Bruce,

All of the previous suggestions will work to some extent but none have ever done an acceptable job for me. The only thing that is guaranteed to work perfect is to cut out the oil soaked wood and replace it with fresh wood.

I just finished recovering a nine year old club trainer that was in pretty sorry shape. I worked a week trying to get MonoKote to stick and finally just cut out the real bad parts and replaced the wood.

One of the problems with using liquids such as Acetone, MEK, or Lacquer Thinner is that they just thin out the oil and allow it to soak further into the wood. The Lite Ply fuselage sides were a problem first because MonoKote doesn't want to stick to ply very well anyway and second replacing the fuselage sides would mean rebuilding the whole fuselage. What worked pretty well for me was to soak the affected spots with Acetone and then using a dull flat knife blade at approximately 45 degree angle just press down hard and scrap the sludge out of the wood. You will take some of the wood with the sludge but that part is what you don't want to remain anyway. I made two or three passes with this technique then let it dry out and sanded with 200 grit. It wasn't perfect but at least the MonoKote would stick.

Another technique that I use is to prevent oil from soaking into the wood in the first place. I have found that using clear Polyurethane or some other fuel proof paint and seal the edges where one edge of the covering overlaps the edge of the underlying covering or where the edge of the covering meets open wood such as around the engine compartment. If you ever let oil get under the edge of the covering you are just dead meat because the covering will come up and the wood will soak up the oil like a sponge.

Here is a picture of the newly refurbished club trainer.