General Finishes for interior paneling?

Hey Rod -

General finishes makes great products. I've used their water based Enduro-Var on my Aloha panels and other projects around the house quite a bit. It dries with an amber finish (not as pronounced as shellac) and is VERY easy to apply compared to shellac. It evens out and lays flat as it dries. If you miss a spot don't go back and try to brush back over the area - just get it with the next coat and you won't see a difference. Three coats with about a 2-4 hour dry/recoat time between. It's very durable and water resistant. ARM-R-Seal has a 12-24 hour dry/recoat time which makes for a very long project. If you want more color you should use a water based stain first. 

I used the arm-r-seal in the green can for my whole camper, satin finish. I love that stuff. Goes on very nice. I used a sponge and rubbed it in. It is very forgiving. It stays wet for a good bit of time so you can go back and fix spots. It probably has a light amber tint if used by itself. But I never tried that on the paneling. I staind my panels first. The amber glow is just not my thing.

Of course, most of you know where i stand on this. LOL... I'm a purist... Shellac is what they used then, shellac is what I use now. The best reason besides the look is that shellac is very easy to repair. You're all going to get scratches here and there from a multitude of situations, and you will want to repair those places at times. I need to do a video on repairing scratches on shellacked paneling.

It depends on what you see as a "vintage" trailer. To me, if it's a 1966 or newer it's not vintage. It's just old. But to each their own. And this is the whole reason that "vintage" trailers are so easy to restore. The paneling is repairable and replaceable. You can't do that with the newer photographed veneer paneling. You can't refinish it and it's going to be very difficult to replace it. Once the manufacturers dipped into the plastics and phony paneling stages the trailers became very difficult to "restore"... Natural materials are always either repairable and refinishable, or replaceable.

Hi Friends,

I didn't know at the time when I first wrote the first post in this thread that General Finishes offers oil based as well as water based products. I am now leaning towards the water based products after researching. Depending on humidity, you can coat up to 4 times in a day. That's a nice plus when time is at a premium.

I am going to try a General Finishes product, but not the Arm R seal which is oil based. Due to the changing temperature conditions that can occur in vintage trailer from the coast to the high desert and night and day when closed up, I am going to try the Exterior 450 coat which has the lowest VOC of any of their topcoats.

Cheers,

Rod