Fighting Chair (refinishing)

[Liquid Asset]

My chair is in need of some love. The varnish that was applied years ago is not looking good and has to be removed totally. I spoke with the Murray Brothers at the Ft. Lauderdale boat show and they said they refinish their chairs with West system epoxy covered by acrylic clear.

Have any of you ever sprayed West System epoxy resin? I have never done this, but I would think it would be like spraying Gelcoat. I could just brush it on and sand it smooth, but I would think it would come out better if I used my HVLP gun and sprayed it, then slightly rough it up ans spray acrylic clear.

Give me your opionions. This is how they said they finish all their chairs, but they want 5k to refinish my chair. I know it cost 12k to replace, but I dont think I am willing to pay that much money to refinish a chair.

 

[OldHatt45]

Liquid Asset,

First, this is an opinion based on my fishing experience and what I've seen, so please don't jump all over it.

Fighting chairs GET DINGED! It's a Fact of life. I've seen it over and over again.

Choices are,
1. The Murray $5K route. Note, when the chair gets dinged the Whole chair has to be redone. Reason, the finish cracks.
2. Use a finish that can be fixed without having to redo the entire chair.
Something like a Good Varnish or similar product.
3. Keep the chair wrapped in bubblewrap.
4. Take the chair off the boat. (Kinda self defeating)
5. Have 2 chairs.... 1 you use and one for show. (Too much work and money)

Would submit to you that using a Clear coat if you can do touch ups would work well. Or using a Varnish would be just as good. Would stay away from anything that can't be touched up.

I have used several different products to refinish chairs.
1. An Old Awl-Grip Clear coat product. (SOrry can't remember the name right now.) Must be srayed on, but wears very well and is somewhat flexible in that a ding seems to just dent rather then crack the finish. Can be touched up.
2. Varnish, the non-yellowing kind. Put on 7 or 8 coats, that way when the dings happen, a little light sanding 1 or 2 coats on the affected area and all better.
3. Waterlox. Wears like iron. Get a ding, take a 3M pad rough the area and put a coat or 2 on that area, done in 5 minutes. Every 2 years put a coat on, and looks like new. Takes about a half hour to do a full coat.

WOuld not waste the money on the Murray route. Looks good for 5 minutes then the cycle starts all over again.

Just my 0.02

OldHatt45
PS: Ever decide what you're gonna do with your window project?

 

[surfdancer45]

Here is my refinishing routine for chairs.

You will need to remove all the old finish (finish remover and careful sanding), sand to bare wood and bleach out any dark spots.

I apply two coats of West to seal and sand between coats, sand the final coat as smooth as possible.

Apply two coats of clear Awlgrip by brush and sand between coats, apply one more coat of Awlgrip using spray gun.

Gives you a nice finish that will hold up well if you cover the chair when not in use for an extended period (UV rays are harmful to most finishes). Good luck. Bob

 

[Capten]

Pat,

I too have had to refinish chairs in the past. For me the options were neither easy nor inexpensive. I will share my experience/opinions.

These are the options I have considered in the past:
1 – Strip and refinish the chair yourself using West System Epoxy as a base then several coats of clear (acrylic or other) top coats.
2 – Have the chair professionally refinished.
3 – Sell/Trade in the old chair and buy a new one.

The first time I refinished chairs was some years ago when I did my 2 teak helm chairs. Completely removing the old finish was a big PITA (old epoxy finish was tough). Afterward prepping, I BRUSHED on several coats of West System and lightly sanded between coats. I then BRUSHED on multiple coats of clear acrylic epoxy to get a high gloss finish. I had a hard time getting the finish just right and did a lot of sanding between coats. I think that the “brushing” of the top coats was the killer. The chairs turned out very nice, but I think paying someone would have been cheaper in the long run.

Fast forward 2 seasons. My fighting chair was now do for a refinish. I decided to strip it myself (again PITA!), then send it out to a local furniture place to be sprayed with West System and clear top coats. It didn’t cost that much but I was not happy with the finished product. I think the biggest problem was the spraying of the West System. It didn’t get thick enough. My guess is that the guy just wasn’t familiar with spraying epoxy.

If I was to refinish again MYSELF, I would BRUSH on a few coats of West (that part wasn’t so bad for me) and SPRAY on the top coats to achieve a smoother/glossier finish.

Chair places that do this all the time obviously know how to do it right. Shop around and see if you can find a price that suits you. I like doing a lot of things myself because I enjoy the work and saving the $$$. But I don’t think that I would refinish chairs myself again. In fact, while pricing out refinishing all three of my chairs last spring, I decided to bite the bullet and just buy new ones. There is definitely a market for used chairs and many of the chair companies will take your old one in on trade against a new one. By the time I took into account the cost to do the refinishing plus the trade-in value of my old chairs, the price to get newer/much nicer equipment came down considerably. I highly recommend you contact Beth at Release Marine 800-603-4448 for a quote on refinishing your chair. They are very competitive and their service and products are top notch!

Good luck!

 

[Liquid Asset]

Well, I am not in a big hurry to refinish the chair since we dont use it much around here. It is sitting in my Garage and I want to make it look good for our Bahamas trip in March.

I think from what all of you have said, I am going to brush on the West system epoxy and then I am going to spray an awlgrip clear on top.

Fortunetly the last person who finished the chair used teak varnish, so it should not be too hard to get off. We shall see.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Banshee36]

I went the epoxy- clear coat route, it looked good for about 2 years. Now I would just use 12 coats of (single part)Awlspar varnish, it drys fast , can be touched up and a hell of a lot easier to redo. One other little hint, buy the pint cans and after you open one , and are finished with it , turn the can upside down. The Awlspar has a tendency to skin over, if it is upside down, the skin is on the bottom.
JW

 

[jim rosenthal]

I would do this yourself. I would not pay the Murrays 5K to do this, although they are nice guys and do a good job. Here's what I suggest:
-take chair apart
-sand to bare teak
-ROLL on several coats of West epoxy, recoating before completely cured. Sand final coat to 220 grit
-take parts to anyone who can spray cars and do well with basecoat-clearcoat catalyzed paints. Have him spray clearcoat, wet-sand and buff. It'll look great. The clear coat will have the UV blockers that you need and it should last a while. Keep a cover on the chair when you're not using it.

 

[hattitude]

I have a 20 yr old International Chair that I redid. I removed & had all the metal rechromed, stripped (the hardest part) and refinished the teak, then had the arms reupholstered- not counting my time, it cost me $800.00 for all the parts/supplies.

I used two coats of smith's penetrating epoxy on the bare wood, 15 coats of skipper's varnish (all brushed) and it looked like new. In four short months I started to notice some wear marks, so I roughed it up and added three coats of bristol finish. It's been almost a year and one fishing season and it still looks like I just finished it.... FYI

Bernie

 

[double eagle]

Pat ...or anyone else
you mentioned using an hvlp sprayer on your boat stuff
any suggestions on imron or awlgrip with an hvlp
plan to do some work on the hatt this winter
also plan to clear coat over the work done

bill
double eagle

 

[Liquid Asset]

I am definetly not paying Murray. They are extremly nice, and do extremly beautiful work, but $2500 for a refinish and $2500 for re chroming the metal parts in out of the normal boaters price range.

I am fully capable of doing this, I just want to make sure that I am taking the right approach. I have sprayed automotive paint before, but had never sprayed west system. I think I am going to just brush it on. I looked at West Sytems website today and they have a special hardner for finishing wood that has UV inhibitors in it. I will be using that and roll it on. Then I will spray some sort of clear coat over it, but I am not sure what I will be using yet. I am thinking clear Awlgrip. I do not really think I want to use Automotive clear, as I dont think it will withstand as well as the awlgrip.

There is a chromer in the town next to me that does a lot of motorcycles. They are normally the best chromers, so I will be using them. They do excelent work on the Bikes I have seen they did. I wish I could purchase the new stainless parts that they make, but the cost is outrageous. if the chromer says my parts are two warn, I am going ot powder coat them black. we will see what happens. I am going to start dis-assembling the chair this weekend.

 

[jim rosenthal]

Pat, I had a vintage Lee's chair on the Striker and I did exactly what you are going to do. It looked great when I was done. The cost might have been a few hundred bucks and most of that was chroming. The motorcycle chrome guys are good, if their tanks are big enough- bike parts tend to be smaller.
The only problem with my finished result was that it made the rest of the boat look so god awful bad. It was an ugly boat to begin with and when the refinished chair was back on the aft deck it looked like....well, it looked like a diamond in a goat's butt, to paraphrase an old friend. The lesson? make it nice, but not too nice, or you'll have to redo the whole boat to match it.

 

[Liquid Asset]

I am doing the whole boat, but the chair is first.

 

[Capten]

The Murray Bros bid to refinish your chair seems awfully high to me. I think Release Marine and another place up in Pennsylvania had quoted me around $1,200 to do the wood (no chrome work) this past spring.

Sounds like you have a good chrome place locally but if you end up needing one, check out Paul's Chrome Plating in PA (no relation to me!). They have done work for guys in my Corvette club and their stuff is absolutly beautiful. http://www.paulschrome.com/

 

[Capten]

Has anyone checked out the new Murray's new 'Classic' Tuna Chair? At an introductory price under $6K, it may be an option to refinishing with them at $5K!

http://www.murrayproducts.com/aindex.htm