I have been trying for a perfect final coat on a piece with lots of holes (difficult dashboard and under-dash pieces). I’ve been distracted with business trips to Denver, Atlanta, and Chicago, entertaining guests here at the house, and untold other excuses for not having this piece done a long time ago. As subsequent coats of varnish have cured out, I've turned to other things. Now that I'm well overdue with this darn thing, I decided to just get it out of the way.
Part of the problem is, every time I go for the final coat of perfection, some sort of blemish or run seems to be there when the piece is fully cured out. I have had several near perfect coats but there is always SOMETHING that detracts enough to bring out the sandpaper. The problem is, the holes are great places to catch varnish, cause runs, and also they hide debris that can be picked up by a brush. This time I took extra precautions.
I used an epoxy syringe to draw fresh varnish out of the can, for fear I would pick up some dust or debris from the edge. I also used vinyl gloves to keep the varnish off my hands. Somewhere I picked up some debris, and it may have come from the syringe or most likely it was the talcum powder they use on those gloves to make them easy to put on. It may have been because the pieces have been handled a lot, and it may have been a result of the can of varnish being a few years old.
I used a foam roller and it appeared to put a nice but very thin layer of Schooner 96 down. Perhaps it was too thin. In any case I got some small specs of fish-mouth, oddly. The piece had been handled a lot too, and even though it was sanded lightly, perhaps it should have been wiped down with a solvent to assure there were no fingerprints or grease on the piece.
As it cured out last night I could see it had some very small flaws developing. Darnit !!
This morning early, I sanded both pieces down lightly again, the thin coating of Schooner 96 I put on around 6:00 PM last night was nicely cured, having cured for about 12 hours. I use a wet sanding sponge, different grit on each side, and the smooth side is a nice finishing grit. I wiped everything down with moist towels, then dry towels, then a tack rag. This time I used a foam brush directly, no gloves, and I put it down a little thicker, thinking it would glaze over and give that “wet look”. It has flashed over now and is almost dry to touch, and the finish is about as perfect as it’s going to get. SUCCESS !!
This latest application sort of disproves the theory about doing this sort of work under a full moon to get the best job!
Regards,
Paul
( This will be one piece of work that WILL get a lot of attention, and I suspect a lot of comments too. I'll just smile to myself knowing what kind of torture I went through to get it as good as it is, ha! Qood quality work never comes easy.)