Spar varnish For exterior

[shawnjr22]

I’m thinking of using the spar varnish at Lowe’s for the outside of my teardrop. My plan is to stain then apply 6-7 coats of the spar varnish with sanding in between. Would this plan work or is there
Another step I’m forgetting thanks!!

[Pmullen503]

Make sure it's rated for exterior exposure. Even then you'll be refinishing every 2-3 years if it's stored outside.

You should constantly be inspecting every exterior joint. Bumping around on the road and just normal expansion and contraction from temperature and humidity can open up a joint enough to let moisture in.

If it was mine and I wanted that stained wood look, and I didn't want to fiberglass, I'd varnish with a good marine spar varnish. Start with first coat thinned 75% with the recommended thinner, then 50-50, then 25-75, and finally full strength. Sanding lightly between coats. Finish up with a couple more full strength coats with the best brush you can afford. Finally I'd cover the roof to wall joints with aluminum trim bedded in Sikaflex.

[shawnjr22]

Awesome thank you! I’ve done one with PMF and really love it I might have to stick with that to hide a lot of my wood working haha

[noseoil]

If I had a "bright" finish on a teardrop, I'd plan on keeping it inside most of the time, unless it's being used on the road. It's the most time-consuming finish you can do & requires a lot of maintenance to keep it looking good. Being a wood worker, I chose aluminum, but YMMV...

[Pmullen503]

Growing up, the family of a friend of mine had beautiful two masted sailing yacht. It took about a week every year with 6-8 people working on it to get it ready to sail. Acres and acres of bright work to maintain. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen but what a lot of work!

[Soderholm]

I build kayaks which are spar varnished. All it takes is a reapplication cert couple of summers. Applying varnish is fast and easy especially compared to painting. I pull the deck stuff sand lightly and do three coats or so. It dries fast enough you can do a coat in the morning and one in the afternoon. Way easier than scraping/prepping and painting. And it looks great!

[Pmullen503]

Is that spar varnish over epoxy/glass? I've built 11(!) wooden boats over the years and I agree that over glass spar varnish lasts and is easy to reapply after a light sanding. But the OP was talking about just spar varnish over wood. That's a different story. If you slack off on the maintenance to the point the varnish cracks, and it will after a couple years, you almost have to sand down to the wood again if you want that "Bristol" looking finish again. Decks, gunnels etc. every two years or less. The glassed hulls can go as long as 5 years if they are stored out of the sun.

[Soderholm]

Yep, I saturate all wood surfaces. I glass the roof only. Sometimes when building things and I want to build light I will use 1/8 or 1/4 plywood with 2oz or 4oz glass which stiffens it up well.

[Sparksalot]

Mine is finished in spar varnish. The sides are 3/4" oak veneer plywood. I sealed the sides with CPES before several coats of varnish in 2008. I've done a recoat twice since then. She lives in the garage except when camping.

Three weeks ago about to head out. Screw quarantine, I social distanced the proper way.


Last summer near Colorado Springs.

[nevadatear]

I agree with the spar varnish over epoxy. We touch up the spar about every 5 years, and it is stored inside. The epoxy is what has saved our woody over the 11 years we have had it. Still even had to repair a few small places at joints where the epoxy cracked from water while driving close to the road. Never regretted the time or expensive of epoxy first.