Just found this when searching for the article Ron mentioned 
Dave
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When I bought my 1967 Mark 2 in 1989, the car had been driven by two previous owners who did not realize the car would be come an ‘appreciating’ classic. On the plus side, the car had spent its entire existence here in rust free California, equipped from new with all synchro four speed, overdrive, Marles Varamatic transmission, and all matching numbers engine, gearbox, chassis. But, unfortunately, the second owner made the foolish decision of dealing with the drying out wood interior by ‘painting’ all the wood pieces with urethane. By the time I purchased the car, every piece of wood looked like cheap yellow plastic. with no grain to be seen anywhere. I joined the local Jag owners club and befriended a member who had refinished the wood on his 1964 Mark 2. Although the results on his car were not perfect, they were light years better than the disastrous urethane on mine. When I showed him my car, he assured me the wood on my car could be rescued, and he even offered to help me. It was a long, arduous process, first removing all 26 pieces of wood from the car. Using (carefully) paint stripper, razor blades, and steel wool, the yellow urethane was successfully removed, revealing a (still) beautiful ‘straight grain’ bookmarked salvageable veneer underneath looking very much like some of the photos in a few of the Mark 2 restoration books by the likes of Nigel Thorley and others. Once the wood had been sufficiently prepped, we sprayed on a product called Marine Spar varnish in a dust free space (VERY IMPORTANT) rubbing with fine steel wool between coats. In 2002 I applied a few ‘refresher’ coats to the dashboard top as well as wood cappings on the doors, again using fine steel wool between coats. That was 19 years ago, and I’m pleased to say the finish has held up well all these years.
I believe Marine Spar is a type of urethane.
Ok, I found my print copy. I won’t reproduce it here because it’s copyrighted and I don’t wish to be sued. You can access it by subscribing online for $99 and then cancel if you don’t find it of value. The article reviews 15 products, and the author was looking for performance that allowed both wipe-on and brush-on capability. He rated General Finishes Arm-R-Seal Oil and Polyurethane Topcoat as best, and Minwax fast-drying Polyurethane as best value. The Sutherland-Wells product I listed earlier was reviewed and rated excellent for shimmer/depth, figure, and scratch test. It’s wiping and brushing characteristics were good and excellent respectively - they called it the best brushed finish, but hard to wipe on evenly. It’s also the most expensive by far, probably because it has a lot of tung oil and comes from a small specialty company. The Minwax was only $10/qt, the GF $17, and the SW $46 at the time of print in 2015.
Rockler sells the GF in satin for 21.99/Qt
The link is for a pint, probably enough for a car. I think I might try it alongside the SW. The author did note that the SW product was one of the darker finishes - I don’t think that is much of an issue for our woods.
Hope this helps someone.
And I wouldn’t condemn urethanes based on the anecdote above. In my experience, they have good clarity. Do we really know what that yellow finish was?
Ron, In my experience urethane has a tendency to amber or perhaps? yellow when exposed to sunlight. One of the advantages of marine spar is that it has some UV inhibitors in the formula. How long ago was it that you refinished your woodwork using the method you described? How is the appearance today? It sounds like you were happy with the result. When spraying urethane, I think you need to be care about putting too much on. I recently finished a live edge walnut slab, and at the customer’s request, used multiple (4) coats of urethane. I was very happy with the appearance until the final coat, after which it had a plastic appearance.
I restored the wood on my Mk2 as part of my still ongoing restoration. I did a write up with some photos on this in a prior Jag-Lovers thread: Mk2 wood dash question - #7 by tapped
Last year I finished the remaining many small pieces. Will post some photos of those when I get a chance.
I like it. 
20 characters!
Since I didn’t own the car during its first 22 years of existence, for all I know the first two owners of the car were foolish enough to have parked the car outdoors. The color of the red furflex had faded as well, and, of course, once I’d removed all the wood pieces from the car, had the headliner and furflex replaced. Several months later, carpets were replaced with proper red wilton wool. Urethane ‘painted’ wood yellows in sunlight. Marine spar varnish, with the car parked indoors, does not.
That’s why I used Epifanes marine varnish. Needs to have UV protection. I figure boat varnish should stand up better in a car interior.
On the hand-rubbed finish…that’s what I originally thought I’d do, but I concluded that finish was not durable enough. The flip side is that it’s easier to repair, but might need that more often. That was my assessment…which may or may not hold true in real life. I did try to avoid the wood looking like it had a thick layer of plastic over it. Some of the initial urethanes I did gave that result. Epifanes is diluted and quite thin when applied. The dash was sprayed and the smaller pieces all hand applied. In both cases there was lots of sanding between coats.
Interesting to note on your wood as well as mine, color on the wood ‘eyebrows’ is lighter than the other wood parts, due to their direct exposure to sunlight over the years. Please post photos once you’ve put them back in to the car. Thanks
Mel R
Hope you’re patient, might be a few years before the car is complete 
What do you consider the eyebrows? If you’re meaning the wood at the top of the windshield, this has no veneer on it so it’s the color of whatever kind of wood it is. It was completely stripped and refinished, so any impact from the sun is no longer present. All other pieces with exception of the door caps also are veneered with walnut and some also with contrasting anigre.
I think part of the beauty of this is the variation in colors. Will be interesting to see how it looks when all back together.
Hi Tapped and all, The finish on your wood trim looks great! I am the one who started this string by asking about wood finishes, and I have a few specific questions. The wood trim is in very good condition and quite presentable at a glance. The car was covered and parked in a barn in Eastern Washington from 1983 until 2003. Since I have owned the car it has been stored in a heated garage in Seattle, and never driven in the rain. So no sun or moisture damage. However upon close examination it appears to have been recoated with something? by a previous owner, and as a result there are numerous dust specks in the finish and other minor blemishes. I am in the process of completely redoing the interior, and most of the wood will be removed in the process. What I would like to do is to sand the existing varnish smooth and then recoat with a suitable varnish. I don’t think I will need to sand to bare wood. Tapped, is Epifanes marine varnish available in the Seattle area, or did you order online? Was all of your trim sanded to bare wood? Do you think this product would work well for the approach I propose? What type of brush did you use for the non-spayed pieces? Please let me know!
Thanks,
Mark in Seattle
I would be inclined to steer away from ‘sanding’ and go for a non mechanical removal of the coating. One slip and you are likely to go through the veneer.
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Good point Robin! I would like to try to not remove all of the existing finish since it is in good condition, and use very fine grit sand paper or steel wool to smooth out the dust specks and use the existing finish as the base coat. Then follow with
a couple of thin top coats.
You want to “scuff” it. One suitable product is Scotch-Brite abrasive pads (ultra fine–light grey). IMHO.
Is it actually shellac? If so, couldn’t the area be repaired as it would be done on furniture?
Mark – I got the Epifanes on Amazon and also would suggest buying their thinner as well. Instructions tell you to thin it 50% on first coat and then progressively less thin as you build up layers. On wood that’s already been finished it probably won’t be too many layers. On new wood like mine it took many layers, mainly because it takes 4-5 layers just to fill in all the grain to get a truly smooth surface. I stripped all the veneer off mine and started from fresh which means I needed to learn how to vacuum veneer as well as fit all the pieces. It was a PITA, but rewarding in the end. There’s some insight into why my restoration is taking so long…learning a lot along the way, but that’s part of the journey for me.
As far as brushes – I used cheap foam brushes. Because you’re sanding between coats and even at the end (wet sanding w/3000 grit for example) minor brush marks really aren’t an issue. The dash top and glovebox was initially brushed then I used my HVLP sprayer for final coasts. Still needed to sand though, but the surfaces are fairly large so made it easier. On the many small pieces I deemed setting up HVLP too much trouble as brush on application was working well.
If your current finish is yellowing it’s likely because it doesn’t have UV protection built in. Hence my focus on a marine finish as that’s pretty much mandatory. Agree with prior posters that you need to be careful about sanding through the veneer…it’s super thin.
Btw, since you’re finishing over an existing finish…you’d be wise to check compatibility on some inconspicuous area. Not all finishes play well together and you don’t want to find out the hard way.
I don’t think so, although the oldest Jaguar I worked on was a 1971. Shellac is pretty thin and alcohol dissolves it–not mineral spirits like varnish. My car seemed like varnish–thick, removed with paint stripper.
BTW, later cars (1988-) had interior wood finished with polyester (as often used on pianos). This stuff can’t be stripped. It tended to bubble up from the underlying veneer. That was a problem on virtually all of the XJ40s.