searl.............We deserve what we tolerate

I’m guessing that the table has a lacquer finish and the nail polish remover is eating in to it. Nail polish is just lacquer. Strip it and redo w/o a lacquer finish.

-- Bondo Gaposis

Thanks for the comments and sorry if this is not posted in the proper place. You may have noticed I’ve posted just 6 times. I read just about every project but don’t really have much of my own to post about. I think my wife’s friend was looking for an easy fix and didn’t want to believe her husband we he also told her it would have to be sanded down and redone.

-- Dad: Someone was supposed to pick up his toys! Son: My name isn't "Someone".

I’ll agree with everyone too.
Strip and refinsih it.

I havent used this stuff yet but have heard some good things about a product called Restor-a-Finish. May be worth a shot to try. Worse that can happen is you have to re-finish table if it doesnt work. If it does, however, you will have saved your buddy a lot of time and effort. Good luck. And if it works as well as advertized let me know please.

-- “There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.” ~ JRR Tolkien

The wood species is parawood and the finish looks to be a sprayed paint with a rubbed/stained accent. I work on this stuff all the time. Before doing a full strip I’d try sanding down the entire surface (not through the paint, just through the topcoat of finish) and LIGHTLY coat over the bad spots with a satin or matte finish black spray paint. I can’t stress the word LIGHTLY enough. Steady hand, space between the can and the table – you’re wanting more of a mist coat than anything else and it will take several mist coats. Try (as best you can) to avoid the rubbed/stained areas. Patience and a light touch. Once the spots are sufficiently ‘colored’ back in you can go over it with several light coats of spray lacquer. This is all assuming, of course, that it’s lacquer on it and that would be my bet.
I had something similar not long ago from a lady whose 9 yr old armed with blue glitter nail polish had a run-in with her black parawood table. It took an afternoon to get the job done but it did turn out nice.

-- Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best. --Theodore I. Rubin

Nail polish remover is primarily Acetone. This has etched the finish.

You might be able to rub out the finish with a high grit paper (600 to 1200 grit)
If the etching hasn’‘t gone all through the finish, you could buff it to a shine with a furniture polish at that point.

I’d try that before I begin stripping it and refinishing.

-- "Hard work is not defined by the difficulty of the task as much as a person's desire to perform it.", DS251