Winter 2008-2009 Refit | Sunday, October 12, 2008
Today was all about the
toerails. While the old finish on the toerails (and
rubrails) was not in particularly bad condition, it had worn
thin in places, and I wanted to take the opportunity to
rebuild a deeper finish on the wood--something that I really
hadn't had a chance to do for some years.
I sanded the rails
thoroughly, starting with 80 grit and working through 120
and 220 grits, and scraping as necessary (mainly on the flat
face of the rubrail, where I removed much of the finish
entirely). This process took several hours, after
which I vacuumed up the dust and then cleaned the wood with
paint thinner. |
I masked off the toerails and rubrail as needed, along with
the forward hatch surround, and applied one coat of varnish
at the end of the day. Over the coming days, I planned
to apply many coats to the toerails--6-10 coats--and several
on the forward hatch surround, which I had renewed only last
spring and was still in good condition, though it only made
sense to take advantage of the hatch's removal to recoat the
top surface of the surround thoroughly. |
