Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) waxing the wood

I read something ,perhaps in Miscellany, about coating the wood with wax,amongst other things.I thought it was cuprinlo soaked,needing no messin with.Thoughts please?If it does need coating , then 'with what do I coat it, dear Lisa'?

Dear Egginbounce,

This is a tough question. As always it's a trade off. Depending on which product from Cuprinol is used, the benefits will range from nothing at all, to actual protection against water ingress.

If it's just an anti-rot product, it doesn't actually protect the wood from water, but rather from rotting when water is present. In that case, paint or wax, lacquer or epoxy, or something else you can come up with that acts as a barrier will do the trick.

If the Cuprinol product they use is forming a barrier of it's own, you need to check before applying things like lacquer or epoxy, but wax should be able to be applied no matter what.

I notice that MMC paints their wood these days, so my bet is that the Cuprinol is just an anti-rot, or to put it more correctly: It's a fungicide.

With regards to wax, I'd advise a thin flowing wax and applying it in as hot weather as possible or at least in a heated garage.

Remember that the wood needs to be warm, otherwise the liquid wax will become pretty solid fast. It takes quite a while before wood is heated, and you want it be able to seep down behind where you can't really apply it.

The wax can either be bougt already-liquid, or you can take your wax and heat it in a waterbath.

You can use ordinary wax, but I'm particularly fond of lanolin based products as they are natural and are very good at protecting metal as well. A couple of companies to check out is lanotec, lanocote and lanoguard.


Sincerely,

Lisa

(LOL, sorry I wrote it like that, but I really do think that lanolin-based products is great stuff).

Btw, lanolin is an excellent product to protect electrical installations as well (after installation and not on actual switches, relays etc.).

Lanotec products is non-conductive to 70kV (70000Volts), so you could spray your battery terminals with it no problems, as well as any circuit boards (in your car, your computer or that phone you constantly take with you in your dinghy).

http://www.lanotec.com.au/?link=12

(click on the "electrical", "automotive", "marine", and "timber" tabs at the top)

I'm a big fan of Danish Oil - worked well on my floors ane rear panel inside.

By far the most vulnerable areas for wood rot are the door rockers (the pieces which go under the doors each side) and adjoining sections of the frame. The inner sill covers are padded with horsehair which absorbs moisture and will guarantee the lower sections will rot once the protection afforded by the Cuprisol expires after around 15 years. Anything you can do to get protection into this area is a good idea. If nothing is done, after about 25 years you can expect to be met with a sight like this:

https://sites.google.com/site/morganatica/bodywork-and-chassis/wood-repair

Oh no! Do they still use those moisture catchers??

There are several methods (and products) to avoid this. I have buttoned the leather down instead of nailing it. Now I can take out the padding and let everything dry - and I still have "soft" sills which you loose with plastic inserts.

Frank