Jim,

Having stripped the finish off mine to change from light rootwood to the darker/Rosewood/Cherry color, I am very interested to hear how you decide to strip off the hard finish. I've NEVER had anything like this where it was so difficult to get 'DOWN' to the actual wood.

I used about 8-10 coats of Spar Polyurethane, alternating gloss and semi-gloss sprays once I got the color where I wanted it. 3000 grit wet or dry, followed by a fair bit of hand polishing.

Gary-

Gary-

 

Hi Gary, As I said these had a hard life and it only took about 3-4 coats of Klean Strip to get all the finish off. Much of the original finish was cracked and delaminating. I'm using Spar Urethane rated for outdoor use for the finish. I wanted it to be able to accept the harsh heat and cold extremes we see here in Texas. I'm sure it will take multiple coats. I have some 2000 grit paper, but maybe I will need to upgrade to 3000???

 

Jim,

My GTS had lived for 12 years in Houston, so it had the potential for some heat as well! But, knowing the financial assets of the only previous owner, I'm sure it was garaged all the time that it wasn't being driven for those ~55K first miles. That must have been why the finish on my Rootwood parts was SO hard to remove!! Glad it went well with Roger's parts, and look forward to seeing the end result.

Gary-