Ten down - Two to go!
It seems excessive, almost compulsive - however it is the long standing practice to apply 12 coats of varnish to woodwork that gets direct sunlight. Each year the top three or four coats takes a pounding from the UV rays, damaging these layers, and each year you should sand these layers off and refresh the top-coats to protect the underlying base. If you don't follow this maintenance schedule, you end up having to go back to "new-wood".
Like a jigsaw puzzle with a 1000 pieces Miss P is starting to look a pretty picture again as the pieces fall into place. The new panels have been fitted to the helm station/bridge, all the trim has been screwed down to check for fit before the final wet-sand and last coats. It all looks good, the fear is a scuff when the engines are replaced, so we are holding our breath waiting to lay the final coats, seal her up and button her down - ready for the 09 season.
You can just make out the original colour behind this panel, the sun had turned the brown stain to a pumpkin colour and the grain was lost behind the UV damaged varnish.
The contrast between the picture above and the one below is a flash was used on the second - lighting-up the grain.
The headliner arrives this week. And the helm will be complete.
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