BUFFBAD-tiki redo

We all make make mistakes. Most of us anyway. My mistake on this Tiki was impatience in not waiting for the Tiki to dry out. This Tiki was made for a good friend and it was finished quickly and had too many coats of polyurathane. So after about 6 months later the Tiki developed as my friend called it "character", so I passed it off as typical ageing process of the wood. Few months later the word "character" changed and the word "disease" was used. YIKES ! So I insisted on taking it back and fixing the problem. It looked terrible !! The polyurathane had bubbled all over and many places it had turned black as if a fungus was growing undeneath the clear coating and the poor fella was leaning forward from the curling of the wood near the feet,to the point it would easily fall over. Call 911 !!. So I sanded it all down and tried to solve its orthopedic problems. So I called Dr. Scholl's...just kidding. So I put the tiki in a bucket of water and soaked it for about 6 hours and successfully straitened out the base. To prevent it from curling back I rigged this setup so it would dry and keep its shape.



So as the palm wood dried the backbrace held but cracks opened at the ankles. Oh Well!. The bottom is flat now and a little wood filler in the cracks and several more weeks of drying and I will get back to the finishing touches. After staining, I will wait for it to dry and I got a marine spar varnish to use with moisture protection just in case. Wish me luck. Bellow is a pic of the Tiki after it was just carved and finished last year.

Final pics forthcoming. BUFFBAD

OK! IT IS NOW 1 YEAR LATER. Here are a few pics of this tiki to show how it has weathered and the status of the repair job.

[ Edited by: BUFFBAD 2009-02-04 15:33 ]

That grill makes a nice work bench...

Thanks for posting that info. I like the bumpers on the bottom
like on a pc.