thompsondockside.com

im in the middle of redoing the finish on the transom on my 65' seamate. when i got it was painted white, so then when i went to go repaint the boat i sanded off the paint and then repainted it just like the rest of the boat. i know stupid! so i just finished resanding off the new paint to stain and varnish it like orginal. my question is on the 65' brochure is states "copper bottom paint". did that copper paint rap around on the transom almost stopping at the "waterline" or was the whole transom varnished. i did pick up two cans of trilux shooner 96 varnish today, and i havent had time to look on the can yet but im guessing the varnish is not suppose to be use bellow the waterline? any help would be appretaited. also what procedures have others done once the transom was sanded down to bare wood. i was thinking stain with red mahogany, use a sanding filler to close the pores and then varnish. or have you guys just put the shooner 96 on and it pulls the redness out of the mahogany, if that makes sense. i would just rather ask, because everytime i test something it seems like i fall back three steps. thanks for any feedback!!

Seal first with Smith's CPES. Let it dry for several days. Sand if needed. Stain. Let it dry for several days. Seal with Old Salem Sealer or similar. Let that dry several days. Varnish. The first coat of varnish should be thinned to about 25% varnish and 75% thinner. Second coat abour 50-50. third coat 75% varnish and 25% thinner. Fourth coat and addtional ones can be full strength varnish.

You can varnish the entire transom, even below the waterline. That's how the 1950s lapstrake Thompson's were done. The back page of the 1962 Thompson Bros. Boat catalog shows a Sea Lancer on a trailer. The copper brionze is painted on the transom at the waterline and below.

Good luck!

Andreas

I have just finished the transom on my Cruisers Inc. 20'. I sanded to bare wood and replaced upper corners. I sanded to a 220 finish then stained with a mix of Interlux 573 red mahogany 2 parts and 42 Brown mahogany 1 part. Mix that together then thin with Interlux 333 until you have a house paint thickness. Brush on bare wood and I usually allow it to set about 5 min. Then buff off surface with a clean rag, you can allways reapply again if its not to your liking. The more you rub the lighter it will get, so by buffing hard on someplaces and not others you can even out tone if needed.
i am not a big fan of epoxy sealing bare wood before staining as it will seal up the grain. Straight stain and varnish has allowed these boats to last 50+ years.
I then apply at least 3 coats of varnish with foam roller and tip off bubbles with a chip brush to dryed stain surface to build up a layer before sanding again with 220. The varnish will usually darken and add some yellow to color.
My transom has turned out beautiful and has a glass finish.

Joel... FYI ... I stained BEFORE I used CPES... I had discussed this with Steve Smith, and I think there are pros and cons of either before or after. I stained before, because I didn't want to risk uneven pigment penetration. I believe I let this dry a full week before CPES. Then the risk was that the CPES would LIFT the stain, as does a remover. In this case it did not, so I was cool... 24 hrs later I began varnishing.

An additional benefit of using CPES just prior to varnishing, is that it acts as a bridge, to tightly grab the transom wood fibers on one side, and the varnish on the other. The claim is that it 'glues' down the varnish. I had super adhesion, flow and gloss using this approach.

By the way, I used Interlux Schooner, and Interlux Red Mahogany Filler Stain... (I had bought four different filler stains to play with to see which one I liked... Zspar Red and Pettit Red and Brown)

Good luck.

John Hart