I can pretty much get the veneer on now, doing it just as you say. But I am still fighting the finish. Current method is to use sanding sealer, then spray on lacquer with HVLP sprayer, sanding between every two coats. Getting the right ratio of thinner to lacquer is so far sheer guess work. Then finally polish using an orbital car polisher and Griot's different levels of machine polish. My finished product looks OK, but not like the dash on a Rolls Royce, which is what I aspire to. There are still small errors, both in the wood and in the lacquer, that show on close examination. I have been practising by refinishing the bases of my Bottlehead gear (you can sand away like mad, which you cannot do on the veneer), and am now making a small pair of veneered speakers on which to experiment further. Have also ordered a book from the library on refinishing, so eventually I should be able to do it.
PC, J River software, opticaRendu, Schitt Ygg DAC,Tortuga Pre, Torta Radu tube buffer, Linear Tube Audio ZOTL10, Spatial Audio X5w/pair of GR Research dual 12" open baffle servo subwoofers tamed by DSpeaker Dual-Core DSP , Audience AU24 SE spkr cable, handmade silver interconnects,