Hey fellas about 6 months ago i put new wood in my truck. all oak and with all that new hardware. Anyways i coated the wood with marine spar varnish, 50/50 first coat then 2 more full strength coats all around. Well i got home a few weeks ago and the varnish looked to be wearing off! i was just wondering if that's normal?
I'm kinda pist cuz it cost me a lot for that pretty wood and now it's got uglier stains and junk in it. Im refinishing the top again now but i just dont think the varnish shoulda worn off so fast. It was supposedly a really hot summer in Cali but i wasnt there.
Opinions woudl be great,
Greg

Two words for you...... auto clear. I had bad results with the varnish too...... the auto clear solved the problems.

tell me more about this auto clear..... if you'd be ever so kind as to let me know where to get it too would be great :D

I'm talking about automotive clearcoat.... like the stuff thats on your car. When I was in your position many months ago, I couldn't get a straight answer on whether this stuff would work on wood, but I decided to try it anyway. It worked great... the stuff still looks like the day I shot it. The clear must be applied with a spray gun, so that means you need a compressor and a little experience with a paint gun. I can only comment on the clear I used since it's lasted quite well for almost a year now. It was Dupont ChromaPremier that I bought at my local autobody supplier. One caution, I wouldn't use this again if I had to do another bed. It's too expensiv - a gallon of the clear with the required reducer and activator runs around $250ish. However, there are more economical clears. Rightnow I have these two project mailboxs I'm going to paint. I just order some Kirker clear and these boxes will show if its decent stuff or not...... the nice thing is a gallon of this stuff only ran $65 with shipping included **ordered thru the mail** If you have more questions just post again

Well thanks kindly man. 250 is a bit pricey, i guess i'll recoat a few times for now and await results on your clear test with the new stuff. I've painted a very little bit before with a gun as i primered my truck with it. It's a Cambell Hausfield from home depot (the pricier of the 2 there) it seemed to work well for spraying once i got the mix right and fudged the controls. Any special prep work? i've already got black stains like you said but i'd like to keep them gone. the sum***** is gonna be removing all that wood again. aww well... thanks much
Greg

Been there, done that!!! Not to discourage you, but you have some work to do. My bedwood was probably exactly like yours. The varnish failed and moisture was able to get into the grain, causing black mildew to form. It's a pain in the butt, but all that wood has to come out so you can work on it. I went over all the wood with the belt sander, 80 or 100 paper works, then took a spray bottle, like an old windex bottle, and put a mixture of 75% bleach and 25% water and sprayed the black spots with it, allowing it to soak in for a little bit then drying it off with paper towels. You have to be careful with the bleach mixture, because the areas that are black will become discolored from the bleach. Let the wood dry and see what happens. If the majority of the black stuff is gone then proceed to the next step, if you still have some mildew left, hit it with the bleach again. Now comes the part thats no fun. Take the belt sander again and go over it with 80 grit. You have to basically plane down the boards again. We are talking about lots of board feet, so this will take a while. It's a judgment call on how far to go, but you want to try to get back to wood that looks original and clean. The more material you take off, the less amount of the funky bleached areas will show. Once you get it fairly close step up to 120 or 150, then to 220, and I went up to 320 just to be safe. Now you're ready to clean the wood, you can vacuum/tack rag it, or blow it off with compressed air *thats the easiest way to do it*. Now its time to stain it. I used a Minwax stain on mine. I put it on really heavy, let it sit for 15 or 20 minutes, then wiped it down with a rag to get off all the excess. I let the wood sit for about a week or two before I touched it. I wanted the oil in the stain to totally soak into the wood and dry out. After this "curing period" was over, I prepped it for paint. I scuffed all surfaces of the board very lightly with 400 paper, followed by a quick wipe down with laquer thinner. This you have to be careful about. If your rag is totally soaked with thinner it will start removing the stain. So again, be cautious and use common sense. Now its time to spray. I did the bottom of the boards first. I did this at my dad's shop. He had lots of floor space which made it easy to set up all the boards. I did 3 wet coats of clear on the bottom, also I sprayed the sides too. I let that dry for a day, then I flipped them over and shot the top, 3 wet coats as well. You'll see, if you end up going with the clear, that the oak's porous grain will affect the end result of clear. It won't be perfectly flat, there will be craters due to the pores absorbing some of the clear. That's why I did 3 wet coats, it helps the clear to flow out and level itself.

Thanks so much for all the info man, sounds like a good bit of work and time, but i'm sure it's gorgeous. My thought is why didnt you take the woods thru a planer ? Sanding is rather time consuming and the boards i got were for the most part very flat and straight so i think i'd be able to cut some time possibly by just planing stuff. Curing time and spraying would be a biggie for me because i've got no shop and my garage is full (dad's boat and tools). Perhaps i could talk to my local paint guy at GM and see if he'd help me out with some storage.... hmm
Thanks again man, keep me posted on the new stuff

It's like anything else, you use whatever tools you have. I have a sawzall, a masonry saw, a circular saw, a table saw, chop saw, sanders, joiner, router, but no planer yet! Go figure huh. If I had a planer it would cut down big time on the prep time. One thing I forgot to put in my last post, when you do nice wet coats, you have to be sure to allow at least 20 mins between coats, 30 is better. When you put it on really thick really quick there's a thing that happens called solvent pop. I got a couple bubbles, but luckily it was on the underside. Also, since you won't sand and polish the clear out, make sure you spray it to reflect the final surface.

I've worked on old mahogany boats for many years, so I know a thing or two about marine varnish.

I'm not surprised that by the end of the summer the varnish on your bed was failing. Only a few coats was not enough varnish to stand up to the heat and UV of a long summer. Marine varnish does need to be maintained, too, even after a good build-up of layers has developed. For wood exposed to harsh conditions(marine and truck beds) light sanding and recoating twice per year is not uncommon.

When faced with black stains such as yours, I used a chemical called bleach wood (found in hardware stores, granular in composition, mixes with hot water) and lightly worked the spots until the stain was nearly gone. A light sanding of the spot as well as the rest of the varnished surface is all that's required before laying down coats of varnish (light sand between coats of varnish, too). No need to totally strip down the wood.

Using varnish is not hard or terribly time consuming. And when done correctly, the finish is awesome!!

Good luck

Well thanks for the advice. The black stains actually look kinda *****in because they contrast the back a bit, i'll take some pics. I'll probably just keep recoating and doing maintenance, until i get fed and then clear coat em liek Calisurfer

Greaseball ever used WEST SYSTEMS 2 part clear on your mahogany boats? I use it on our custom bed kits on oily teak and have never had a problem yet (knock on wood)after wiping with acetone. PETTIT has a new 2 part clear we are testing too that has a better (or so they say) uv protection.

One important point, if you are using regular wood and shaping/cutting it to fit (rather than using a pre-fabbed kit) you have to make sure the wood has been cured properly. It must be dry, dry, dry! Any moisture locked in by sealants will rot the wood from the inside.

it was a prefab kit i got, from chevy duty i believe. i'm resealing the wood as a fix for now. it actually looks quite good with the black in it, good contrast. anyways a few more coats and it'll be good for a bit i hope