Wrinkled Varnish

Steve'O · Post by **Steve'O** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 12:25 pm

Help.
Sorry to start another varnish thread but I'm a little stuck. Tried searching and didn't get what I needed (I'm sure super search Rachel could find the answer!)

I decided to apply west system before varnishing with Epifanes (old wood needed filling and sealing) I did three identical pieces and got great results on one and wrinkles on the Varnish coats of the other two. I might have applied the Epifanes too thickly

Can I wait for the Varnish to dry and sand flat, then re-apply, or do I need to remove the varnish back down to the epoxy?

BALANCE · Post by **BALANCE** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 12:28 pm

I'd say you just need to sand it till the wrinkes are gone. Worst case, back to the beginning.

Steve'O · Post by **Steve'O** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:09 pm

Thanks Balance I was hoping someone would say that.

I'm going to have to wait until the wrinkles dry out which might take a while (it's been a week already) I might just use the pieces the way they are and sand flat this winter.

keelbolts · Post by **keelbolts** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:12 pm

Sounds like solvent entrapment to me. You're just going to have to sand it down 'til it's smooth and revarnish. Sometimes when you sand, you'll break thru the outer surface into still wet varnish. Wipe the wet stuff away with some mineral spirits, sand, and revarnish.

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 8:50 pm

Hee, I didn't need to search this time :)

I'm varnishing (oars) this week too.

Rachel

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:06 pm

Steve'O wrote:Thanks Balance I was hoping someone would say that.

I'm going to have to wait until the wrinkles dry out which might take a while (it's been a week already) I might just use the pieces the way they are and sand flat this winter.

Steve, I'm not sure you have to wait until the wrinkles dry. Tim showed me a little scraping tool that you use to scrape drips off with. It worked quite well for me on my drips and it might work on your problem too.

http://store.hamiltonmarine.com/browse.cfm/4,1303.html

Steve'O · Post by **Steve'O** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:27 am

Thanks Allen, I think I've seen that tool before somewhere. Once you've ripped the wrinkles out, do you just feather in the surrounding varnish?

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:53 am

I have a couple of Pro-Prep's regular sized scrapers (only slightly larger, actually) and I love them.

The one potential problem that comes to mind with scraping wrinkles vs. drips is that with the wrinkles being over a larger area you might run a bigger risk of scraping down (shudder) to bare wood. Drips can kind of "pop" off while just contacting the center of the scraper, but wrinkles might not (?)

That said, it may not be a concern with the epoxy base - I don't typically use that as a varnish base so I'm not sure about that.

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:18 pm

Steve, yes it saves time sanding through a mound of hardened varnish and in my case, helped keep me from over sanding.

Rachel, I just decapitated them then sanded, but for a larger area, like a run you might just scarpe them level, let it dry and then sand. This might help with the "bare wood" problem. The problem I had in sanding drips without scraping is I usually sanded through the surrounding varnish before I got the drip leveled.

But then I'm not the expert on varnishing so for the final word Tim would be a much better person to ask than I.

I did find that varnishing was quite enjoyable though, you go through these stages of it looks better, it looks even better, it looks great. Quite satisfying actually. :)

CharlieJ · Post by **CharlieJ** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:46 pm

From my perspective, after 28 years in the furniture refinishing business, and quite a few years doing boats, I'd let the wrinkled stuff dry WELL, then sand it. Scraping might work ok, but you do run the risk of scraping too far on something like that. It's different than taking off a drip or run. Plus you may find that you still had little tell tale lines where all the wrinkles were, so you'd STILL have to sand the underlying surface, which you need to do anyway.

If you don't wait long enough you can just get into more problems and wind up taking longer to do the job than if you waited, then redid it.

Steve'O · Post by **Steve'O** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:57 am

Thanks Charlie. I'm going with your suggestion. I have a coat of west system down and two coats of varnish so that should be enough UV protection for the epoxy . I'll put the wood back on the boat for the remainder of the season and sand her flat over the next winter. That should give the varnish plenty of time to dry out. Even with the wrinkles the exterior wood looks a 1000times better pictures to follow...

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:02 pm

Steve'O wrote:... the exterior wood looks a 1000times better pictures to follow...

Shouldn't that be "pictures to follow, shortly"?

Looking forward to seeing them whenever you do post :)

Rachel