Painted Teak

[imported_Jimmy]

I was attempting to repair the leaks in the ugly white hatch on the front of my boat when I realized that it is made of teak (no, I'm not thinking of painting some teak). I have started stripping off the paint with the intention of varnishing it. Most of the paint comes off pretty easy, but in some places it has soaked into the holes in the wood and doesn't want to come out easily. Does anybody know a trick for getting down to nice wood again? If I can't find a way, I may just sand it down since the boards are an inch thick. Thanks.

http://www.angelfire.com/indie/ealasaid/

[WFK]

Jimmy

Nice boat,......It seems to me that you've posted these shots before. I also like what appears to be a converted fish boat in the background. Do you have the story behind that? As far as your hatch goes, I'd probably keep sanding. If there are existing stains you could bleach the whole thing out with Oxcalic (sp?) acid and scrub with bronze wool (never steel)or one of those abrasive pads one uses for washing dishes. The other thought might be a heat gun, or sharp scraper. a blade no longer long enough for your block plane makes a great one.
Good luck
Bill

[On Vacation]

Holes in the wood is one thing. Wood grain showing is another. If it is just woodgrain, you really haven't sanded enough. Holes, if pinhole size can be cleaned out with an awl and filled either with tinted epoxy or if larger and you need to do it with something that is not runny, you can use 405 filleting blend from West System mixed with epoxy and then sand down and varnished.

WE call it character in olde boat parts. Wood putty will work but will shrink over time.
Don't varnish if grain is showing. Sand some more. Start with 80 and then 120 then 150 on bare wood. Then inbetween coats you can go with finer paper. Wipe down with denatured Alcohol to see if the wood shows lighter colors or bloches in the color.

New teak will come out darker if prepared properly and will lighten up over time..
My nickles worth.

[ 07-06-2002, 12:17 PM: Message edited by: oyster ]

[Peter Duck]

You could try the combination of a heat gun and a brass or stainless steel wire brush to get the paint out of the little hidey-holes. Common-or-garden brake fluid is one of the best paint removers that I've come across - -just try spilling some on your car and see what happens! However, I would not advise using it on an area to be clear-finished, as I don't know what sort of stain it may leave on the wood. Oxalic acid is good for removing or lessening those annoying black stains that come from old fastenings, but I doubt that it would remove paint.
Best of luck!
Peter.

[imported_Spissgatter W-9]

Jimmy, don't use a brush! See Brightwork by Rebecca Whitman. Should answer your question and then some.

[imported_Jimmy]

Thanks, I guess I will just scrub it a bit more with the paint remover then sand it down to clean wood.

The photos have been posted before, I just added the link so people could see the hatch I was talking about. I never would have guessed the hatch was solid teak, and I don't know who in their right mind would paint over such beautiful wood.

[Scott Rosen]

Originally posted by Jimmy:
I never would have guessed the hatch was solid teak, and I don't know who in their right mind would paint over such beautiful wood.Some people have boats that are planked and decked entirely in teak and have teak cabin sides and interior joinery as well. On those boats, there is plenty of painted teak. No one in their right mind would varnish it all. In fact, paint is the best finish for teak if you are concerned with the longeivity of the wood. As you are now discovering, paint adheres well to teak. I have found that it is almost impossible to go from paint to varnish unless you willing to sand off a lot of wood. That is especially true of teak which has a deep and open grain.

Someone once made the choice to paint the hatch. Given the generally good looking condition of the boat, I would guess that person had a good reason for choosing paint. Maybe the joinery on the hatch cover isn't great--hatch joinery can be tricky because you need to keep water out and you also need to plan it so the joints don't open up when exposed to the heat of the direct sun, as will happen with some varnished hatch covers. My vote: keep it painted.

[imported_Jimmy]

If you are going to paint it I don't know why you would use such a beautiful and expensive wood like teak. I think somebody was just lazy and was hoping it would save themselves some work, there is lots of other evidence of this on the boat.

The joinery on the hatch definately isn't very good, but the paint does nothing to hide this at all, in fact it looks worse because you don't have the beautiful look of the wood to distract you from the flaws, just ugly paint.

The paint doesn't actually stick to the wood very well at all, a lot of it was already coming off on its own or peeled off with very little effort. I'm going to have to do a lot of work to prepare the surface for either paint or varnish, so I think I will put in some extra work and sand down to clean wood and finnish it bright. I also plan on taking it apart and cleaning and recaulking or reglueing the joints so that it is watertight (at least for a while).

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

I have a boat with a teak keel, sternpost, horn timber, rudder, planking and deck planking. All these bits are painted, as Scott says. The coamings, covering boards, bulwark rails, bulwark stanchions, inside of the bulwark, cleats and handrails are also teak; these are varnished. The gratings on the cockpit floor and the cabin sole, as indeed the whole of the cabin sole, are also teak; these are scrubbed......

Horses for courses!

[Chris Coose]

I've got something like Andrew talks about.
Over the years I've been able to get the paint on the painted stuff and I haven't been so good on the bright stuff.
I kept up with the bright stuff for years and that caused me to hang about the yard far longer than I wanted to. So much of it got let go and there is no covering. Not as shiny but it holds up and I've gotten over it.
The spars get fine annual varnish work.

[ 07-12-2002, 05:09 PM: Message edited by: Chris Coose ]

[imported_Jimmy]

Originally posted by Jimmy:
I never would have guessed the hatch was solid teak, and I don't know who in their right mind would paint over such beautiful wood . OK, I can see why some people took exception to that remark. It's a lot like saying I don't know who in their right mind would buy a 75 year old wooden sailboat without a mast (that would be me). Anyway I still think this hatch was painted to try to hide the fact that it needed repair and the painting only made it look worse. I guess I could repair it and paint it again, but I probably will finish it bright if it is going to look OK.

[Wild Wassa]

I certainly support your willingness to remove the white from the hatch. The trouble is you will soon want to remove the white from the rear hatch as well. Sometimes it's quicker and cheaper to make a new one. This is my torment in life.

Warren.

[annamill]

As I mentioned in the '67 Robinson thread, we have just discovered teak all over the front windows, inside and out. My wonderful brother-in-law is doing the work for us. He has sanded it down and he is now putting stripper on it and then he will scrub it down and we hope to get it all clean. It is old teak and I would like to get back some of the color and richness. Is this possible? This thread has been very informative and I thank you.

Annamill