I finally finished up the panel. I started by laminating ribbon cut mahogany paper backed veneer on to plywood. I veneered both sides to prevent it from bowing later. I used Heat Lock glue.
I then made a paper template.
After transferring the template I cut out the panel.
Then I checked the fit.
I then filled the grain by padding on six coats of orange shellac. Sanding it down to the wood with 180 grit sandpaper. Then repeated, but just sanding down almost to the wood. 180 grit is too coarse. I used it after reading a procedure on a woodworking site. I ended up using 600 grit for sanding between coats of Lacquer. I used Mohawk Classic Brown Mahogany.
The front after apply several coats of the toner lacquer and a couple of coats of clear satin.
And the back with clips installed.
In order to screw it in with wood screws as it was originally done I had to make a fixture for my drill press to angle the screws 30 degrees from the normal. I glued on cork so that it wouldn't affect the finish. I couldn't just free hand it because the panel sits behind strips that are only 3/16" thick and you don't want to risk having the screw hole show up.
It was either this or make a drill guide to hold in place inside of the cabinet and use a hand drill.
The fixture:
Here's the final product. I'll have to take some photos of it working. The bezel is NOS courtesy of rdreyfoos. It has a little shop rash on one corner, but I'm reluctant to try to repaint it at this time.
As I mentioned previously, I don't want to refinish the rest of the cabinet for sentimental reasons so I had to try to match the finish.
John