Since this boat bar is vintage style, I have to limit my sanding on it. I take a very sharp chisel and slowly cut all the plugs down flat to the surface, as close as possible. That way I have very little sanding to do and it doesn’t take away the old stain and varnish.
After I’ve used a chisel and gotten the plugs smoothed down with light sanding, it’s time to do a little color matching. That’s where I take the variations of different types and ages of wood and try to blend them somewhat to try to get them a lot more even. It won’t be perfect, but it will look a lot better.
As I work around the top and sides and get to the interior, it is done the same way. On the bottom, I brought the waterline and bottom paint from the sides around to the interior of the boat bar. It just gives it a little more flair.
On the top, which is going to be the main focal point of the bar, I’m grouting all the wood to take out gaps and crevices to make it more of a flat solid surface. After it’s all grouted and everything is good and dry, I’ll stain it. I will definitely color match it all back together. It’ll look pretty good–just wait and see.
Just finishing a little touch up here and there on the plugs and sanding the wood where it has some pretty heavy variations from board the board. I’m trying to take out the larger gaps and make it look a little bit more even. This is where patience is a virtue, as they say.
It’s time…let’s start color matching. It’ll take me about two or three days to blend it all in. I start out with lighter colors and go towards darker colors as needed.
Jack