Yesterday I applied the first coat of mahogany-tinted poly to some of the bronze painted surfaces. These are: the leg space area of the camper box side wall and the dinette furniture. Here you see the latter.
Notice on the above photo the drilled 2" hole? That is where I described need for the galley sink drain from the fresh tank area into the grey tank area.
I had transferred the pencil mark to the other side and drilled from behind. I had enough pressure on the tool to cut smoothly through the back side one by, then through the 1/8" paneling, then into the visible one by (the cleat that received only a half moon cut).
But when the saw came through the back it simply pushed off the cleat board; it was only stapled and not secured good as I thought so as it pushed the board off and the tool pressure cut the paneling in a jagged fashion! I was kind of pissed. I cleaned it up best I could and even had to glue a piece of veneer back in place and clamp it. At least it's in an area that is hidden and wasn't to receive woodwork refinishing, but it was a good reminder to be more careful, maybe lay the piece flat before drilling next time.
But the surface finishing is looking real nice, so warm and cozy. I'll put on a second coat after scuffing the first with steel wool.
As stated yesterday, once I could see the door and drawers all sorted and within view, I decided to start into finishing them. The first order of business was to remove hardware.
The next step is to visually inspect each door/drawer front while running some steel wool over each piece, kind of knocking off the big chunks if you know what I mean. But with a fresh coat of poly on pieces near by I didn't want to stir things up more than necessary - so I didn't do that yet.
Instead I started into the hardware.
Both Lil' Queeny and the parts camper used the same hinges. And Lil' Queeny used matching handles. Notice closely the cream color paint in the hardware recesses. They've been cleaned up by this point.
The parts camper used a different handle, and these different latches in places. I don't like the look of these handles. It's possible they came original, but I think it's more likely somebody in past had changed out the handles to these, thinking they looked better (and maybe they did to their eye, but I still think they're ugly - maybe because they remind me of an old ugly particle board dresser we had back in the eighties). Incidentally, the ONLY particle board in the camper is the drawer backs on the two remaining drawers. :) There was some more under the galley counter for supports, and the counter and table themselves, but that's not going to re-happen.
Subsequently, I have fewer extra handles than I do hinges. Here's a close up of the detail on the handles, which is the same on the hinges. Again, the recesses are cream color.
I like the cream color in the brass. It matches the cream gimp and trim that will be found throughout the camper when it gets put back up. And it's an awesome color contrast to the darker, richer colors being used. But DW suggested changing the hardware cream color to the dark bronze. I got thinking about that and I think I like that!
We had some wall sconce lights upstairs with recessed portions painted brass. The non-recessed portions were green, as in oxidized copper green. For years they were quite pretty touches to our color choices on the walls, etc.
But as we painted richer colors, they kind of felt wrong. So taking them down and out to the bench I spray painted the sconces dark bronze and set them off to dry good and hard overnight. Then I came in and sprayed them in copper giving each just enough time to dry as to finish spraying the four.
Then I grabbed the mineral spirits rag and wiped the fresh copper paint off the raised surfaces, leaving copper down in the grooves and recesses while giving the raised sections an antiqued bronze look. They turned out beautiful!
I'll do something similar to the hardware. Spray a few at a time - to maintain control - in bronze. Cover the cream with bronze and then wipe the raised brass surfaces with mineral spirits, leaving a sort of antiqued brass finish. Depending on the end result I may do something similar on any of the brass (magazine rack, light fixture bands, etc.). That may give us the appropriate amount of bling in the rich and warmth of the setting.
It's actually very fun to restore (keep character and re-use quality pieces reminiscent of, and belonging to, yesteryear) while not being so constrained that you can't modify (make personalized changes and enhancements to an original piece, or upgrade to modernity when desired).
Yeah, I like this resto-mod concept.
But getting to the polishing stage reflected in the above pictures requires some dirty work. I gave the hardware a warm bath and scrubbed things up good with a brush. Next will come the tedious steel wool work on ALL the pieces.
I found no handles that had any rust or worn plating. The are heavy for their size and a basic, good quality, piece of hardware. As I started buffing them with steel wool the revealed surface was beautiful. But I found a kind of coating on them; especially around the cylinders that the screws live in. In places it is so hard that I think it may be a faded clear coat from the factory. Possibly it's some old poly slopped on from a coat on the drawer/door front.
Either way, getting it off to the satisfaction of being a fully polished piece will take some effort. I might need a courser steel wool than the 0000.
The hinges on the other hand had many with pits and rust and thinned plating, worn down to silver in places. I sorted these into three qualities. Fortunately, I had enough and a little more, of the highest quality for my needs, and the rest I'll stow away for a latter day.
Bling!
