Got all the boards layed out at Hawk Restorations for the first coats of clear. A little easier to see everything in all this good lighting.
When I did my clear tests, I always used gloss clear. This looked really good, but in reality, it was way too shiny. I really feel like there needs to be some contrast between the stainless mounting strips and the paint on the inside of the bed sides. So, I decided to use flat clear. It's actually is somewhere between flat and semi-gloss.
This stuff is only sold in quarts and we really had no idea how much would be needed for full coverage. So we started with just two quarts. This ended up being enough to do two coats on both sides of the boards.
Before paint...
Directly after being sprayed...
After two coats and dried...
I really like how this finish turned out. The only downside is the brush marks are still noticeable and the the grain raised some from getting wet I guess. Now there are some wood fibers sticking straight up. Since we need to order more clear, I will have these guys carefully sand this finish. Hopefully some of the lines will come out but will still retain that wood grain texture look.
