I left school on a Friday and started my years as a painter and decorator on the Monday. That was 1964 apart from 3 years as a landscape gardener been in the paint and wood stuff for 49 year not as a painter and decorator for the last 39 year but regular do my own rented houses etc .
Any of the old lads who taught me would turn over in their grave at the crap thats out today .
Firstly its a very changed market and attitude to how to do a job has changed vastly and what to use is not the same to match this .
Yesterday it was to do the job correctly you had plenty of time and to do it correctly was what you where taught .
Today its how quick can I get it over with its work and sadly vast amounts of the public are lazy .
Swedish oil , Scandinavian oil , Danish oil , are all the same product they allow the wood to absorb the oil ( differant woods differant amounts ) But its only good for a quick fix on virgin wood it has no strong ability to fight off bad weather knocks and bumps . The quick job of todays market .
Cuprinol has changed hands many times and the last I knew it was twinned with Dulux Wood Sheen , when Akzo Nobel took over Dulux .
The problem is that the European goverment claim 10% of the ozone layer is damaged by the fumes that evaporate from paints . So all must one day be water based . That means a more inferior product at a higher price . I have not seen any Cuprinol pushed at me for a good while .
I stripped all the spray paint off the wood under the rear wings sanded it down with 000 steel wool till it was velvet smooth then used the old Dulux Woodsheen ebony it was oil based ( no longer made ) still have a tin in my garage . But you can get the same in Sickens .
The area of wood under the spare wheel was treated the same spray paint removed 000 steel wool then coated with Coovar yacht varnish oil based , Yacht varnish does not contain polyurathane this does not react against salt causing it to crack , split and go white ( hence a ghost like image under the layer of varnish )
Lastly as I wrote prior the body frame is about to be done the same with Sickens filter 7 oil based no one will see it so the colour is not important it will get many coats .These areas are all polished with car wax regular
Remember dampness , salt , rain , stones etc etc are somthing you have to guard against.
Hope this helps you out and gives you some understanding as its not that easy to explain without being there to show .
