Not much to say about today. I continued to work on the ceiling slats/boards. In the morning when I checked them, I thought that they looked good with the stain. But now they need to have three (at least) layers of polyurethane clear coat applied, and its four hours of dry time between coats. In the morning, I stacked the boards up and then one by one vacuumed them with the shop vac and applied a coat of polyurethane. I then set the board aside. It took just over an hour to do this for all 18 boards. With my workshop covered with lumber, there was not much else to do except wait four hours for it to dry.
After lunch, I repeated the process and applied the second coat of polyurethane. Then waited four more hours for it to dry.
Fortunately, around 4:00 the hole saw that I had purchased to finish the installation of the deadbolt locks on the passenger door arrived. So, I used that tool to drill out the hole in the hardened steel of the B pillar. The new tool worked great!
The second level of metal in the B pillar is the hardened steel that was causing me so much problem with my old hole saw bit. I double checked the placement of the hole, and the deadbolt fired perfectly. I deburred and painted the exposed metal. Once that dried, I drilled the two holes for the rivets that will hold the plate that covers this bigger hole. I deburred and painted the exposed metal on these two smaller holes. While that paint was drying, I moved on to making the electrical connections. However, I only got two of eight wires connected before a thunderstorm rolled in and sent me inside. I’ll have to finish the work on the passenger door another day.
After dinner, I sanded all the boards with 400 grit sandpaper, and they were very smooth. Then I vacuumed them with the shop vacc and applied the third and final coat of polyurethane. I’ll let that dry overnight and hope to hang some of these boards tomorrow. I might have to be a little creative to work around the boards that have a little curve or twist or defect of some type. But I’m sure it will work out fine. The boards look great!
I did receive the black fabric today that will go under these boards, so tomorrow I can hang that fabric. Once the fabric is up, I can begin installing these ceiling boards.