Refinishing the Brightwork

All of the brightwork on the boat needed refinishing. The companionway cover rails were in very bad need of restoration, so much so that replacement was a serious consideration. However I decided to just refinish them - I really had nothing to lose as I had to buy the varnish anyway since everything else needed it. I also wanted to redo the fasteners for the rails. They were held on with screws countersunk and capped over with plugs. It looks nice, but it pretty much requires refinishing on the boat. So I wanted to remove the rails, and change the screws to oval head stainless with the heads exposed so that they can be easily removed in the future. That makes it easy to refinish the rails when they need it again, or to remove the companionway cover for any reason should that be required.

The companionway vertical rails have screws through, so it was very easy to remove them for refinishing, and I was glad I did, as the backs needed new varnish pretty badly. I'm not sure the backs had ever been varnished.

November 21, 2010

Its 60F outside today so warm enough to take the brightwork out to the garage for the first coat of Interlux Schooner Gold. I'm glad I took it out to the garage, as this stuff really stinks! Mrs. Boyd would have had a fit if I smelled the house up with her having a home decorating party tomorrow.

Here's the cabin top with the brightwork (and companionway cover) removed

Brightwork with the first coat of Interlux Schooner Gold applied. The instructions said to thin it 50% with their brushing thinner ($11 a quart and its really just kerosene - says so right on the lable. I guess I learned a lesson there) for the first coat. But I think that's too thin. I'll probably go ahead and apply another coat with that mixture, but I wish it was a little thicker.

You can see that the top rails are pretty nasty looking. We'll see if they get that nice gold color with more coats. The vertical rails look beautiful with just the first coat! Really a beautiful color.

November 25, 2010

Yesterday I cut dowel rod pieces to fill the countersinks in the companionway rails. Today I drilled them to size. The rails, with three coats of Schooner Gold are starting to look better, but several more coats are needed. I just need to get the oval head screws and finish the varnish and they'll be ready to go back on.

November 26, 2010

Got new screws (oval head) for the companionway cover slide rails, and did the countersinking on each hole, so now I'm ready to put on some more varnish. The problem is, the varnish stinks too much to use in the house and its too blamed cold outside now to do it outside (27 F - winter weather has finally arrived in the Ohio valley). I'm wondering if I have a friend with a heated garage where he might let me do this, or if I should just go ahead and get a wood buring stove for the garage and do it there. That might be the better long term decision.

November 30, 2010

Its 55F outside today and I took the opportunity to put another coat of varnish on the brightwork - actually a first coat on the tiller. I decided to go ahead and refinish the tiller, but I intend to build a new one as well.

April 23, 2011

After many months of waiting for nice weather, we finally got a day and I got the first coat of varnish on the toe rails. I'm really tickled with this.


The toe rail being taped. It went faster than I thought it would.	The first coat of Schooner Gold is on.

Note that the photos aren't very good. I was using my Vivitar HD camera. Its not much.

Another couple of coats of varnish and it'll be good to go!

May 28, 2011

All of the brightwork is refinished and back on the boat. Whoopee!

Its hard to get a decent photo in the garage and of all the brightwork at the same time.. Trust me, it looks pretty good.