I'll jump back in this one for a minute. When my car was totalled
back in 69, I ordered a new fender arch from the factory. I painted
that fender with a "wood primer/sealer". It was a white milky
substance that soaked into the wood. All the new wood that I got from
the factory was treated with the stuff. The wood that was not
replaced was not treated.
When I decided to restore my car back in 88 and disassembled it,
it was obvious which parts had been treated with the "primer". The
fender arch that was treated was intact. Now mind you that my car
has always been garaged so it hasn't seen a lot of wet weather but
it has seen some. The last 4 inches of the arch that was NOT treated
had rotted and had to be cut off. These 2 arches were only 4 years
different in age, one being 65 and the other being 69.
Moral of this story, Anything is BETTER than NOTHING. However,
when I did my car this time, I didn't want to have to worry about
the wood anymore, forever. I talked with several boat builders in
the area. Everyone was using the West system Epoxy for sealing the
wood. In fact, I believe some of the advertizements say that you can
put this over rotting wood. That the rot requires oxygen to grow.
The epoxy will seal the wood and not let any oxygen in and the rot
cannot continue to grow. Then you get the added strength of the epoxy.
There is also a filler that can be mixed with the epoxy to make it
thicker and allow it to be formed. In fact I used it to rebuild the front
of the older fender arch where it attaches to the sill plate,
as this area had also rotted away.
If you don't want to disassembly the tub, you could coat the entire
unit with epoxy. However, if you ever had to repair it, it would make
disassembling it hard. That's why I did every piece individually.
Unfortunately, I won't know for another 20 or so years how the West
epoxy hold up.
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 48 #4 Midget 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V
75 Bricklin SV1 77 Spitfire
The one with the most toys, wins!
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