Wooden You Know Part 1 - 1953 Chevrolet

The safe edge is necessary, especially when dealing with the grooves, as you don't want to create more work by further grooving them! Getting the tight edges free of debris is as important as rounding them over.

Also included in the finishing kit are ScotchBrite and two grades of dry (non-wet) sandpaper. You'll need a sanding block as well as other miscellaneous supplies. Toward the latter stages of finishing, you'll also want a good supply of wet-sanding paper.

With a small block, start sanding with the coarser 120-grit paper. Always sand with the grain, never against.

That great cordless kit came with a cool little vacuum, which came in very handy for removing wood dust between rounds of sanding, which there are plenty of.

Leveling your wood helps ensure an even finish, especially on the later coats of varnish. It's something I may not have even considered had I not read the directions thoroughly.

While natural wood is a beautiful thing when finished right in varnish, since I tend to do things differently, I decided to add some color. I chose to go with Minwax's Ebony Wood Finish stain, which is oil-based. However, you can use a newer water-based type, even the gel stain, without any adverse reactions with the varnish.

Stock up on latex gloves, as you'll want to keep contaminants from penetrating the wood as much as possible, especially the natural oils in your skin. Once you've prepped the wood and gotten it as clean as you can, give it a once-over with some thinner, followed by another once-over with a tack cloth.

Always begin staining/varnishing on the backside of the wood. Since it wasn't going to be seen, I didn't go full bore on the staining; however, I won't be skimping on the varnish, as there needs to be a good seal on both sides.

When it came time to stain the top side, I used an applicator sponge, but you can get away with a rag or even a sponge brush. I also picked up a dozen mixing cups with graduation marks on the outside (useful in the varnish stages).

The stain's density is dependent on the amount of time it's left to penetrate the wood-the longer you leave it on, the darker the stain. With oil bases, you can go as long as 15 minutes; with water-based, usually no longer than 3 minutes.

To get the stain into all the tight spots, I relied on one of the sponge brushes. Ensuring even coverage is important, as once the varnish is on, there's no more stain going on (you'd have to sand through the varnish to get any stain to penetrate).

With the tailgate nearby for reference, I was able to better determine how dark I wanted to go with the stain. At this stage, I was very pleased. But, as I would find with the test piece, the varnish tended to bring the grain out more, which in essence lightened the stain.

After giving the freshly stained planks of wood ample time to soak up the hues, I went over all the surfaces lightly in preparation for the lengthy rounds of varnish application, which we'll go over next month. In the meantime, you've got plenty of time to start your own wood kit project.