Witco chair restoration...one down, one to go (upholstery help needed)

I began restoring two Wicto chairs back in January, at least the Wahine chair...

After hours of removing old paint and varnish, I am nearly ready to start the finishing process...

So, should I paint the "colored" areas first and then stain?

What color of stain? I have read "Golden Oak", but should it be darker like "Walnut"?

Paint colors; any reccomendations? There were a gray, blue, orange, red and yellow?

I will post picture when this one is finished!

Thanks for the help,

PTD

[ Edited by: Psycho Tiki D 2010-06-19 18:58 ]

My Witco pieces look more of a walnut color than a golden oak to me. I know Minwax has a color chart on their web page that maybe of help. The paint is another animal altogether. The paint sometimes looks more like a colored stain and other times looks like a paint that has been watered down to look almost opaque. And then the overall top coat wax finish would have to be one that will not react with the paint in a bad way. Good luck with the restoration and thanks for posting pics of the progress.

Any progress shots on the chairs D ?

Thanks for asking uncle trav,

Although not alot of progress due to iffy weather, I did do some more finish sanding and stained the two pieces that make up the bottom of the chair. I am going to stain, paint and varnish as I go. I decided to use Minwax Special Walnut stain, it is very dark, but it lightens up when you varnish.

As a side note, I have restored several pieces of furniture over the years. This has been the trickiest because of the raised grain on parts of the wood. I did my best to keep the grain original and not sand it down. I am very happy with the results thus far.

Stubborn residue under the seat.

Pieces of the bottom of the chair.

Staining begins.

More later!

PTD

I'm no Witco expert, however I think that stain color looks perfect. Great choice! I Can't wait to see the finished restoration.

Great job. The stain looks great. Here is a clear picture of one of the chairs from Chin Tiki. May help with colors and fabric choices.

From flickr memeber Derekbodurka

Thanks for the feedback and the picture. The stumbling block I am at right now is the paint. I am not sure if I should use a water base or enamel paint, what colors come close to matching (although I will use a flat base) and I am hoping the varnish dulls the colors slightly. A little more sanding on the chair back and the stain will be going on. Hopefully sometime over the next few days?

I did get a picture from Tiki Lee that shows the colors a little better. I will try to match based on that.

PTD

Water based paint may be the way to go. Water based can be mixed or diluted fairly easy. I would stain several test pieces and give both enamel and water base a test run with the varnish top coat. Keep up the good work. This thread should help allot of folks out.

Yeah I am even more glad that you took these chairs Duane, I would of never attempted to restore them anyways.

I think they are coming along well

There are some great repo fabric websites where you can send them a pic of what you want done in fabric and they can duplicate it. Might be a good option when the wood part is done and you are ready to start on the cushions

My neighbor used to work for his parents business back in the 1960's selling Witco wholesale to all of the shops from San Francisco South to San Diego. He said that he always carried a blow torch and a can of Johnson's Wax to mend scratches and scuffs on his travel samples of Witco. He said that that stuff was always splitting and cracking and that he would hit it with the blowtorch lightly and then use a rag and buff off the charred wood with Johnson's Wax.

http://www.castlewholesalers.com/JOHNSON-Paste-Wax-1-Lb-Can.html

I think there are a couple other thread with the same question possed. Plus there is the son in law to Mr. Witco somewhere around here somewhere. Someone has your exact answer on Tiki Central

The weather was very decent today so I did some finish sanding and some more staining...

Doing one side at time due to some finishing challenges with the anchor screws wood plugs. All in all, coming together good!

PTD

Nice job PTD .

Back from a week of non-tiki vacation and a little more progress..

Painted the hair, eyes and part of the head band.

Later,

PTD

A little more progress today...

Later,

PTD

Your Witco resto is looking great PTD ...xlnt job .

I'm looking forward to the Sacramento crawl in October when we can all see the chair up close. It looks great. Will you ever sit on it? Wendy

A little more work today...

Thanks for looking!

PTD

I was at Duane's house last night and the pictures on here do not do this chair justice!

From the way they looked when I dropped them off at his place to how the one he is working on now looks you would never have thought it was the same piece.

He has really done a fabulous job and I can't wait to see the finished (with cushions) thrones.

Great work Duane!

Thanks for all the nods on the restoration. I completed the wahine chair this afternoon. I bought new hardware to refasten the pieces together since the original lag screws were rusted (one was broken in half). I applied a varathene seal instead of varnish because to wood is so rough. It would have been extremely difficult to sand down varnish on the project.

How the chair looked when I received it.

Shots of the completed chair. It looks darker than it actually is.

I will be on the lookout for some upholstery or material to have the cushions and backrest done. I will have both pieces custom made for the chairs by a friend of mine.

Later,

PTD

WOW!! Fantastic job. Great to see these chairs given a new lease on life. Really, really nice work you have done. Can't wait to see the upholstery you find for these.

Thank you uncle trav, I appreciate the feedback!

PTD

[ Edited by: Psycho Tiki D 2010-06-20 18:21 ]

You are an artist. You saved something special. We look forward to seeing it at the crawl. Wendy

Duane. Did you use any type of protective coat over the final finish? I'm in the middle of trying to bring back the original finish of the chair I found last weekend. Also if you need some measurements for the backrest I can post them for you as I have it off at the moment. Can't remember if your had the backrest or not. Thanks.

Trav,

I used a heavy coat of Varathane Diamond Brand Spar Urethane Outdoor (water based) to protect the finish. It was a satin finish.

And yes, any help with the measurements for the backrest is appreciated.

Thanks,

PTD

Duane.
Thanks for the tip on the finish. The piece measures 40" long and is made of very light yellow pine. It was attached to the chair with three 2" long nails. it had about 3/4" thick padding behind the fabric. Here are a couple pics of how the fabric was attached.

The backrest was attached to the chair 1 1/2" down from the top and 3 1/2" up from the seat. Hear is a shot of the backrest with the fabric removed and a cross section I drew up. I hope this helps out.

You know Duane there are websites that can recreate any fabric if you provide them a sample..and in many cases a scanned image will work.

Maybe Trav and you can work together so you can borrow the fabric to get duplicate fabric made?