need some advice

[brian damron]

Hello
My name is Brian, I live in Ft. Lewis Washington and have a 16 ft wooden skipper runabout made in 1956. I am trying to restore it a little nicer than what it is. Right now it has a two tone white on the bottom and red on top. Iwould like to give it an original wood look if possible. I am sure I have to sand the paint all the way down and stuff, but what do I use to stain and seal it a marine varnish or a poly. I am new at this but it keeps me busy every other year that I am not in Iraq doing the army thing. And what is the best thing for leaks or repairs is there a marine wood filler or bondo. I would appreciate any advice.

thanks
brian

[Gilbert]

The light weight bondo they are making now is pretty good filler for dings and small fastener holes and such. The color is a problem if you plan to use a clear finish. They are not so much diferent from the hardness of the wood as regular bondo which is a good feature when it comes to sanding. Also Dap plastic wood is good for that too. And it gets rather hard for sanding but I like it anyway. I use a metal disk with carbide grit embedded in it for sanding these compounds. I rig up a handle and use it by hand even though it is made for a disk sander. There are other brands that are probably good too, but I am not familiar with them. You can mix up endless varieties of concoctions with epoxy and fillers also.

[Ike]

You can seal it with any good marine varnish. There are so many different brands on the market it's hard to sort them out. Interlux is good.

First sand down to bare wood. fill the cracks crevices etc. Then use a good marine sealer (undercoat in the auto world). Finally several layers of Marine Varnish. Make sure you put them on thin, let them dry. lightly sand, put the next coat on and so on. Don't sand the last coat.

[Hunter25]

Bondo should not be used, especially on a power boat. It does not like vibration, does not stick very well to wood and absorbs water.

Painted surfaces usually are hiding something. This could be damage, repairs, fillers or wood that is not very pretty. Stripping wood bare is a guess that the under lying will be attractive enough to varnish. You can waste a lot of elbow grease and paper getting through old finishes, just to find some wild grain plywood, which looks terrible varnished.

[Gilbert]

I included bondo in my post because thirty years ago a friend used it for filler on the nail holes of his new 38 foot ketch. I asked him recently how it worked out and he said he had had absolutely no problems with it. He used regular bondo.
Yes, paint is sometimes used to hide things. But it also may simply mean the owner was tired of trying to maintain a clear finish.