This is how I did my wood on the exterior. No peeling or blisters yet, 2 plus years, knock on wood!
I went to the Antique Boat Center here in Cincinnati and if you ever want to see some boat eye candy you should stop and check it out. There’s a showroom of boats for sale.
Like going to a boat show of classics. They are very helpful and a fellow named Bryan said he did wood the old school way and told me how to do it. I bought the supplies from him and got to it. Besides lot’s of beer, here’s what you need…
I removed all the ext wood and took it to the shop. I took lots of reference pics because there’s lots of diff types of snaps, hardware, holes, I'd forget where it all went.
Also marked stars for starboard etc on the back sides of pieces when I removed them.
More reference pics…
The hatch you can see in the pic under the tools and other pieces had veneer that was peeling badly so I stripped it to the wood underneath which looked good plain.
After taking many reference pictures, I took off all the hardware and neatly put it aside...
Used chemical stripper from Big Box Hardware store. Found out stripper don’t work below 60 degrees. When it warmed up the stuff started bubbling and then scraped off the goo and let the pieces dry,
then I sanded and sanded…using a paint stick w sandpaper wrapped around it keeps the surfaces straight. The old grey wheather pieces had cracks and cleaned up somewhat, this is where the filler/stain helps.
The flying bridge wheel didn’t come apart so I had to do the wood on the wheel.
After it's all sanded and clean, I put on the stain filler combo, pasty stuff that can be thinned, a little goes a long way, a can can do a whole boat, after that dries you can put on the sealer. 2 coats should do.
When the sealer dried, I wet sanded that.
Be careful not to sand too much sealer off or you’ll see the stain start bleeding through the sealer coat.
While the stuff dried I cleaned up the bell and painted the windshield wiper motor cover, etc.
Everything needs to dry for 12 hours between coats so you need time and patience and a place to set everything while it’s wet.
I went down and painted the boat where the trim was taken off. I’m a sloppy painter so it was a good time to do it while everything was off.
Then start the many coats of varnish. Wait 12 hours and wet sand between coats to get each layer smoother, then add more varnish. I added a drop of soap in the water while wet sanding. Using finer sand paper as I went along 350, 500, 800 etc. The paint stick was used to keep it all straight …repeat when dry, over and over. I did not wet sand the last coat.
Getting near the final coats of varnish. The flag poles looking slick. I put it on the corner of the tool box to keep from getting too many marks on the varnish while drying. I put the trim up on 2 scrap pieces of wood so there wasn’t much surface touching the ground in case any drips happened.
I must of put 9 or so coats on. Lost count but you’ll know by how smooth and slick it looks.
I varnished the backsides of the pieces but not as many times as the exposed parts.
Here's the finished wood installed...
's Rule !!!