Man Overboard – Adding Grain To Scratches And Dents On A New Varnish Job
Graining, and yes I see that bung. UGH
Okay, today I am going to expose a little of my obsessiveness, I have never tried this, but often wanted to. Doing it with Filler stain is impossible, but the Jeld stain makes it possible, Filler comes right off once you apply a varnish to it, where as the Gel does not, and that is the big difference here. I also tried to blend a little
I have cans, and cans
I am sure there are tints and so on. But I wanted the opaqueness – and yes I did spell check opaqueness.
1- shot in with it to see what that did. Like a mix. One opaque and one a stain. The opaque ness helps and doesn’t in a way, the solid tone does eliminate the darker areas, but stands out, so I layered a light wisp of stain over it. BINGO. It’s a process of layering and this is where I can explain it. But show it.
This was a deep scratch from the accident. I covered it with some west and tape. This leveling it, and yes I tried to soak it out and other tricks, but this was deep and a rip of sorts. This is lightly sanded
I applied some of the mixed paint and stain, you can see a little bit of the yellow
Then came in with some stain,
And coated it with rapidcoat, and it exposed the yellow, and then whisp of stain over that
Can you spot it?
Right there.
Now this area
Lightning the darker seam of the wood
layers of tone
lighter and darker little flicks
Rapidcoat and a little touch up
You can see it, but its dam better
Remember, I have 12 coats of varnish to go, so this will be more blended and deep
Side by side, before and now and more to come, Little before after teaser.
The transom, this has been a bit of a journey. The seam needed to be smoothed out and then the same graining, but while allowing it to be a seam
Smooth as a B behind!
******DISCLAIMER: Please note, this is the Dumb-ass-emburg method, I do not recommend this way, it’s a patch of sorts. Pushing the inevitable down the road. Don’t include me in the same world as Mike Green, Snake Mountain who actually know what they are doing and share with us in their videos. MIKE GREEN HERE, – SNAKE MOUNTAIN HERE, – DAN LEE HERE
In this case, with all my parameters, Budget and time. It does do the job, for how long? Well? Thats the unknown. I am specifically doing this project to try new stuff, try to push the boundaries of budget / time restorations. Today can be seen as art, or lipstick application. I know this. BUT, if it gets one person to try it, to dive in and just power through the new unknowns, this method will restore more boats than not. My mission here is to not instruct, but to encourage and open up our community to new people. EVERYTHING I have done is stuff that can be removed, and done right later. Its just paint and varnish, and 20 tubes of 5200. Good luck with that one. But hey, maybe in 2045 when someone finds B, in the back yard of someplace, there will be another way to do this. A 3d Printed PVC hull you can buy from Alibaba. Please let me die before that!
Matt, the artist in you is coming out big time! Those cosmetic repairs are amazing.
Matt is doing an incredible job within the budget of $3k; love what your doing and looking forward to seeing the other boats at the boat show;
Hang in there with him folks, Matt has just gone done one of his ad man artistic rabbit holes…don’t worry, soon he will have to emerge and get to the engine, wiring, running gear and good stuff.
John, ever in awe of an artist (cause I Ain’t) in Va
Awesome job, Mat
A long time friend had a nice user classic Century, a boat which had a lot of party use which I happily participated in. A friend encouraged him to spend a winter making it into a show piece. He did well at some judged shows but showing wasn’t for him. Traditionally, He would come pick me up for coffee at sunrise but after the refurbishment I would take my shoes off as he had become very fussy about the cosmetics. He didn’t allow his children and grandchildren ride in the show boat.
Perhaps a self realization and possibly observations from his wife about his inability to actually use it again as a user boat he sold it and bought a fixer-upper pontoon. The boat is kept in very nice storage and rarely used by a family interested in preserving it.
That’s a sad story!
This morning when I first read Matt’s story I wondered about commenting on what a beautiful job you are doing covering up the blemishes on “B”, and yet it is those blemishes, scratches, and dings that tell the true story of a user boat. I understand the place in out community for “show boats” that are done to perfection, but Max’s story, to me, hits bone. Even “show boats” should be used to truly be enjoyed, and it’s OK for user boats to have some scars.
Wow Matt!!! You could be a Hollywood make-up artist or special effects tech/art director!
Just think and imagine what you could do with the face life lines of my favorite Patron Saint of Substance Abuse, Keith Richards!!!!
I mean, if you wanted a real challenge or something………😁
Wow! Great work. Wish I had seen before the work I did on my 199. Not going back, though. Wish I had the energy to tow it to Dora!
Matt, really great job at giving this boat another shot at life.
I’m sure you have visited George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate a number of times (like me when I lived back there in the late ’80’s). You would swear all the beautiful paneling in his home was mahogany — nope, all done by artists using the then popular technique of graining! So, all you have done here is to bring back technology from the late 1700’s.
History lesson for today.
Wheeler Dealers show did “fake” woodgrain on a Jeep Wagoneer that turned out pretty good.
I can’t find a link to the show that shows how the guy did it, but here’s a link to the finished product.
My 1941 16′ is a 30 footer… looks good at 30 feet.
These techniques are used in top resto shops everyday, but they’ve more practice at it.