Couldn't resist early Wing project bow **Pics Added**

[BE Wild Willy]

Haven't done any bow restorations but couldn't pass up this bow for the price. Pics are from the auction, will post some others after I receive it. There's crazing in the clear coat but the seller said that it was clean otherwise. Gonna carefully strip her down and try recoating with true oil. Any info you guys can share with me about the bow and tips for cleaning her up would be greatly appreciated.
   
   
   
   
   
   

[BE Wild Willy]

Couple more...

 
 
 

[Centex]

Beautiful.  This thread will be fun.  Good luck.

[oldbohntr]

1964-65, I think.  Appears to be a White Wing?  Very pretty riser-Tigerwood?    The finish is very badly checked but not too yellowed.  The finish has to come off, of course.  I've had more luck scraping bows like this than sanding.....at least a combination of scraping and sanding.

  Hard to save that decal, but you've got to try.  I've never put tru-oil over a damaged decal like that.  I did spray a couple of early Bear decals with Fullerplast....that was a mistake!  The silver lettering is also really nice....I don't know how to save that with the finish checked so badly over it. It looks like the checks have even raised the ink.  I'd scrape very carefully with the tip of a pocketknife blade over the "#" and the " " " marks.  If the finish will flake off w/o taking the ink with it, then you've got a chance.  Otherwise take a picture and get a silver paint pen and try to replicate it. Wrap very fine(1000 grit) sandpaper around a very small tapered rat tail file to clean the string grooves.  

I think I'd try polyurethane, at least around the decal.  

It will be a gorgeous bow. Don't rush it!  Good Luck.

[Hobow]

Tom gave some great advice.  

One thing that I've done when the writing couldn't be saved was place Scotch tape over the original writing and trace it exactly onto the tape.  I'll make several copies and save one for an example and practice tracing over the others until I can mimic it to the best of my abilities on scratch paper, then I letter the bow.

Keep taking pictures of your progress.  The old Wings are great bows.

Brad

[Larry m]

Beautiful bow! Should pull really sweet....
All good advice given above here.
I had one very similar and had good results but patience was the key. My first thought would be to stabalize the decal and the lettering as much as possible. A light cleaning and then a light spray over each with a water base poly. Once completely dry use very light sandpaper and gently go over it to remove any rough edges. Wipe it down again and then use matching colors with an Artist Indian Ink (Faber-Castell) waterproof pen or something similar and can be found at Michaels craft stores. Use magnifying glasses so you can match up as close to the original lines as you can get. Work slowly and carefully. When happy with the result let dry completely and then give it another light cover spray with water base poly. If you use oil base it will run!!!!
Then I cut and placed  masking tape to the size of the decal and lettering. This will protect the area when sanding the rest of the bow down and getting it ready for your new finish.
This is what worked for me and I was very happy with my results.
Good Luck and post pics on however you choose to go about it. Should be fun.....

[BE Wild Willy]

Thanks fellas for the advice so far, should receive the bow on Monday and then I'll truly know what I've gotten myself into.

[Al H]

I do love those old wing bows.  I just wanted to let you know if you need new decals I do have some of that style wing.  I might not have the white wing upper decal but I can get some made up.  Good luck on the restoration and give me a yell if you need.

Thanks,
Al
.......Al's Decal's

[kurtbel5]

Hi Al
Could I get a couple of those Wing Decals?  

What do you charge for making a copy of a different logo? I have a pretty special Howatt I would like to make a copy of the model decal, its called a Matador and has a pic of a bull fighter not sure if its possible or not

Cheers Kurt

[Al H]

You bet you can Kurt.  I sent you a PM so give me a yell.

Thanks,
Al

.......Al's Decals

[BE Wild Willy]

Thanks Al, I'll shoot you a PM to get the particulars. I'm sure that it would save me a lot of tedious work.

[BE Wild Willy]

Here's some pics of the bow as I get started. Couldn't seem to get the glass on the limbs to show clearly, gonna have to experiment with the camera settings. I've got the worst side of a limb sanded so far and it looks great. The tips are tiny and in great shape. Been slowly working a twist out of the lower limb. Any idea what kind of wood the riser is?
 
 
 
 
 
 

[mahantango]

Looking great! One word of advice: if you want those limbs to stay bright white, don't use Tru-Oil on them. While it's a great finish it will yellow badly on light colored glass.

[warpedarrow]

X2 on the Tru-oil.  I refinished a Kodiak Special Deluxe and a 59 Kodiak with it and it does yellow the white overlays.  The 1960 turned out really nice but the overlays on the 59 were already yellowed and I could not brighten them up so I did not care about the yellowing factor.

Tru-Oil is so slow to use.  If you are wanting a finish that has a lot of depth you could be looking at sixty or seventy coats.  Kind of depends on the wood grain.  If there is a lot of fill that needs to take place and you don't want to spend 2 -3 months on the finish application, I wouldn't use Tru-Oil.

That is a nice old bow and it should be a beauty when you are finished.