Andy Miller knows a thing or two about boat work and marine finishes. He put a few of our TotalBoat marine varnish products to the test when he compared them to the top-selling brands – and in the end, he liked TotalBoat Gleam best. Often times selecting your varnish is about brand preference and past experience, but as Andy points out in today’s video of the week, there have been some revolutionary changes in the varnish game, and TotalBoat has been a leader there. Our rapid recoat varnish systems make building coats a pleasure, not a chore that can take over a week of your life. For a busy guy like Andy, that’s welcome news. Sanding between coats is now optional, and overcoating can be done after just an hour, allowing for multiple coats inside of one day. Check out today’s video with Boatworks Today.
Andy goes over a few very important distinctions when selecting your finish. The Epifanes Rubbed Effect Varnish and our TotalBoat Gleam Satin Finish and Lust Matte Finish varnishes do a great job of giving you a smooth, de-glossed effect. But you can’t use these varnishes as a first sealer coat and you have to build coats with a gloss varnish. Flattening agents in all of these varnishes will haze and cloud if you build coats with them. Use them as a topcoat for the ultimate finish that isn’t going to blind you like a mirror of gloss might.
Another consideration is how to thin your varnish. Like most manufacturers, TotalBoat has a proprietary thinner to be used with all of the oil-based varnishes. Special Brushing Thinner 100 is designed to be the perfect complement to our varnish systems, just as Epifanes has their own Brushing Thinner, along with Pettit and the rest of the brands, too. Always be overly careful and prudent about replacing any of these with an off-the-shelf alternative. It can wreak havoc on a nice varnish job – and no one wants that to happen. Refer to the manufacturers Technical Data Sheets, found on our website pages alongside every product that has one, and loaded with all the things you need to succeed with your varnish or paint.
Lust Rapid Recoat Marine Spar Varnish
