interior wood treatment

[adavis]

I'm working on installing new top and body wood in my '31 coupe and I'm curious what the best practice is for treating the wood before final assembly. It looks like the original wood was brush painted black but would some sort of oil that will penetrate or a sealant be better? Im not worried about originality....I just want to preserve the wood as best as possible.

[MikeK]

You'll probably get a million answers here! When I replaced some wood on my roadster I slobbered it with This Stuff. When I was a kid, my dad swore by creosote oil and my mother always swore at the smell. Of course I always got to apply it to the porch and mile of fence during my summer 'vacation'.

[adavis]

So did you use "this stuff" and then paint over it or just go with it alone? I'm curious about tung oil. I think it would penetrate really well but just want to make sure there's not some reason I SHOULDN'T use it.

[garyaodell]

I replaced the wood in my coupe because it had rot in it, the new wood I preserved with Copper Green. It has a strong odor but it goes away in a few months.

[Doug in NJ]

Originally Posted by MikeK

You'll probably get a million answers here! When I replaced some wood on my roadster I slobbered it with This Stuff. When I was a kid, my dad swore by creosote oil and my mother always swore at the smell. Of course I always got to apply it to the porch and mile of fence during my summer 'vacation'.

Wasn't that copper-based stuff banned or something? I got a similar product at Home Depot about 10 years ago, but I haven't seen it for sale in a long time.

BTW, they also used to sell Polyurethane spray paint, which I haven't seen in ages.

For the wood in my car, I used polyurethane varnish simply because I had some lying around. I was reluctant to use my copper-based preservative on something I would have to touch...

Doug

[MikeK]

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Doug, Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA) was banned as a wood preservative. It was because of the near 50% hexavalent chromium that CCA was banned, not the 1/3 arsenic oxide (As2O5) content that really killed termites and ants. The active copper in Woodlife Coppercote is copper naphthenate, highly effective against dry rot, and other molds & fungus.

[Pete]

Mike's stuff is the best available these days, UNLESS, you have access to chemistry stuff, in which case get some crystalline pentachlorophenol and mix it with cleaning solvent or alcohol. Generously paint all surfaces to be treated with a brush. The smell is like Lysol and will go away in a day or two. The parts will never rot or be attacked by bugs. It is not corrosive to your hands other than the smell which will go away in a few days. Just don't drink any of the solution or get it in cuts or your eyes. In other words, when handling it, USE COMMON SENSE like everyone used to do before the EPA set in. Rubber gloves recommended.
The wood can be painted or stained afterward if need be.

[Skibb]

Just finished installing the all of wood in a 1930 Briggs Sedan. Used flat black Rustoleum thinned with mineral spirits. Perhaps another product would have been better.

[Lee Mitch]

I used the green "terminix" type stuff as well because it is good for dry-rot and bugs. After it dried I double coated it with a Marine varnish to do a little better at shedding water.

[Mike V. Florida]

This is what I used as it has the look and feel (waxy) of the stuff on the hidden parts of the wood that were overlapped.

['29wagon]

linseed oil

[wrndln]

I have done the same thing as Skibb - thinned Rustoleum paint. It seemed to work OK and low cost.
Rusty Nelson

[Terry,NJ]

I would have preferred linseed oil or spar varnish but I wasn't about to pay what they get for it today. So I went with polyurethane (JUNK) but it won't see the sun which is very destructive to a poly. finish. 2 coats of the poly. and one coat of flat black wood paint and I'm done. But really! Do we actually need that much effort and material on this wood? Most of the wood that is being replaced is, at best, 83+ y.o. and was outside in the weather or holed up in a leaky barn. My Town Sedan was parked in a leaky barn where the leak was on the right side and that's where all the water damage is. I don't plan to keep it out in the weather and I have no leaky barns in which to park it and let it rot away. How much preservative does it really need?
Terry

[Doug in NJ]

Originally Posted by MikeK

Doug, Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA) was banned as a wood preservative. It was because of the near 50% hexavalent chromium that CCA was banned, not the 1/3 arsenic oxide (As2O5) content that really killed termites and ants. The active copper in Woodlife Coppercote is copper naphthenate, highly effective against dry rot, and other molds & fungus.

Thanks for the information. I went and checked the stuff I have, and it is the newer Copper Naphthenate formula.

Doug

[Drive Shaft Dave]

I did the same as Rusty and Skibb.

[KGBnut]

You all are thinking this much more than I did. I just used polyurethane. Maybe I was wrong, but it was the first thing that came to mind. I coated all the parts and let them dry thoroughly before assembly.

I also used Gorilla Tape anywhere two pieces of wood came together, or where they met a piece of metal. It did a great job eliminating squeaks.

[CC29Pickup]

I used the Ebony stain by Min Wax. Great coverage and dries very quick.

[Dale G.]

ADAVIS,

Contact Don Turley to forward my recipe for wood preservative as Ford made. You can make it up yourself.

[adavis]

KGBnut......what kind of Gorilla Tape did you use? I've got friction tape from Ace Hardware but would like to find something with a little more adhesion. The cotton stuff that was behind the original wood doesn't seem like a good idea because it could hold moisture so I don't want to reinstall that material.

[Drive Shaft Dave]

The cotton stuff that was behind my original wood did not seem to be a problem in my coupe, what I did was some thin felt material glued to the back side of the wood. The only rot i had was in the wood around the rear window. I think the felt would work better as an anti squeek and to work as an anti vibration solution. Just my 2 cents.