Revarnish Interior

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Sailfree

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Looking at revarnishing interior.

Is this a hospital job where I can rub down one day and then varnish early next morning and boat will be usable that evening.

Got 6 wks holiday on boat in summer so be nice to do a bit each day.

Any recommendations for varnish?

Do you thin down each coat? and what %. I am assuming it will need three or more coats to get good finish.

Need a matt varnish to match the jeanneau sprayed interior.
 
Sailfree said:
Looking at revarnishing interior.

Is this a hospital job where I can rub down one day and then varnish early next morning and boat will be usable that evening.

Got 6 wks holiday on boat in summer so be nice to do a bit each day.

Any recommendations for varnish?

Do you thin down each coat? and what %. I am assuming it will need three or more coats to get good finish.

Need a matt varnish to match the jeanneau sprayed interior.
Click to expand...

All I have had to varnish on my Jeanneau is the solid wood trim, which you can sand back. I'd be very wary of letting sandpaper anywhere near the veneered panels.

I have just last month revarnished some galley edge trim - rubbed down to bare wood and used four coats of Ronseal oil-based gloss varnish (had a can already) followed by three coats of Epifanes rubbed effect varnish. This gave a finish very slightly matt-er than the original finish.

Last winter I did some other bits around the companionway with four gloss Ronseal followed by three coats 50:50 mix Ronseal glass and satin - this gave a near-perfect match to original finish. Plain Ronseal satin is too matt. Always thin 1st coat on bare wood maybe 20%, and that first coat takes 24-48 hours to dry in winter. Later coats go off faster, typically 8 hours though I'd not recoat before 24. In summer faster.

The Epifanes reaches touch-dry much faster than the Ronseal. I like Ronseal products but I'd run out of their satin, and the local chandlers sold Epifanes.
 
Second the use of Ronseal. Satin blends well in my Bavaria, but as above you may need to experiment with mixture of gloss and satin to get a good match. Also agree that best not to touch veneered panels, although if they are very dull it might be worth experimenting in an area that is not seen. Massive job to strip back and then get a good finish on large areas such as doors and bulkheads.
 
Thanks

Worse edges are the galley, chartable, & table which appears to be a solid shaped mahogany edging. Companionway stairs appear to be a vaneered ply which needs rubbing down and revarnishing. I intend to lightly rub down some scratched areas on doors and blend in thin varnish - many coats.

Sole boards are damaged and some were a poor fit when new so intend to remove edging, rub down vaneer and re-vaneer on top - need to get holly strips to line up. Will be looking for an adhesive -probably epoxy- that will allow new vaneer to slide a bit. Then re-edge with lipping and re-varnish. I intend the sole boards to be a winter project a panel at a time in heated garage. I intend to additionally edge two long strips then I can take some material of the otside edge and get whole floor to be a better fit.
 
I seem to remember Full Circle running a thread on this, quite a thorough job he done too, boards and all. It all sounded rather good in the end.
?peck away at the dreaded search engine?
 
You will not do it in the manner you suggest as (a) it will take longer than you think to remove the old varnish and (b) you need to allow time for dust to settle.

I did the main bulkheads of my Westerly Pentland which were Sapele Mahogany. Used a very fine paper on the sander and gently removed the old varnish which had yellowed.

When I thought that I had removed all the varnish, I wiped down with turps / white spirits only to find that there were still areas with old yellow varnish. Allowed that to dry and sanded some more. Ended up using stainless wire wools and turps to removes the last of the varnish.

Allowed to dry and wiped down with some tack rags such as found here

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&...vptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_43btgq0cnz_b

Applied 1st thinned coat of varnish followed by two further coats of Satin applied with a varnish rolled and tipped off using a paint pad and rubbed down between coats.

Total was about 5 days work with few days off in-between.

You have to be very very careful that you don't go through the veneer. In my case I think the bulkheads in my Westerly were of very good quality as I tried the same technique years later on some Sapele doors on our fitted wardrobes and ended up thinning the veneer so the result was patchy and ended up scrapping them
 
For re-finishing my teak/holly sole boards I rubbed them down carefully so as not to go through the veneer and then applied 3 coats of Johnstone's floor varnish - the oil-based not the water-based, the satin not the gloss. This has proved so durable and generally satisfactory that I'm using the same varnish for all interior work and touching-up, not just on the floor. http://www.johnstonestrade.com/product-range/product.aspx?product=Floor_Varnish
 
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