Re: top dressing
The top of my '29 Fordor is showing it's age and the material was showing threads. In passed lives I have purchased the $14 a quart "special top dressing" and figure it is little more than black oil based enamel paint.
Thirty years ago I started restoration on a 28' Alaskan double ended troller originally built in 1930. The boat was constructed of yellow cedar and was subject to rot if the fresh water wasn't kept out. The trunk cabin top was covered with canvas that was painted with regular oil based black enamel paint. Several good coats saturated the top canvas and kept it waterproof in the harshest of environments.
I worked on the boat summers and shoveled off the snow in the 65 below zero winters in Fairbanks until I was finally ready to move the boat to Valdez. Every four or five years I would paint on another coat of black enamel. I walked on it, slopped fish on it, my dog slept on it and Valdez poured rain and snow on it for 15 years. It never leaked a drip!
When my Fordor's top looks a little dull I brush on another coat of oil based emanel. It works for me and is the Old School way of doing it on boats.
That is the Columbia Glacier ice field, "The Ivory Boat" my dog and guests pictured below. The top of the cabin and the pilot house are painted canvas.
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