My granddad used to repair woody station wagons. He'd have been happy to talk your ear off about this. He's not around anymore, but it's nice to be reminded.
Anyway, I don't really know the answer. Marine primer and paint might be worth looking into, cars and boats have to deal with a lot of the similar adversities.
cars were painted simply because the protection from uv is better with paint. same goes for the black japanning on a model t instead of varnish.
If you use a good paint, I wouldn't out a varnish or spar urethane on it. Spar urethane is soft and not remotely cose to two part epoxy or car finishes .
Might be too late now but if you can somehow get hold of some American elm that was often used for car frames because it is a very tough wood that holds fasteners well and does not split easily. Something to do with having lots of crosswinds between the fibers. Anyway it would hold up better than pine. Hard to find now though since most of the elms died.
I would just use paint, it's the best protection for wood. Use a high quality primer and paint. No reason to fill the grain, and pine doesn't really need it anyway.
Full wood body? Or just a wood frame?
For your floor, oak boards were original, usually from the pallet wood that the other parts were delivered on, Ford was a .... frugal individual.
What style are you building? This going to be an original motor Tall Top T, or you building a T-bucket hotrod?
1923? 1927?
Sorry, should have started with this. It is going to be a long nose fender less speedster. The "body" consists of a floor, seat base for buckets and a plywood firewall. The reason I am using select pine is for the weight. The boards that the hood and apron will rest on will be oiled oak and I think the removable floorboard sections for access may also be oak just to show some bling to contrast the dunkelblau painted parts. I have built gun stocks and used poly on the stock to close the grain and followed with oil stain but thought it might be a waste on an epoxy primed and painted car.
Thanks
My granddad used to repair woody station wagons. He'd have been happy to talk your ear off about this. He's not around anymore, but it's nice to be reminded. Anyway, I don't really know the answer. Marine primer and paint might be worth looking into, cars and boats have to deal with a lot of the similar adversities.
cars were painted simply because the protection from uv is better with paint. same goes for the black japanning on a model t instead of varnish. If you use a good paint, I wouldn't out a varnish or spar urethane on it. Spar urethane is soft and not remotely cose to two part epoxy or car finishes .
Might be too late now but if you can somehow get hold of some American elm that was often used for car frames because it is a very tough wood that holds fasteners well and does not split easily. Something to do with having lots of crosswinds between the fibers. Anyway it would hold up better than pine. Hard to find now though since most of the elms died. I would just use paint, it's the best protection for wood. Use a high quality primer and paint. No reason to fill the grain, and pine doesn't really need it anyway.
Full wood body? Or just a wood frame? For your floor, oak boards were original, usually from the pallet wood that the other parts were delivered on, Ford was a .... frugal individual. What style are you building? This going to be an original motor Tall Top T, or you building a T-bucket hotrod? 1923? 1927?
Sorry, should have started with this. It is going to be a long nose fender less speedster. The "body" consists of a floor, seat base for buckets and a plywood firewall. The reason I am using select pine is for the weight. The boards that the hood and apron will rest on will be oiled oak and I think the removable floorboard sections for access may also be oak just to show some bling to contrast the dunkelblau painted parts. I have built gun stocks and used poly on the stock to close the grain and followed with oil stain but thought it might be a waste on an epoxy primed and painted car. Thanks