Wood preservative?

[BN]

I have my 1930 Briggs Town Sedan disassembled to the extent that I can see and get access to a lot of the wood. The wood is good, but I'm wondering if there's something I could put on it to make it last longer while I have access to it. I recall that Bill Hirsch "Miracle Paint" claimed to be good for this because it draws out moisture, but not so sure about trusting the manufacturer's claim. Just wondering if anyone has any opinions, or has tried the Miracle Paint for this.

[msmaron]

I highly recommend the product Gilsonite. you can buy at better stores..comes in gallon for about 60.0. It is a very good wood preservative.

Gilsonite-brand uintahite's earliest applications included paints for buggies and emulsions for beer-vat lining. It was used by Ford Motor Company as a principal component of the japan black lacquer used on most of the Ford Model T cars.[7]

[ronn]

anything is better then nothing- I buy out the mis tint paint from my local sherwin williams every 3 months or so. they charge me roughly 1. a gallon and I buy lots. use it on rentals, and decks and trim and sub floor coating to adhere vinyl, etc. you get my point. it helps seal the wood and both acrylic and oil are good these days. of course the colors are pot luck and I "blend" them together.
just a thought and very inexpensive...............

[H. L. Chauvin]

Hi Bill,

I have a 1930 Briggs Town Sedan with excellent wood everywhere.

Cleaned everything first, removed old paint and painted everything with POR 15 and POR 15 Chassis Black.


After experiencing applying POR 15 products for over 20 years, my guess this undercarriage paint job will last at least until 2,000 AO.

That is two thousand years after Obama .... Is that long enough?

[glenn in camino]

If it was mine, I'd paint the wood with an oil based enamel.

[Y-Blockhead]

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Originally Posted by H. L. Chauvin

After experiencing applying POR 15 products for over 20 years, my guess this undercarriage paint job will last at least until 2,000 AO.

That is two thousand years after Obama .... Is that long enough?

[Mike V. Florida]

wood life creo-coat

[H. L. Chauvin]

Hi Bill,

POR 15 on wood appears to have similar characteristics as hard epoxy fiberglass on wood. Once applied, the compressive strength on the surface similar to hard epoxy.

POR 15 has adhesive sealing properties such that it can glue POR 15 paint can covers to POR 15 cans that appear as strong as welding.

Besides many uses on metal, I doubt if any experiments were conducted with boat building and/or waterproof wood joints using POR 15 ..... very interesting product.

[Keith True]

I look at it this way.If the wood is good in it after the last 85 years,in normal use,now you are taking care of the car it will far outlast you.Put on anything that makes you feel good.I have friends that agonize over what kind of wood to use that will last,or be the strongest,or how to preserve it forever.Then I aggravate them by telling them,what difference doe it make to you? When you're gone somebody is going to cut it up into a hot rod anyway.I had somebody asking me about some white oak I had around.He said he needed it for the body blocks and bed wood for his A.Really?what is he going to carry?Why would he need the strength of white oak to carry coolers and lawn chairs around?I have a 29 bed that had pine rails and floor installed in the mid 50's.Always stored indoors when not in use.Still looks fine and I see no need to change it.

[H. L. Chauvin]

Hi Bill,

FWIW:

Your considering longevity is admired, i.e., where unprotected Model A wood often exposed to water and/or a high moisture content, "accompanied" by exposure to oxygen, which is always an area that requires caution.

In any humid area, and/or where it rains often, if one drives "often", (even never while raining), with a wood framed Model A where highway water is often splashed upwards on the Model A body sills, it is never a bad idea to try to provide a protective coating to counter the effects of wet and/or damp Model A wood.

All of the former wood framed Model A bodies that rotted had a reason for not lasting long ....... the above ground wood was wet or damp, was exposed to oxygen, and hence allowed this living rot fungus to grow.

[Roadster62]

Keith, I like your outlook, at 65 a half full can of flat black Rust-Oleum will work just fine with my Slantwindow woodwork. Bob

[BN]

Thanks to everyone who responded. Great help here. The Miracle Paint is a Paint Over Rust product similar to POR 15. I've used it on cleaned rusty metal but in some cases where I applied it around ten years ago, it's starting to peel. I've seen this reported in several forums as well. Although they recommend it for wood, I think I'll pass.

Certainly the wood will last longer than me even if I do nothing. But I wanted to do something (within reason) to extend the life of the wood in this Briggs car to add to its life so that someone in the future can enjoy it longer. If someone cuts it up and makes a hot rod out of it, I will come back and haunt them (ha).

So now I'm thinking of using Gilonite, Creo-Coat, or maybe "Copper Green Brown Wood Preservative available at Lowes ($25).

Bill Newland

[Keith True]

I think this is one of those things that gets overthought.It's like a bunch of guys in my garage sitting around talking.Everybody comes up with a different idea,and pretty soon the solution is to spend 10 hours and spend $300.to do a 10 minute job that should cost $2.My original Tudor has some kind of black treatment on the body wood,and still has chalk writing all over it.Any cheapo preservative made today is going to be better than what was used back then,and if that old stuff lasted,think how long the new stuff will.Also remember that old hardwood is very tight,and anything you put on is not really going to penetrate much,it will be resting on the surface for the most part.

[Terry, NJ]

It ain't cheap but I would coat it with Linseed oil and let it soak up the oil before using good old fashioned Spar Varnish on it. Couple of coats of linseed and a top coat of varnish and you're good to go another .85 % of a century.
Terry

[lakeside]

There is a product called''ABATRON'' .It is used in architectural wood restoration. You mentioned your wood is in good shape but if there are any soft spots or missing wood
this product covers those issues. The ..''Liquid Wood'' part is brushed over even good wood and ,in a sense, petrifies it. In your case this might be overkill but could be useful for those who have more serious wood problems.