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Refinish sole

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2020 7:24 pm
by Camino
Thought I’d re-visit this topic as I did chime in earlier. Refinished galley and main salon sole

Sole was badly beaten up after 20 hrs of use, lots of dings, scratches, and water stains. Heat gun in low with 4” scrapper of which 2” were typically used. I could get usually about a 4”-6” slice of varnish off at a time. Pretty fast work really. Finish was bothersome! From previous post I bought Bristol Classic Clear (gloss) water based - I really didn’t want gloss as all the blemishes show but the boards, after sanding looked pretty good so— the Bristol Gloss on each coat saw bubbles! 6 coats on first trial piece and bubbles! Sanded between coats even, still bubbles so finished with water based satin polyurethane premium (I had 3 small cans). 2 coats of that at end came out like this- I’m happy ;)
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Re: Refinish sole

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2020 8:39 pm
by Tmack
Very nice!

Re: Refinish sole

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2020 10:31 pm
by BillSmith
Looks great. Can you do mine next? :D

Re: Refinish sole

Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2020 8:42 am
by RadioZephyr
Looks great! Mine are in desperate need of such a treatment, but I have absolutely zero experience with refinishing interior wood so it keeps getting pushed to “next winter.”

I even have a brand new, unfinished panel from the bottom of the companionway steps ready to go. When the previous owners took delivery of the boat, one of the builders had dropped a tool down the steps and put a dent in that panel, so Freedom gave them a fresh one to replace it. They didn’t mind the dent, so they just kept it as a spare and passed it to me when I bought the boat. Seems like a good place for me to start, since I won’t have to scrape anything off of it.

Re: Refinish sole

Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2020 12:17 pm
by Camino
On refinishing - removing varnish.... I use a heat gun and putty knife because I don’t like the mess of the chemical strippers :D my 4” putty knife has a beveled edge which I sharpened a bit ( not dangerous sharp, but sharp enough so I feel the edge). I lay the putty knife about a 1/4” from the edge with an angle of about 50 degrees, heat on low until I just begin to see bubbling (just) and then push the knife forward with the heat still on it and slide. I went back and did the edges after (harder for me)... after each board, I vacuum up the pieces and take a break. I used a ro with 150 - seemed all that was needed.

Mixing brands of finish is not recommended! In this instance both were water based. I tried to keep with the Bristol Clear but those darn bubbles ! So the last coat was satin, which I had on had and didn’t want to buy Bristol in satin. . I think it would be difficult to really screw up! RO sanding bubbles, etc helps a lot. Remember that the veneer is super thin, so sanding on bare wood needs to be done carefully - 150 is good. I did use 120 at first until I bought the 150. 150 was easier on my mind :D My coats dried in 1 hr and recoated in 1.5 hrs. I used 6 coats, sanded, wiped clean, and a final 2 coats. If I didn’t have bubbles, I’d do the six coats, sand, and a final coat. Seems ok.

Also - as Geoff pointed out, its really better if one can hvlp shoot the finish, especially varnish - I have a dog who hates water (golden retriever!) and who easily marks up my varnish so I went with what I think is a more durable coating - last two boats seemed to work!

Re: Refinish sole

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2020 3:57 pm
by weirdofreedom
Wow this came out great! What is the sole made of? Marine plywood with veneer on top? I would love to do this but dread the thought of removing all the flooring without stripping the entire interior of the cabin.

Re: Refinish sole

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2020 8:39 pm
by Camino
The sole on this f35 p is 3/4” marine ply with cherry and holly veneer- 5 boards were lift out and 4 were screw down. Very easy to remove. Still need to do the aft cabin and forward cabin. Not a bad project really. On a previous boat (Sabre) the sole was mostly glued to the substrate except the bilge are - I ended up ro sanding with 220, scuffing up the original varnish, and putting 4 coats of water based polyurethane over - worked well. Many ways to do this I believe.

My interior satin cherry could definitely use redoing but that is too much for me I think! So I can live with it! Doing the sole makes the rest look much better.... :D