drjohn71a":11tktgy0 said:
Over ten years ago I finished the ceiling of a wrap around porch (car siding) with Sikkens Cetol. I used the Cetol due to it's purported ability to allow air and moisture to pass through the finish, thus avoiding or minimizing blistering. It was my understanding at the time that the prep work for refinishing Cetol would be require much less labor than the other finishes in that all one would need to do is to lightly or moderately sand the surface. The paperwork did caution that the greater the direct exposure to sun, the shorter time period between re-coatings.
I also refinished the wood on an old houseboat with the Cetol. While the porch ceiling has maintained it's appearance ( albeit a bit orange tinted), the houseboat has required multiple light sandings and recoats in the sun exposed areas, but none inside.
So, I am pretty happy with the old Cetol and it sounds like the new Cetol would be even better.
I have helped many friends re-finish the woodwork on their trawlers and sailcraft where we had to totally remove the blisters, peeling, old finish and damaged wood, so I am familiar with the normal amount of work involved in brightwork maintenance. I would choose the Cetol any day for most uses in that simply lightly sanding any damaged surface EARLY and recoating it avoids these total overhaul nightmares.
Of course, it has been years since I've used Cetol, so there are likely changes in it's performance, preferred sites, and precautionary warnings. Also, other more advanced coatings may now be available. As such, it is best to read the literature on the more modern products before committing to Cetol. Basically, I am just posting that the old Cetol worked pretty good for me.
John
If I were going to go through all the sanding and old surface coating removal to get down to new wood on bright work, I'd never use a soft material like Cetol, varnish, teak or any other kind of oil finish.
Once you put in that kind of prep work, you might as well put on a finish that will last for years without maintainence.
After I sanded the hand rails on my '87 C-Dory and throughly cleaned up the Decraguard wood panels, I used Diamond Glaze polyurethane finish on both.
I put about 7-9 coats on the handles in 2000, and it still looks bright and glossy today, although I am starting to get some shrinkage down of the coating, and will have to re-coat it within the next five years or so while it can be just lightly sanded and re-coated.
The interior is also doing well, but of course gets a lot less light than the exterior.
I used gloss finish on the handles, and satin on the interior, with only two coatings inside and done with a cheesecloth "rag'.
The polyurethane finishes are light years ahead of the old varnish, oil, enamel, and other coatings, just like todays car paints are generations ahead of those of 30-50 years ago! They're much more flexible and impact resistant than epoxies, and have long flow times that allow them to flow out into flat, glossy even surfaces.
The flexibility allows them to stretch and compress, hence they don't impact chip and delaminate, nor peel, or bubble up.
The long flow out time means you can apply them with a brush, roller, or just about anything else, and you'll get a flat, smooth surface (glossy, too, if you choose that option). Repainted fiberglass hulls done with a roller look like professional spray jobs and new boats! (Don't try to spray poly urethanes without a spray booth and professional respirator equipment, the fumes can be deadly.)
One of my next in he future projects will be to re paint the dark blue stripe of my C-Dory hull with polyurethane paint, as once the scratch fill in and ding work is done, wasting time with a delicate gel-coat repair would not only be more difficult, but would yield far inferior results to a poly urethane paint job!
Any the new paint would be many times tougher than gel coat as well, giving years of tough service.
Joe. :teeth :thup