Refinishing Wood - Teak or Varnish

[bellevie]

Hello everybody,

I have a 1986 Grady White Seafarer with wood trim. I have a few questions and would greatly appreciate any and all suggestions given to me regarding the wood on my boat.

1. What type of wood (shown in the pictures below) was used for the trim? Was it originally coated with teak? I only ask this because it looks as if the previous owner tried to varnish it and it doesn't look too appealing.

2. Can anybody tell me, by the photos below, what would be the best way to "approach" this wood as a winter project? Should I sand it down and apply teak oil or should I try Varnish or some sort of Urethane? I plan on removing the wood, section by section into my workshop to work on it the next few months (winter project)

3. The wall that separates the cabin and the cockpit is some sort of laminate and is blistering. What is this and is there a way to replace it? Please help - any info is greatly appreciated.

 

[mthieme]

Re: Refinishing Wood - Teak or Varnish

While I'm not familiar with Grady Whites, my guess is that the wood trim is teak. This would be the most common wood used for exterior marine trim. It's hard to tell since the finish seems heavy in the pics. A few small bare spots show a patina that resembles teak in it's natural marine state (if you will).
You can either strip it chemically, or scrape the finish off. Sanding the finish off will only clog up the sandpaper every couple minutes.
After all the existing finish is removed, then sand. An electric palm sander will make this much easier.
You can use varnish or urathane - make sure it is UV rated, or teak oil. This will be part of your periodic maintenance - touching up the finish. I think urathane will require the least maintenance. I've found if you go the teak oil route, better keep a bottle on board as you will be using it a lot.

The bulkhead that is blistered could be a contact paper. I've seen this before on fiberboard. Again, I'm not sure - would at least need a better pic. Why anyone would use this on a marine application is beyond me. Anywho, this is going to be tougher to deal with. I assume the wood is solid. Can it be removed relatively easily? Can you tell if the bulkhead is solid wood or something else?
Hopefully, someone with a GW will be able to jump in here and verify.
Let's assume it's good wood with contact paper. You'll probably need heat and chemicals to get the outer laminate off. After that, it remains to be see where to go from there. If it's ugly, you can either replace the bulkhead with something more appealing (wood - teak or mahogany) or replace the laminate.

 

[Paul Bell]

Re: Refinishing Wood - Teak or Varnish

I have found the absolute best and longest lasting product is made by Sikkens. The name of the product is Cetol marine finish. It is put on like a varnish. 3 coats is suggested.This stuff is awesome.
I have a 89 celebrity with lots of teak wood.I now havent touched my teak in 3 years and it looks almost as good as when first used applied.There are gloss or satin options and both look great. The attached picture is a poor example of how good this still looks.(you can see I have a winter project going myself) I removed the wood and used the west marine teak cleaner and brightner to get all the other things off that I tried over the years and accumulated. The end result is well worth the time. Your boat is a classic.Few manufacturers use teak these days because they say boat owners dont like the maintenence. I think the real reason is the cost.