Exterior Wood Finishes

[commanderpete]

Nice looking wood there Willie. Are those teak coamings?

My biggest problem with varnishing is getting the weather to coincide with my free time. I'm always trying to slap on a few coats in early April. The weather is cold and raining, or threatening to rain. If I followed the manufacturer's guidelines I would never get the job done. Once the tape goes on the clock starts ticking. Even good tape can be hard to remove if you leave it on too long.

So, I've been known to push the envelope. I've found that if I get over 50 degrees the varnish will be O.K.. I've been surprised by the rain more than once too. As long as the varnish has an hour or two to skin over the rain won't hurt it.

Don't try this at home, your mileage may vary.

Laying on the varnish goes quickly. Everything else seems to take time---getting down to the boat, rolling out the supplies, taping off, setting up etc.. Once the brush hits the varnish it goes quick, or it should.

[CupOTea]

Hoping I can get the remainders of some of the old screws which just twisted off in the removal process out of there before I start stuffing them with mahogany. Thanks, Theis.

First the screws, then the bungs - scraped, not sanded.

The schooner looks great, Mike. Congratulations. No wonder you're on top of so much of this stuff. I'm going to bed the coamings with Dolfinite when I put them back in.

Just for the record, I was talking to the Epiphanes guy today about thinning and they pronounce it Epi-faness (Dutch).

[CupOTea]

One more question - when varnishing the coamings are y'all doing one side then the other or standing them on edge so they are vertical and then varnishing? How does either one affect the application of the varnish?

[willie]

Good question, one i had, but was afraid to ask!
What i did, was hang them by wires, via a screw in each end in the bottom edge. Not saying it worked the greatest, or was the best way, but couldn't come up with a better idea! That way i could do both sides, all the way around at one time. It still will run, especially from the holes. Have to be careful brushing around them not to fill em up, then it runs down when you're gone. And maybe a few runs don't really matter until the last couple coats. You'll have to clean the varnish out of the holes too, if they get too much.

It's interesting. I tried laying them flat first, doing one side then the other. You get a mess on the bottom side. I did anyway. Good luck, let me know what you come up with for future reference!
\
Going sailing. Still like summer here. Gonna be ugly in August i'm afraid.

~ _/) ~

[Mike Goodwin]

Leave them attached to the boat and use blue, green or silver fine line masking tape . I find that much easier . The silver tape costs more but can last upwards of 2 weeks in the sun and rain , the green is not quite as good and the blue is good for 2 or 3 days if there is no dew and no rain.
Never ever by cheap tape , not worth the mess .

[CupOTea]

Glad I asked. The coamings are already off the boat - had to take the old finish all the way down and there is a little filling to do on some punky wood at one end (still looking for the recommended laquer based wood putty). So I guess I will hang them. Thanks Willie.

Mike - I am an inch away from placing an order on a "Goodwin Spec" Tohatsu 6hp - but Nissan is telling the dealer that they don't offer a 6.5 pitch prop for this model. Do you have a # (like for the vertical pull elbow fitting) for this prop or did you have yours changed?

[Mike Goodwin]

You have to get the prop as an extra or spare prop , they wont ship it as standard equip . The vertical elbow is a Nissan Part , my dealer installed it for me about a month after I got the motor . I'll have to look for part #'s , they are in the paperwork .

BTW, The tape is silver , blue, green in order of preference , I switched the blue and green ,the green is same day use the blue is 48 or 72 hr and the silver has been known to work for weeks and still come right off .