Afromosia teak total refurbishment

[Ron Childress]

Looking for the real experts "out there". I need to understand every facet of restoring my teak interior from the real pros in this crowd. Time and matrerials are not an issue. What is an issue is the end results. I have some water stains I need to address on a wall. I also have some rooms where it appears the finish is completely faded away.
I continue to read up on the Awlgrip site about the various applications they have available and, to a rookie, it appears to be a great system. What I don't understand is where does the teak oil play into this picture? Where does a color coating come into this picture? I really want to understand the entire process. I wish to exercise extreme caution, as well. Can't afford to damage this stuff, either.

Please respond to:
ron.childress@power.alstom.com

Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Diver Down]

Ron, please share whatever info you might get with the group. I'm sure there are several of us who could benefit from the experiences of others on the forum. Thanks.

 

[jim rosenthal]

There are a lot of ways to do this. Total refurbishment is not always necessary. Most of the interior paneling and woodwork on a vintage Hatteras will respond well to thorough cleaning and reoiling. Most of us have used that, pluls flat-finish interior finishes such as Epiphanes, or teak oil, or a combination of Minwax red mahogany stain plus the interior flat varnish of your choice.

If you do decide to clean the wood altogether, probably the method of choice is bronze wool and a gentle stripper. I think there are some previous threads apropos of this- it seems to come up as a topic of question from time to time.

 

[dcate]

There are a lot of ways to do this. Total refurbishment is not always necessary. Most of the interior paneling and woodwork on a vintage Hatteras will respond well to thorough cleaning and reoiling..

That's what I'm finding Jim. 30 years worth of oils, handling, touching, diesel fumes, cleaning with soaps, mechanics greasy hands etc, has left a residue of oily dirt on the wood. Especially where the wood gets touched by handling alot, like around corner trim, door handles, etc. Alot of this gets "wiped off" at the time, but, even though it may be "cleaned off" at the time, there was still an invisible film of dirt that was left on the wood. And after 30 years of this type of "cleaning as you go", layers of oily dirt film begins to pile up. And the re-oiling though the years without deep cleaning is just another layer on top of the grime.

It's very time consuming. I just do alittle at a time when the mood strikes. Deep cleaning (and hard rubbing) with just about any kind of cleaner I can find. Right now, "flormica counter top cleaner" seems to be working great! (it might not be the "recommended" approach, but the end result is transforming the boat....little by little. The wood seems to be "lighter" after cleaning. A small amount of wood stain may also be come off as well in certain places. Which is fine. My thinking is....if it comes off...it probably needs to come off. And, it still looks a hundred times better after it does. The wood is more visible and looks smoother (and newer). I know exactly what I've got when it's completely and deeply cleaned. Then, go from there. So far, so good. It is S-L-O-W going, but on the boat, I've got alot of time! Re-oiling the wood later will make it even better there will be nothing but wood, recently oiled.. Which it may need, as it does seem to make it seem dryer. (which looks nice as well. Not any "sheen" at all. Just wood).

It's takes forever to deep clean every inch of this thing. But that's one of the things I love about the boat. Nothing has to be done "yesterday". The boat makes time a friend.

Have fun and enjoy!

 

[jim rosenthal]

I did this years ago; I've had the boat so long, I can't remember when I did it. I think I actually used Spray-9, or 409, or something equally ordinary. Mostly it was a matter of getting dirt and oil off. I do remember that bronze wool was important, because little chunks of steel wool would rust in the wood, and cause problems thereby.

This is the advantage of having one of the smaller Hatteras yachts....but there's still quite a lot of wood in a 36C.

 

[bobk]

When I bought my 48 MY it had everything from soot to oily fingerprints on the wood work. I started with Murpheys oil soap, but it didn't do much. Next came Windex which helped a lot but still not good enough. I next tried ordinary rubbing alcohol with cotton cloths and it pulled lots of dirt out. The remaining surface looked very blotchy, but when re-oiled with Watco teak oil I was quite satisfied with the results. I'm not sure what all was on the wood when I bought it. Some areas looked like they had been shellacked.

Bob

 

[Boaterfrankie]

When I bought my 43 double cabin it had been summerged......it looked like yachtsmanbill,s inside ...a mess..........
I tried lots of different cleaners and what worked best for me was a single stage teak cleaner and then several coats of tung oil......now looks like new again......I am very happy with the results......to look at it now you would not know that it had been submerged.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

When I bought my 43 double cabin it had been summerged......it looked like yachtsmanbill,s inside ...a mess..........
I tried lots of different cleaners and what worked best for me was a single stage teak cleaner and then several coats of tung oil......now looks like new again......I am very happy with the results......to look at it now you would not know that it had been submerged.

I have seen Boaterfrankie's 43DC and he did an excellent job. His wood does look like new. If I hadn't known that it was under water at some time, I wouldn't have guessed it from looking at the wood.

 

[BurtB]

Re: Brighten up the salon - 05-19-2008, 07:24 AM

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My experience with refinishing of wood in 1978 Hatteras Yachtfish.

My wood was dull and dark on the boat, and I tried several things like wiping down, cleaning but it was never looked very good. I was visiting the Lauderdale boat show and went on a 1974 Hatteras Sportfish. I was amazed at the wood. It was brilliant, soft finish, not light in color but the real Formosa teak wood showed through. There was a lady who was sitting on the boat for the broker and she turned out to be the person who did the wood refinish job on the boat for the owner. Her recipe was clean the wood with denatured alcohol using a green 3M pad. Scrub with pad and plenty of alcohol. Wipe the area then with clean rags with alcohol until there is no residue on rag. She told me that this was the most important part was the prep work of cleaning. After allowing the wood to dry she use Jel'd- Poly-Kote for the finish.

Before I started this job I purchased a can of Jel'd- Poly-Kote and did the back of one of the closet doors. It came out beautiful and so the project began.

If you have any discolored areas on any of the teak use a liquid stain that will match the color. Do not use stain/varnish, use just the stain for color. I had a few areas that water had leaked in that had caused the wood to turn white. I could not believe all the gunk that came off of the walls as we cleaned the wood. The previous owner, I was the third owner of the boat had used furniture oil to try to make the wood look good, it never looked good. Any way we scrubbed all of the Formosa teak, and it really started to look clean. The scrubbing was the difficult part.

After the cleaning we started with the product Jel-Kote satin finish that the lady had told us about. You wipe it on and then wipe it off. I used a sponge applicator that had cloth around it for the application and then followed it with cheese clothe to wipe it down. I did two coats, she suggested three, I got tired, there is a lot of wood on the boat. I pulled up all base boards and quarter round and did them separately.

The final work was spectacular, the wood took on a soft sheen that glowed. I did the refinish nine years ago and the wood still looks great today. I use only a damp cloth to wipe down the wood for clean up. The amazing thing is that in areas that receive wear (stair case going into galley} I can just wipe it down with alcohol on a rag, let it dry and reapply a couple of coats of Jel-Kote and it looks great again. The new finish blends perfectly with the old.

This process does not lighten the wood but restores it to its orginal nutmeg color. I keep my boat in Fort Lauderdale if you would like to contact me to see it. I will try to answer any questions you might have.

Product is

Jel'd Poly Kote
Wood-Kote Products
Portland, Orgeon 97211

woodkote.com

 

[stilespb]

Scotts Liquid Gold works wonders. Cheap enough to try before you pass on it as too simple a solution.