Repairing Dented Varnish with G/5

By Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor

Photo above: Dented varnish repaired with G/5 Five minute adhesive. The repair area is quite difficult to detect.

A few years ago a customer approached me at one of the trade shows to say he loves our G/5 Five-Minute Adhesive for filling dents in wood trim prior to reapplying varnish. I thought what a great idea. It cures clear, can be wet sanded in an hour (longer if you are dry sanding), and can be varnished over without a problem. It looks much better than filling with wood putty because it is clear. It can be difficult to match the surrounding wood color when filling with wood putty.

I used his tip the last time I prepared my wood strip canoe for a fresh coat of varnish. It had
picked up a few dents over the previous 15 years. The best time to identify dents is after sanding the hull with a palm sander. The dents remained shiny because the sander wouldn’t dip into low spots. I abraded the dings with a 3M Scotch Bright™ abrasive pad to dull the shine prior to applying the G/5. Filling the dents with G/5 took about thirty minutes. On the sides of the boat where the epoxy was prone to running away, I covered the uncured epoxy with clear packaging tape and removed it a short time later after theG/5 cured. These dented varnish repairs are absolutely transparent and difficult to detect once a coat of varnish is applied.

Abrade the dented varnish with an abrasive pad to dull the shine.

After filling the varnish dents with G/5, cover the uncured epoxy with clear packaging tape.

How will dented varnish repaired with G/5 hold up over time?

To be sure we weren’t recommending something that would lose clarity over time, we dented several varnished wood samples and repaired them with G/5. After it cured, we sanded them smooth and varnished them with Captain’s 1015 Varnish™, my favorite single-part varnish.

After drying for several days, I handed them off to Julie so she could torment them in the QUV Weathering Machine. After months in the machine, the varnish eventually went dull but the G/5 repairs below the surface remained nice and clear.