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I should get my wood from Mar-K next week. There are so many opions on how to finish,I am undecided as to what products to use. I am leaning toward the Pelucid and Minwax for the top coat or maybe automotive clear for the top coat.Can anyone advise on the best way to apply the Pelucid? Should it be thinned,sprayed or brush, drying time before blocking ect? :confused: :confused:

I am finishing my boards today. I am using Watco Teak Oil as a sealer. Two coats of watco, let it soak for 30 minutes, then put it on again for 15 minutes. Wipe off, let boards dry for 72 hours. Then I will topcoat with Helmsman Spar Urethane. About 5 or 6 coats, sanding in between. I have used Watco on many of my woodworking projects. It is a linseed oil mixture. Works great as a stand alone topcoat on interior projects. I have used the teak oil on outdoor projects, it worked really well. Just my 2 cents.

I too have used Watco many times for interior projects and was pleased with the results.

At one time Watco had some bad press due to the rags catching fire after improper disposal after the job was done. So be careful with what you do with the rags.

Yep!! Had some rags smolder before, but never catch on fire. I use a metal bucket for the rags. Good point Mike!

Thanks for the info. I checked out the web on watco,sounds good, but I will have pine boards and wanted to keep them sort of natural. I believe this a type of stain for hard woods??? Am I correct ? How do you feel it would look on pine? What would you use to sand the top coat between coats? I have painted maybe a couple hundred cars, but don't know diddly sqwaut about wood. Mike E. I am in the process of a total resto rod of a 69 vette of my own and the 53 bolt is for a customer .

Watco Teak oil is a natural finish, no stain in it. On light colored boards it will give an amber look to the wood. Sand with 320 grit between coats of spar urethane to get the bubbles and imperfections out. The whole board should have a dull finish, then apply another coat of urethane. I have some photos on photobucket without the watco and with the watco if you want to take a look. I am using cherry and purpleheart wood. Can really see the difference.


http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t160/sworden73/

Coach,very nice. How do like the fit of the S10 seat? Any major mounting problems ?

Thanks Popa. We fabricated our own brackets for the seat. The seat is a little shorter than an original seat. Leaves us a little room to reach around the seat without folding it over. The truck had bucket seats in it when we purchased it. The S10 seat sits low enough that it is not above the bottom of the windows.

I agree with the Coach on the Watco process. They may have said something on the can about wet sanding with the Watco too. I haven't used the stuff in a long time.

If you want to use a traditional stain, Pine verses hardwood is an issue. Pine will suck up the stain and it could end up drying blotchy. I ran into a similar problem with Miniwax on oak, the stain oozed out of the pores of the wood and left blotches, even sealer didn't work too well on that problem. I would try a test piece and see what happens. You may have to start with a sealer, then stain to the desired color. I am into a major pine project now and it looks like I will end up doing this for a lot of board feet. The Coach is using some pretty hard lumber that will take a finish easier and better than pine. The key here is he is sealing the pores of the wood and then topcoating. I am assuming you are spraying the top coat. Light sanding between coats and build a deep looking finish.

You can probaly call the company 800 number and get some free advice on how many coats and any special techniques on how to apply.

Mike, I agree with the wet sanding. I have wet sanded with 600 wet/dry paper with Watco. Will work well on an open pore wood like oak and walnut. Fills the pores and makes for a real smooth finish. I agree with the problems you described with pine. I have used Minwax sealer on pine with some success. It still left some blotches when I stained it, but it did even out the finish for the most part.

I just thought I'd give you another option to check for a top coat finish. I just built oak running boards for my '46 Panel and I asked a guy at the wood shop about finishes for them. He gave me a card for a local guy that hand builds wooden canoes and kyacks. He told me to try Interlux Goldspar Clear #95. It's a ureathane/varnish for boats. Clear with UV protection. It is pricey, $25-30 a quart.It took 1 1/2 quarts to do the boards, 5 coats. But it came out very nice, very smooth and was applied with a brush. It can also be sprayed.

The Goldspar sounds good. It is probably pretty tough if it holds up on canoes. Worth a good try. The worst that can happen with all these finishes is that if they don't work you will have to do some sanding and try something else.

Good point, Mike. I am always on the lookout for better finishing products.

popa: I don't know if you are getting oak or pine. Both responded well to the Pelucid/Helmsman combination. We applied the pelucid with brush in our tests and applied the helmsman with spray. We did not thin it. This was in July so the material died quickly. I would not wait too long between coats to assure good linking between coats of the pelucid. This quote is from our tests http://www.mar-k.com/wood_finish_testing_ii.html We pretty much followed the instructions from POR15 about using Pelucid.

"PELUCID by POR 15 and HELMSMAN by Minwax

Pelucid is a single component polyurethane clear coating. In the first series of tests last year, we tested Pelucid by itself and found it to be quite durable. As noted, however, it is not intended for continuous outdoor exposure. Although adhesion was good, the sun darkened the wood significantly and some small cracks in the finish occurred. For this second test, we used the Pelucid as a primer coat to seal the wood and provide adhesion and used Minwax Helmsman for a finish coat to provide UV protectioin. We applied three coats of Pelucid a few hours apart then allowed it to cure 4 days. When cured the Pelucid was block sanded and then three coats of Minwax Helmsman were applied. This system is being tested on both pine and oak."


The finish has held up very well on the pine, with maybe one small flaw after almost 2 years in the Oklahoma weather 24/7.

We tried automotive clear over epoxy but not over Pelucid. It lasted well but not as well as the Pelucid/Helmsman. It sure looked nice though. You can put on several coats of the epoxy and block it to as smooth as you want then let the clearcoat make it shine.

Mar-Ktech

I forgot to mention the 12/05 update described the finishes and how we applied them.
http://www.mar-k.com/wood_finish_update_1205.html

Mar-Ktech

I was looking in a yatch supply store for what they use on boats and expensive yatchs and found this clear coating from a company called Bristol Finishs , sounds like good stuff. I'm thinking of trying it. Has anyone heard of this or tried it before?
Go to Bristolfinish.com check it out ??????????
Gene

WHOOPS !!!!!!
I mean YACHTS , you know those big expensive boats
Gene