MTFCA Forum

Pratt Lampert Cherry Bark stain was discontinued 2 years ago. I just found out when I went to purchase some for my latest project. This is the closest color to the original used on early Ford firewalls.
I know of at least 4 Stynoski winning cars that used this stain.

I live in the sticks and a local hardware store has 4 quarts left. They had 5
I will gladly pick up the rest and ship at my cost.
Gary

I would like a quart.
I sent an email with my phone no.
Keith Billet

I set one aside.
Just noticed I posted Cheery instead of Cherry Bark!!!!
Don't know how to change it. Oh well that should get a few chuckles.
Gary

Hi Gary,
I would like one quart as well. I will send you an email. Mike Lebsack

Hi Gary, please reserve one for me. I will pm you with my contact info and to get you paid. Cheers, Bill

Gary, I had to send an email. I could not figure out how the pm messaging works. Duh, Bill

Laurel Mountain Forge Cherry stain is also "cheery", and from comparison pics to original stained firewalls, comes about
as close as it gets too. Certainly, it worked for my '13 to achieve the "Gold" award back in 2016. The 4 oz. bottle will easily do two firewalls. A quart of stain would problably do 60 cars!!

I recently restored a 1913 KW coilbox, and used the Cherry Bark stain. It is beautiful, BUT, I think the Laurel Mountain Forge stain is closer to the original, and it is still available.

I truly think that the cherry firewalls were hosed down with a heavily pigmented stain, almost like a paint, then brushed and let dry before they were coated with shellac. It would have been an easy way to get consistent looking finishes on the. firewalls. I have this original 1913 firewall that I rubbed the finish off using denatured alcohol.

I'll play salesman here for Laurel Mountain Forge's cherry stain...here's my '13 after I replaced her firewall and stained it with the L.M. stain. Like Larry said, it's about as close to the real thing as it gets. And yep, the pin stripes are "One-Shot" medium grey which from tons of research are also about as close as it gets. It mostly looks white in a lot of light, in the barn the grey comes through.

Here is a close up of a 1910 firewall that I did with Laurel Mountain Forge Cherry on the correct cherry Veneered firewall.
It’s a beautiful stain and I agree with you Tim probably very close to the original color.

Larry...ha ha, yeh our two firewalls look remarkably similar in color!

Ray S.

When you did the denatured alcohol on the original finish...did it lift immediately to bare wood? Or did you have to do it over and over and scrub thru a sticky mess?

If it simply lifted to bare wood almost immediately...then the original firewall you have was never stained, but rather a shellac wash with red pigment suspended in it. The actual first coat may have been a spit shellac also. Not to take away from what others have done on their own restoration...but for a future purist, knowing that it was a surface finish and not a penetrating finish might help with a material decision?

BTW, I believe the correct name is Pratt and Lambert.