The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Re-finishing bed wood

I have a problem with my bed wood. When i installed it 2 years ago, I had finished it with POR's Pelucid clear coat. I know now that it was the wrong product to use, as it is intended for indoor use only, I was going for the high gloss. Now it has started to peel. What I need to know is, what would be the best thing to use to seal the wood? I think that i can strip the current finish off and not damage anything. I have the red oak from Mar-K, not stained.
Thanks for any help.

I always use a good exterior varnish or a marine varnish that can withstand UV rays. I am currently refinishing 8 boards for a 51 and so far have applied 3 coats underneath and three coats on top. I cover the grooves and sides/ends also. Between each coat I use 220 grit sandpaper and on the final coat (which will be #5) in lightly sand with extra fine steel wool to eliminate any roughness such as a tiny bubble, etc. Comes out looking like glass.

Mar-K has ongoing testing of several bed wood finishes. http://www.mar-k.com/wood_finish_testing_ii.html We coated test boards with ten different finishes and installed them in a test fixture outdoors with 24/7 exposure to the Oklahoma weather. In general, we have found that coatings need some kind of seal or primer coat for maximum durability. In the first series of tests, marine varnish by itself lasted only two or three months before defects appeared. The same varnish applied over epoxy lasted nearly a year.

We currently have two samples coated with Helmsman over seal coats of Pelucid. One is Pine and the other is Oak. After a year, the pine has still no defects showing and the oak has minor cracks begining to show. Pelucid is an excellent product and is probably suited for bedwood if it is coated with a high quality UV resistant topcoat.

Mar-Ktech

as info I refinished my bed not long ago and to get the old finish off so the finish job would all look alike I took my boards to a local cabinet shop that I knew. He ran them through his planer and I must say it really made them look nice and smooth. I measured them before and after and you can hardly tell any was taken off. He wasn't going to charge me anything but I gave him 10 bucks for some hardee biscuits as it would have cost me more for stripper and sand paper. Then I follow steps as mentioned above.