Winter Project: Wood resto!

[Boatboy6]

Our 1984 seacraft's wood has seen quite abit of abuse in its life time so i decided that this year would be the year to refinish all the wood on the boat, a pretty large task. The wood had been sanded down and oiled sometime back in the 90's by the previous owner and since then there really hasnt been much done to maintain it other than a yearly power wash. This has resulted in some pretty rough teak!

Here are some before pictures of all the wood:





I decided to start the project by doing the larges piece of wood first, the transom door. Here are some pictures start to finish:





Finished and oiled:



I reassembled it today and will post pictures of the fisished piece later. It took me about 8 hours of work from start to finish but i think the effort was well worth it. It now nice and smooth whereas before it was all dried out and rough. I cant wait to see what it looks like back on the boat!

[Boatboy6]

Thought I'd show off the final result, I ended up sealing the teak with semco teak sealer, which held up very well all season, and was only beginning to gray in a few spots



Really dressed the old girl up and gave me a chance to buff the liner really well while the rod racks were out

[Islandtrader]

Nothing like the look of Golden Teak

[jorgeinmiami]

I love the look of Teak but here in South Florida the sun beats it to death and it seems like its a yearly project no matter how you finish it

[Bushwacker]

Originally Posted by jorgeinmiami

I love the look of Teak but here in South Florida the sun beats it to death and it seems like its a yearly project no matter how you finish it

You're right about the UV effects in S. Florida! It doesn't have to be a yearly project however!

My Seafari has a fair amount of teak on it, and in the 38 years I've owned it, I have tried virtually all of the various teak treatments! All of the teak oil treatments seem to start oxidizing and darkening after a just a couple of months, and they turn grey and start to weather after about 6 months. Deks Olje No. 1 (oil) + No. 2 (varnish) was a little better. The Honey Teak 3-part stuff by Signature Finish was better yet and at one time was the top rated teak varnish tested by PowerBoat Reports. A couple years later they tested teak varnishes again and found that Epifanes http://www.epifanes.com/home.htm was even better! I used the Woodfinish Gloss which doesn't have to be sanded between coats, although the Clear Varnish supposedly has slightly more UV protection.

I did my cabin door with the Honey Teak, which seems to darken the wood a bit more than the Epifanes, and it started to deteriorate on the edges after about 5 years. I used Epifanes on everything else in the pictures below, including the hand rail, binocular box, cockpit shelf boards & rod holders, and sign boards on the cockpit coaming. The Epifanes showed no deterioration at all until about 6 years! I do keep a cover on the boat most of the time, but it gets used a lot, and as mentioned, the UV here is the most intense in the US, so I think it's a good test.

I'd be very cautious about using the aggressive 2-part teak cleaners like Tip Top Teak, because they attack and destroy the soft part of the grain. Use it enough and you'll have to sand the hell out of it or run even it through a planer to ever get the wood smooth and level again! (ask me how I know!) I followed the directions on the can to the letter, lightly scuffing between coats with a red 3M pad. I think I used a total of about 6-7 coats, applied with a foam brush, and just used hardware store mineral spirits for thinner, although I've read that using Epifanes thinner gives even better results.