Shop Van Wood bed gunk removal

[Lucky Forward]

I got my shop van in and I am having a ball restoring my first CCKW. Questions :

I want to restore the wood back to the Oak finish since I am making the Van into Patton's HQ van. There was once a generator or something in it that left a lot of gum, grease and gunk. Is there a product that will draw this out of the wood?

I am going to have the van sandblasted in a couple of weeks. I have not had to do that before. Would it be a good idea the have the bed sandblasted?

Side note: The folks that that had this before the guy I bought it from did some interesting renovations. They totally re-paneled the inside of it. Did a great job. I did see something today that caught me off guard. The paneled over the inside window behind the cab, but did not take it out. I decided to cut through the metal as I wanted the window to use and put it back the way it was.. I found that they coated the entire panel framing with a black tar substance and they used styrofoam between the outside skin and panel. The replacement panel had tar paper on on the inside. I can tell you that this baby won't leak or rattle. Has anyone heard of this type of work being done before?

Denny

[Cat Man]

After a standard wipedown with mineral spirits, you can scrape and wipe off all the old oil from the wood surface, then try using spray on Foaming Oven Cleaner.

We use this trick in restoring military gunstocks that have years of oil, sweat and dirt absorbed into the wood. Oven Cleaner will "deep clean" the wood and pull oil out of the filers. You can never get it back to "New". It will remain stained. But you can get the wood pretty clean.

It will foam up and stink like hell. It is Nasty. Use really absorbent wipers. Baby diapers work well. Have plenty of ventalation. It usually takes several applications.

The process works even better if you can warm the wood area you are working on. Use a heat lamp or electric hair dryer. Warm a small area about 12 inches square and work on one area at a time. DO NOT USE ANY TYPE OF OPEN FLAME!!!!! Oil soaked wood is a HUGE fire hazard if you use open flame. Same goes for cutting torches and grinding wheels used in the area.

But extreme conditions sometimes require extreme measures.

Just be careful and Good Luck,

Cat Man