These cedar benches were built by my father a number of years ago, after we took down a bunch of trees on the property, including some 100 year old cedar trees. After 3 years of weathering their original finish had worn through. Based on the success I had with our the cherry bench in the spring, I went to town on these this week.
The one on the right is the state of the benches before being touched. The one on the left was after an hour with a belt sander. The cedar red color really jumped back out in the process.
This is a look at the benches after the final coat of poly was put on. They are still drying, so there is some artifacting that won’t be there once it hardens. I’m very curious how long the deep red heart wood is going to stay that color, or if it will orange like cedar does when exposed to air.
It's always more complicated 
Just curious, what coat number is being labeled final in this instance? If it’s less than four, and these are going back outside, you might want to consider doing more. Those are looking truly beautiful, but even three coats will most likely struggle to protect them for very long.
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I did 4 coats on them. We’ll see what that gives me for an outdoor life span before I need to do it again.
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