I have a couple of kitchen doors that are showing some wear [my project] around some handles & by the sink. Finish sched:
mohawk solvent stain, vinyl sealer-1 ct, pre-cat 2-3 cts. Any suggestions for repair? Shaker design, so stiles could be masked off to just affected areas. Any help would be appreciated. Thx

Could be repaired with some mohawk aerosols but in the end they will wear just as fast or faster.... Conversion varnish or catalyzed polyurethanes are just much tougher finishes for kitchen cabs....

I was guessing precat before I got that far in your information. Sold as a miracle product, never met the hype in application. My personal solid cherry kitchen looks like hell, but it's been 26 years. Precat failed around the dishwasher, under the sink, and around the range hood. Strip and refinish with a better product is the fix.

I like Pre-Cat lacquers. I have been using then for thirty years. The thing I like most about lacquers and Pre-Cat is that you can top coat them. Sand the doors and you don't even have to remove all the finish. Then top coat them. If you hae a stain, you will have to deal with the color match if you sand through the stain. I have refinished jobs I have done 25 years ago and they look great. That is a selling point for going with Custom cabinets in the first place. You cannot do that with Conversion varnishes or polys.

you can absolutely sand and recoat Conversion Varnish if your using a quality product in the first place...A lot of us are confusing CV's with the days of old when CV's were super sensitive about reshoot intervals and they would wrinkle when reshot and all kinds of finish failures... wrinkling around sharp edges etc etc. This is not the case with the majority of the good ones these days.... They are very chemical resistant thus not to wrinkle on a reshoot... they do however need a strong mechanical bond and will need sanding thoroughly if repairs are needed.
If I were doing a kitchen for a paying client I would not use precat lacquer.. this cost difference in material is marginal, the difference in protection is not marginal..Far less humidity issues when spraying. shelf life for smaller shops is better... only catalyze what you need... honestly it's a win win....Especially when you have to go back to a client to refinish/match existing call back issues.... Back seal everything if possible.. especially the dishwasher and sink areas... false fronts for sink etc etc.... there's always the potential for water/heat damage around those areas and with the panel doors around the sink getting moisture in the unsealed areas of the stiles and rails if they aren't sealed around the inside edges.

Yes you absolutely can recoat CV, and I argue that it's easier than any precat product to do so, because it's far less likely to wrinkle when it gets hit with a harsh solvent.

Most of them are also non-yellowing, so laying another couple coats of clear won't make it even more yellow, the way most precats do.

The one caveat you must keep in mind is film build (which is also a concern with precat), you just can't go crazy thick.

To the original poster:
Depending on how bad the damage is, you can either strip and recoat, or just replace the doors altogether.

I have not sprayed Mohawk before so I cannot comment on it, but if I were in your shoes, I would look deeply into spraying something more durable. The only products we spray are conversion varnish and 2K Polyurethan, but 99.9% is conversion varnish. It's just far more user friendly as long as you buy a good brand. I have my preferences (AcromaPro and Sherwood/Kemvar) but there are other good ones out there.

No very hard to do
Because you use Mohawk products,you can get aerosol clear coat from them
And you can get a touch up marker/pen to match your stain(for small touch up areas)
Use 320g. To sand the area(use 220 if needed)
Clean with naphta
If the area is on the rail/stile,mask off center panel
Don't mask on any flat surface,you want to mask where there's a break(like center panel to the edges of rails/stiles
If you do,you will see a line when pulling tape off
Use your marker and touch up area
Use your finger to blend in
When satisfied with color, spray top coat
Do multiple thin coats
Mohawk do have vinyl sealer in aerosol if you want
Hope this helps

Thanks to all.Going there Friday to check it out and will post back.

Okay. Went to the kitchen in the above post and took a look. The areas that were the most evident of damage, were the top edge/side of the doors directly under the sink. There were also some wearing of the finish only on the edges of the doors. These were shaker cherry doors, with cherry hardwood panels. A few nicks here and there, caused by utensils, etc. In retrospect, I did not ease the edges enough before I did the finishing. So my plan of attack, is to remove doors back to the shop, ease the edges with 220-320, restain edges, mask off panels (they are all still pristine), fix any nicks, scrapes with Mohawk touchup products, and re-coat. This kitchen is almost 8 years old. The couple I did it for, her husband died a year or so ago. She asked me " how much is this going to cost?" I said, don't worry about it, I can take care of it. Any other ideas, suggestions for what I'm up against? If any problems come up another 8 years down the road, I think I may be retired by then. Anyways......
Thx

just make sure to clean them very well with naptha several times with clean rags each time so you don't run into any contamination problems...… shoot the backside of something first to make sure you don't get any wrinkling or finish failure from recoating and then go for it...

8 year warranty!!! I wish I could get that on my $47,000 van Im gonna buy! in 2.5 years, the whole thing is out of warranty.

Precat has its place. If I were to do kitchens, it wouldn't be it. I specialize in low cost very small runs. post cat would be awful. Precat is pretty darn good.