cdfnchico wrote:In anticipation of this long weekend we got our sides ready to go...we went back and forth about stain or not and finally decided to go with a light coat of golden oak to bring out the grain.
Next we masked off the bottom 3" of the interior (where it will set against the trailer) and applied a coat of CPES and a coat of sticky black goo.
Then, we flipped 'em over and applied a couple of coats of CPES to the exterior.
We decided to wait & apply a final coat of CPES just prior to applying the varnish because we read here: http://www.smithandcompany.org/varnishpriming.html this:
The final coat of CPES is the adhesion-promoting primer, and the first coat of varnish must be applied after the solvents have evaporated, but before the CPES resins have fully cured. If you apply that last coat of CPES in the afternoon, then apply the first coat of varnish the next day. The reason CPES works this way as an adhesion-promoting primer is that it is designed to be VERY slow-curing. It actually takes several days, so it finishes curing after the first varnish coat has cured, and thus glues down the varnish with a flexible epoxy glue.
Anyway, we were very happy with the color so far, with the stain and the CPES.
What kind of stain did you use? Oil or water based??