Technical Sealing or painting a New Model A wood kit

Got the materials for my wood kit. There wasn't any pure tung oil available locally that I could find. I had to buy it online. No turpentine at the big box stores but the hardware store had it.

I need to do a little more wood work before I seal it all up.

I'm curious to see the penetration with 50/50, straight tung oil, and multiple layers of 50/50 followed up with 100% tung oil coats. So, we'll test that out, as well, and I'll share it here.

 

Log homes expand and contract with the weather, creaking and groaning as they do. When kitchen cabinets are hung (uppers), they are attached to a single log, otherwise the expansion-contraction will tear them apart. Typically the lowers sit on the floor, unattached to the log walls.
Many early cars, Chevy's and some Ford's (Briggs bodied) etc. use wood for their structure. If you want to maintain door, body fit, the wood should remain completely stable.
Wood in metal framed cars isn't so critical, being used mainly for tack strips etc. The 31 Deluxe pictured uses a Ford metal reinforced cowl, and a Briggs wood structured body.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Good luck with that, they look fine finished.

Bob

 

Gonna look good Brent. Here's '39 & '40 steering wheels that I refinished 6 years ago.....put 10 coats on them.

 

so, @Blake 27 , looks good, what are you going to there, oil it, seal it, or leave it?

 

Incredible!

 

Thanks man.

 

So far the body work has only been done on the cowl and the doors, working from front to back.
After my friend Joe completes all the body work and metal fitment, He'll disassemble everything then completely
seal the wood.
This car had a prior (poor) restoration so a lot of the existing patch panels and wood will have to be replaced.

 

^^^^^ A lot of the Deluxe Two Door Phaetons had a hard life in South America. They have a special chassis to body bracket like the slant window 4Door to stiffen things a bit.

Bob

 

First layer of tung oil went on tonight.






I'd read a little and watched some videos and even read the back of the tung oil bottle... hahaha.

It went down really easy.

Here's the process I used, so far:

First thing, I went over all the wood, one last time, with a fine grit sandpaper. Then, I mixed the pure tung oil and turpentine 50/50.

It goes on nicely. I don't know if it's the wood being so dry from the desert air or if the mixture is just that good but the wood soaked nearly a cup, total. As I mixed it, I assumed it would be too much.

I kept going round and round, from the car to the pan applying it until there weren't any "dry" spots. Once I got it to where it remained wet looking, I let it sit for another 30 minutes or so and wiped any remaining wet spots.

If I understand correctly, I can give this coat 24 hours to dry and then I will recoat with straight tung oil. Those pure oil coats require a longer wait time.

 

You bought a really nice wood kit Brent......beautiful graining.

 

Thanks. It's from Snyder's. I don't know who they use. It's a few years old.

 

After all the help from you guys, I thought I'd share the post on my build thread about the sealing of the wood kit.

 

I am lucky, I have a wood furnace in the shop. Anything questionable gets incinerated right away.

 

In the summer too?

 

For a turpentine or linseed oiled rag yes. But, just having a wood stove to toss it in gives peace of mind. In a dry year like this I have been soaking them in water like Ryan said. I haven't even used the outdoor fire pit with all the dryness.

 

I don’t think I could sleep at night with that crap in my shop. I always wondered what the catalyst is that they combust hours later.

 

The shop had a large Valley Comfort woodstove so when we finished with the boiled linseed the rags went into the stove year round. If the rags go off then they are in a safe place. The boiled linseed and rags are a dangerous combination and there should be a huge warning on the can. I throw the rags with solvents and volatiles on the gravel drive then put them in the garbage once they have evaporated off.

 

Ryan, time to add some smoke detectors to your shop. I’ve always been cautious on all the rags I use with solvents, I do the same as patterg just lay them on the gravel side drive, let them evaporate off and then toss them on trash day.

 

Now I get why they say be patient between applications.

Whoever the Internet poster was who said recoat in 12-24 hours after the 50/50 application... he was an impatient guy like me.

Here's why I believe that, now: I used a quarter of a cup of straight oil on all my wood on the 2nd coat. I posted here and spoke with @6inarow and he's like, "just wait, be patient..." I get it, now.



So I gave it a little more than 2 days after the second coat and guess what? I used more oil this time, I used every bit of another 1/2 cup and had to pour a little more because it was taking it.

There were definitely a couple "dry" spots but overall, I could have given it another day - for sure.



I'm letting this current application sit the 1hr I was recommended because I figure this is the last one. But as I look at it closely, I can see spots where more of the oil is drawn in.

I guess this slow approach has me paying more attention. Hahaha. But it is pretty interesting.

 

Pure tung oil is bitchin. Everytime I use it (just today as a matter of fact) I always say the same prayer: "God please grant me patience but please grant it now...." You are doing a wonderful job on a traditional build. Hell they have only been using this tung oil 3000 years

 

Well its only partially true with tung oil. There is no "catalyst" so to speak. It isnt actually 100% known that tung oil spontaneously combusts, but most experienced woodworkers treat it like it does. Linseed oil has some problems as a premium finish but lots of woodworkers swear by it. One problem is the spontaneous combustion. All of those finish oils combust because they generate heat as a by product of drying. If you take the cloths/rags/applicators and lay them flat they wont combust. its only if you wad them up and throw them in a corner that you have a problem.

 

Hahaha!

The impatient man's prayer. Love it.

 

This is a bit off topic but relates to stiffening up the wood framed Deluxe Briggs bodied Phaetons.
Joe built this stiffener to aid the stock, inadequate bracket Briggs supplied.

 

Hey all, I have a bit of a cautionary tale.

As we all know, I treated my wood kit and have left it alone... mostly. There are parts on the floor, still drying. Because I'm impatient, I wanted to put some threaded inserts for my rear view mirror bracket in the wood header.

That lead to more learning.



I marked the hole locations and stepped up the drill sizes from smallest on up. That came out clean. However, when I went to install the inserts, the wood was so soft the it lifted as I installed the insert. One side was so bad that I plugged it and had to step up the insert size.



So, be aware. Leave it alone until it dries. In my case, it could be a couple/few weeks. I've heard up to 30 days, for some. I did get the job done and thankfully it will be covered because it certainly isn't pretty. Haha.

 

Maybe a Foster style bit next time you need a hole in wood. Bob

 

I have them but drilling wasn't the problem. It was the insert. The top 3/16 couldn't handle the threads and part lifted right up.

I've inserted dozens of these and this was definitely related to the wood being wet/soft.

 

I wouldn’t worry too much about the interior wood. Bed wood - I used spar polyurethane all around.

I tried tung oil but it took weeks to get that nasty taste out of my mouth. And I got a splinter in my tongue to boot.