Varnish over Paint?

[lumberdude]

Is there an advantage/disadvantage to varnishing over paint? Would doing this protect the paint and give a clearcoat look? Has anyone else done this?

Kory

[Rocky]

Why not just use clearcoat?

[ken mcclure]

It could, depending on the varnish, give you a somewhat harder finish. Most varnishes will impart a yellowish tint to the paint. And you'd have to be REAL careful about compatibility to avoid crazing, fisheyes or worse!

Like the man said, you want clearcoat - put on clearcoat.

[Concordia..41]

No. But ask me about varnish under paint

[JimJ]

No. But ask me about varnish under paint [Big Grin]

That would make it hard to see the beautiful timber unless you used clear paint [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Chris Coose]

Has anyone else done this?

To couch from an old trades line, I might, if I were working on a piano or a church.

[KimApel]

Back in the 1920s and 30s, some Chestnut canoes canoes were finished this way for a high gloss look. My reference doesn't say why they stopped doing it.

[Todd Bradshaw]

I sprayed spar varnish over a stripper hull once that had some sanded resin-coated areas for the clear finished part and some painted areas for the contrasting, painted part. Big mistake. Within a couple years the varnish had yellowed a lot and even though it was sprayed and seemed quite uniform, it had all kinds of irregularities due to varnish thickness. The thicker it was in any area, the yellower it was. On a really dark colored paint you might be able to get away with it, but mine was light-colored and I finally ended up masking off the painted areas and repainting them on top of the varnish.

[Bob Cleek]

Hell yes, paint over varnish. If you've got a cherry gold plater all finished bright and you are taking a trip south to the Carribean or down to Baja and south or over the Tahiti... you slap white paint over all your varnish work, spars particularly, just so it won't burn up in the equatorial sun. When you come back, you have to refinish anyway, but the white paint lasted fine in the tropics and the varnish kept it from running into the grain, so refinishing bright is a snap... as Dave sez... "ya folla?"

As for varnish over paint... where do these guys get these ideas? Fuggedaboudit!

[rbgarr]

As I understand it the purpose of varnish is several-fold:

1. To provide a glossy finish that reflects the sun's direct light and provides protection to wood that way.

2. To reveal early warning signs of water intrusion and incipient rot in joints.

3. To allow the wood's grain to add beauty to your boat.

Varnish over paint would thus serve no purpose.