Applying film to the bathroom cabinet
I have a bathroom cabinet with MDF fronts lacquered to a gloss finish that are scratched. I want to cover them with adhesive film, but I heard that film sticks poorly to glossy lacquer. Is that true?
1 comment
I have a bathroom cabinet with MDF fronts lacquered to a gloss finish that are scratched. I want to cover them with adhesive film, but I heard that film sticks poorly to glossy lacquer. Is that true?
dk69-74
·1 month ago · EditedThe gloss lacquer itself has very low mechanical adhesion, which means the self-adhesive glue has less to grip onto than on a matte surface. There are several solutions. The first is to lightly roughen the surface with 240-320 grit sandpaper to create minimal texture without deep scratching, which significantly improves adhesion. After sanding, you must clean and degrease with isopropanol because all sanding dust has to be completely removed. The second is to use an adhesion-promoting primer, which is applied to the lacquer before the film and works like a primer. With lacquered MDF that has scratches, it is worth assessing whether the scratches are deeper than the thickness of the film, because the film will not fill deep scratches; you can first fill them with a fine-grain wood filler and sand them down.