Need advice on vintage tiki bar restoration!

Hey all so i made an amazing find on Craigslist and purchased this tiki bar for only $100 and its easily worth much more.

Its all hand carved and in amazing shape except the previous owner (who owned it for 30 years) had put it outside towards the end of them owning it and caused the bar to fade and the three panels on top to dry out and the wood filler dried and cracked as you can see there's big cracks in it.

Some friends have told me to clear out the old filler which i did but they suggested putting poly urethane over the top to make it flat and fill in the cracks. I feel like doing that will cheapen the bar and i like the texture and vintage look of it. I was just going to put in more filler and sand and stain it again to get it back to original state.

Any suggestions from the pros on here?

It looks to be a Witco bar that was modified somewhat by the previous owner?
the stools & side Tikis are original Witco.

I'm not familiar with Witco....is this a good thing?

Just google "WITCO" (under "Images") and "William Westenhaver" and you will find lots of examples - but beware, not everything that sez "Witco" on e-bay IS Witco.

You can also look up and down this thread here:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=20416&forum=5&start=1335

A surefire way to get the most info about Witco would be to get my book TIKI MODERn, which tells the story of Witco - but alas, it is out of print, and thus quite expensive:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3822847178/ref=s9_simh_co_p14_d0_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=left-3&pf_rd_r=0CQ0B9PTTEN6APP0SXAH&pf_rd_t=3201&pf_rd_p=1774862082&pf_rd_i=typ03

I have never seen a bar like yours in any Witco catalog (and I have looked thru them all, from the mid-60s to the mid-70s), so it is either a one-of, or it is a knock off by one of its imitators:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=10281&forum=5&start=0

The stools look very much like Witco - but then I don't recall any that are quite that simple. The front of the bar looks like a Witco knock off. The side Tikis are the most Witco-ish…but then Witco did not use the Ku figure very often.

(Ku figures at the City of Refuge, Kona, Hawaii)

In any case, it is a great deal for a singular item. Somewhere on TC there is an answer to WHICH wood oil to use to revive the wood a bit.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2015-01-25 06:30 ]

That is an AMAZING bar. Congrats on the find! Here is what I would do:

-Clean it good w/ soap & water
-(You could stain it with a like-colored stain to enhance the wood grain, though some disagree with this on a vintage piece)
-Wax with Howard's Feed n' Wax (wax & orange oil)

Good luck! Post pics when you're done.

The word is that staining is not necessary, the wax or oil will darken it and bring out the grain.

Good to know... Ok so what do I do about the cracks on the top where the old wood filler was? Do I re fill it or just leave it how it is?

Also how can I find out if it's a genuine witco? Someone I can show or something?

On 2015-01-25 08:40, TikiStiles39 wrote:
Also how can I find out if it's a genuine witco? Someone I can show or something?

Other than bigbrotiki, keigs20 (Ken Pleasant of http://www.pleasanttiki.com) is an excellent resource.

Great find. Howard's is the way to go. Follow the instructions and the results are worth the work. I warm the bottle in some warm water before I apply it to the wood. I would leave the cracks in the wood as they are. I think the effects of age and use just add character to a piece. I would hand sand the top and avoid the power tools. Post some pics of your progress too.

Fun way to start, congratulations on your find. Looking forward to the final finish.

Nice Stiles! I agree with Trav about the cracks, let 'em be. I think mis-matched filler would look worse than the cracks and the chances of matching exactly are pretty slim.

Thanks guys! I'm pretty excited about it also! So Maddogmike you say to hand sand the top, so I should do that? Only the top? Sorry to come off lost I just want to make sure I take care of this piece and not do something that will compromise the look. I know I need to do the stools for sure!

Don't sand. I've seen sanded Witco. It's not pretty.

Would be cool to know the origins of this bar, could the seller give you any info on it?

No all she said was that they have owned the bar for 30 years. I would like to know as well to be honest!

AWESOME find !!!!

Ok so I called back the woman I purchased the bar from to see if I could get any more info from before her. Seeing that it was 30 years ago she couldn't remember exactly but she said she bought it from the gentleman who actually carved the bar and stools. She said she does remember he had an interesting story that he was from Hawaii, he did carve a lot and that he played the eukilale and I think she said he hand carved the eukilales as well but not sure. So I'm not sure but if this is a Witco piece then she should have bought it from the man himself and that would make this a one of a kind right? I wish there was a way to know for sure exactly what I have and how much it's worth!

Great story! I don't believe it is Witco. If Sven never saw it in any of the catalogs, it makes it unlikely. Plus, the carvings on the front don't feel like Witco to me either. And the person the woman was describing definitely wasn't William Westenhaver!

But, I do believe you have a one-of-a-kind, hand-carved tiki bar. And it's a beauty with a nice history. A great find all around.

Oh well...I love it either way! Thank you for the info though. I'm definitely a beginner at all this but have been a all things tiki lover for a long time!

I think it's a bar "in the style of" Witco, not an actual Witco piece. But I don't consider myself a Witco expert. It just doesn't appear to be one at first glance. Don't let that deter you from doing more research.

The amount of refinishing you do should depend on a couple of things such as whether you think it's a valuable piece of furniture (in which case heavy restoration might kill the value) and how much of the original integrity of the piece you want to maintain. If it's totally deteriorated you can have a heavier hand in restoration.

You seem to be leaning towards preserving the original look and patina on the piece. I wouldn't sand it. That's going to strip off some of the original finish and ruin the grain someone worked very hard to expose. The wood probably needs to be cleaned. Get a can of Wax Wash by Mohawk. The same people that make wood floors. They also have wood care products. You can apply it with a towel, or #0000 steel wool (very carefully). If it's too difficult to get Wax Wash, use mineral spirits (that is mostly what is in Wax Wash). After that, depending on how the wood looks now that you've cleaned it you might be able to directly apply a paste wax right onto the existing finish. You could use Howard's Feed and Wax as some have suggested. It will have to be reapplied though. The oil in Feed and Wax does evaporate over time. If the finish seems to have come off in areas or the wood seems a little soft/weak/worn you could apply a color matching stain (such as Minwax) right over the current finish. It will cure and strengthen those spots and make them color-fast. Some advocate using Restore-A-Finish, which is another Howard product. I'm not a fan of that. It's a very temporary fix. How to choose? So does it look like the finish is in pretty good condition but the wood basically seems dry and cracked? Try the Feed and Wax. I'm still on the fence about it's long term protection against cracks and drying...

Good luck!

Ok so updat I have just started cleaning the bar with the mineral wash which the parts of the bar that didn't get much sun is glowing and looks beautiful BUT the lower parts of the bar that got the most sun aren't looking as good in fact it's very dull and I'm wanting it to glow like the top parts. Now there is one thing I actually stopped because there seems to be parts of the finish that are coming off that I'm not sure is supposed to be. Where it's coming off it does look shinier underneath but as I look at the top part it also has this finish that gives it a yellow glow and it's making me think I shouldn't be taking it off. Here is some pictures to help now the close ups are showing you the yellow parts first from the top where it's nice then the bottom where you can see where it's coming off. I just need to know A. Is it supposed to be there and B. Should I be taking it off because it's pretty dirty and I don't see it cleaning up without removing it. If you can help anyone or TheBigT I'm actually taking your advice with cleaning it. I'm not going to continue until I know for sure...Help!

Hey TS, it's looking good! So the top part doesn't need any refinishing at all. Just a paste wax (once you're all done). For the bottom part I would guess, based on the color, that it's a shellac finish. The mineral spirits or wax wash, whichever one you applied, should not hurt the finish. It will not dissolve cured shellac, varnish, or poly finishes. It will dissolve waxes.

You can test for shellac like this: take some of the flakes coming off and put them in a small dish. Add some of your cleaner. If it dissolves completely or dissolves into a mush, it's shellac. In that case you can finish cleaning the wood and reapply shellac to the missing parts. You can get premixed shellac from Home Depot/Lowes, etc. The brand I mostly see is "Deft". Get the amber shellac. It might not completely match what you have already. The only way to do that would be to purchase dry shellac flakes and mix your own (eek).

I would try the premixed Deft brand amber shellac. Thin it 50% with denatured alcohol. Apply a couple of coats to darken the tone if needed. When done, wax the whole piece of furniture. Remember, alcohol (including your mixed drinks) will damage a shellac finish. If you get a match you like, you could apply a lacquer (Deft makes a brush on lacquer). It's hard to say whether there is a clear coat on it now or not.

Oh, forgot one other thing. Another simple way to go would be to replace the color with a tinted wax. You can try a commercial paint store to see if they can supply you with pre-tinted wax or a custom color.

Thank you so much for the advice I will let you know how it goes although I'm a little nervous I haven't done anything like that before and I don't want to mess it up.

So I have finished restoring the bar and this is the finished product! Looks pretty amazing!

Oh I know the seat covers are horrible I ordered new fabric from dean miller so once I get that I will re upholster

You really made it bright and colorful. Nice work!

You have great Tiki karma! That is an outstanding bar and your treatment totally rocks. Restores my faith in Craigslist [kinda.]

Hey thanks... yeah it turned out pretty damn good! I'm reupholstering the stool now and will post when I'm done!

SWEET! Great job. What did you end up doing for the finish restoration? Wax, shellac, something else? Fill us in on the details. I see the cleaning did some wonders. :)