I knew before any painting would take place, I'd have to sand this beauty down and address the multitude of nail holes in it.
A trip to my local Lowe's was my first for this project. I bought two types of sandpaper - a coarse grit and a fine grit. Both would be needed for the work ahead of me.
I used the rougher sand paper to go over the chair first, I saved the high grain sand paper for the end of the sanding process.
The wood, though beautiful had enough damaged spots that a sanding was required.
I also purchased some 3m Wood Filler - I was flying blind here on what type I bought, but chose this one because it is "Stainable" and I wasn't sure if I'd be staining or painting this chair. Turns out, I chose well. This tube was used completely in this project, I didn't need any more or less than this.
I don't own a putty knife, but I DO own a large and a small metal spatula for frosting a cake, and the small one was PERFECT for this job!
I squeezed the wood filler over an area, used the spatula to push the filler into the holes and scrape the filler down.
It seemed like the more holes I filled, the more holes I found.
There was also a split in one of the arm rests. I put filler in the split.
After the areas with holes were covered, I let it stand in the sun for an hour or two - until it was ready to sand. This is when I pulled out the fine sand paper and sanded the whole chair.
Once sanded, I went over the whole chair with some Blue Hawk Tack Cloth.
Tack cloth is GREAT for making sure all the fine dust of sanding is removed. Because it is so sticky, I wore gloves - I'm not a fan of sticky hands.
After this process, I had to address the wobbly chair I had in front of me. It had the potential to be sturdy, but each corner was loose and I didn't know what to do.
I took the chair to my parents' house and had a consultation with my dad.
We ended up deciding that I should use Gorilla Glue on each corner and a ratchet strap to hold the base of the chair together while the glue dried.
I took my chair home and made another trip to Lowe's.
Gorilla Glue is a GREAT product, but I highly recommend you read the instructions WELL before beginning. Dad warned me of this, and I'm glad he did. I'd not have been as careful had he not warned me.
Us only a small amount, the water you use to activate it will most certainly made it grow.
The growth was great for filling the corners of the chair and making sure it was glued together. I'm glad I was prepared with a wet rag to catch the drips.
If I had it to do over again, I'd have put down a drop cloth, because we now have Monkey Glue forever on the patio. It's been 5 months since it dripped there and it is still holding strong on the cement.
The ratchet strap was a BRILLIANT idea and it held the chair together wonderfully as it dried.
I sanded the areas where the Gorilla Glue dripped or grew and made sure it was smooth.
Again some Tack Cloth cleaned it up.
Round 3 complete. Now I could start looking for some fabric.
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