Refinishing Mom's Old Bench

I've searched but can't find a before picture of my mom's bench.  She gave it to me in 2016 after we purchased our land.  We sat it out in the elements alongside a picnic table and it held up reasonably well until around 2022.  At that point, the wood was rather rotten and it would likely collapse if you sat on it.

There are actually two of this exact bench and growing up they were on either side of our front door on the porch.  Once that house sold, they went to some property that my parents owned and one remains there today.  I believe these were purchased in either 1986 or 1987.

My mom passed away a few months after giving me the bench in November 2016.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the bench after restoring it but feel that it should be restored and used.  With that in mind, I brought it home from the land in 2022 and slowly, very slowly, worked to restore it.
 
The first and easiest step was to remove all the rotten boards and striped down the cast iron side pieces.  I used a wire wheel to clean the side pieces, cleaned then with mineral spirits, used some Rustoleum primer, and lastly some Rustoleum satin black paint.  They don't have any damage to them that I can tell and look almost new when painted.

After painting these in October 2022, I measured the boards and then the project froze as I debated what wood would look the nicest, last the longest, and not be overly expensive.  With too many options, I didn't do anything else with it until November of this year (2023).

While on vacation for Thanksgiving, I decided to just use really nice red oak boards from Lowes.  They are not pressure treated and are the most expensive of the options.  However, they with out a doubt will look the best when stained.  Additionally, I now plan to place it on a porch rather than out in the elements.

I purchased the red oak boards and cut them to match the original side boards.  The originals were all 4' long and there were 12 in total (9 x 2.5" wide, 2 x 1.5" wide, and 1 x 1" wide).  After cutting them all, I used a router to round over the edge of each which is how the original boards were cut.  Strangely, when looking at the original boards, some appear to have tonge and groove edges which is unique.

With the wood cut, I tested out stain that I have along with some that my father-in-law donated to the cause.  In the end, I purchased some Cabot Cordovan Leather Semi Transparent stain and sealer.  I stained all the boards one side at a time with two coats which took about a week.  After putting on two coats, I realized the can states to not use more than one but so far everything seems fine and dried fully.

I used a 1/4" brad point drill bit with a template a I made from a piece of 1.5" x 1.5" angle iron to drill perfect holes in each end of the boards so they could be bolted to the end pieces.  Everything is bolted together using a mix of 1.5" and 1.75" long 1/4"-20 stainless steel bolts with a large Truss head and Nylon insert nuts so they will not come loose.

I had an extra 1.5" wide board that I finished along with the rest of them in case something didn't work out (2.5" board ripped to 1.5" and 1").  In the end. I chose to use it as the top board along the back rather than the 1" board.  It looks a little better and will no doubt be more sturdy over the years.  I'll just set the 1" board to the size and use it to remember the color of the stain or on another project.    

While I don't have a picture of the bench before starting work, the following is a picture of a few of the boards I saved set beside the finished boards for comparison purposes.

There was a metal strap which ran up behind all the slates and screwed into them.  It was rather thin, had some rust damage, and the screw holes were not aligned well with the wood so I made a new piece from 3/4" wide 1/8" metal.  It took some time to bend it to match the contour of the wood.  I then painted it with the Rustoleum satin black and fastened it to the planks.  I finished the bench on Christmas Eve about a month after I started working on the wood.