To varnish or paint? There in lies the question

Ok I just spent six hours striping the first of three doors. After I epoxy soak them do I varnish and go with the older classic look or do I go 21st century and go back with paint. Argh I hate to cover stunning teak!!!!. I haven't even sanded them yet.

Go for the white paint. It matches the rest of the boat. Me? I've six colors: green hull, grey deck, white superstructure, light-tan forward-cabin roof, red under-water hull, and yellow pilothouse roof and waterline stripe.

I prefer the contrasting color of teak. You already have them stripped, so why not let the beauty shine through. Of course that advice comes from someone who owns a GB32 with a forest of teak!

Had this problem after a PO painted the previously varnished transom. Advice was once the area was painted it is near impossible to remove all vestiges of paint. Perhaps you could, with deep sanding. I think more paint is the solution. At least you won`t be sanding and varnishing it every year or so.

Beautiful wood gives the boat character and a contrasting color. Plus it's not that hard to take care of it.

Hah!

I think I'll sand tomorow and repost the pics. It's only going to get harder to not varnish. I do like the clean more modern look but who am I kidding, this girl is a grown woman at 32.

I'm not sure if u r aware of it or not, but for clear coating where you want clarity to see the color and grain of the wood, there is usually a special hardener for that. The normal hardeners are somewhat milky. I think that West System uses their 207 Hardener for clear coating. Not sure, just going from memory.

I'm struggling with the same decision, Daddyo. Here's a pic of FlyWright when I bought her in 2007.



The PO had painted the lower door panels with what appears to be an epoxy enamel paint. This paint concealed the rotting door panels, but did not prevent further decay. From what I hear, this decay is a rather common problem on Californians from 30-35 years ago.

Newer models have white doors and metal door frames, but that look is a bit too sterile for my taste. I am thinking about splitting the difference and sealing the lower door panels in CPES, then painting them with white paint to match the house. I might leave the door frames varnished teak to match the window frames. Another option is to paint the entire door white but leave the door-window frames and the door handles varnished teak to match the sides.

There's a lot to be said for less varnish maintenance, but I DO like the look of teak!

Decisions, decisions...

The door looks ready to paint but not to varnish. Like BruceK said, it's a lot of work to get a once painted surface clean enough to varnish.
Many years ago I had a painted wooden boat. I striped the transom to find it was beautiful Mahogany. After I got it to the point you've got your doors, I used Snappy Teak to remove the last of the paint from the grain and bleach the wood. Many coats of varnish and about a sleeve of sandpaper later, is was stunning.

if you can get the teak back to acceptable look to varnish.. varnish the doors...it is a travesty to paint teak. if in the future it gets too much to maintain revarnish then paint the doors.. it will make it easier for the next owner to strip the paint and get back to the varnish.
HOLLYWOOD

If you do decide to paint might want to apply a couple coats of varnish first to fill in the grain.

Daddyo said:

Ok I just spent six hours striping the first of three doors. After I epoxy soak them do I varnish and go with the older classic look or do I go 21st century and go back with paint. Argh I hate to cover stunning teak!!!!. I haven't even sanded them yet.
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I was faced with the same issue Daddyo, so I compromised and did both. I stripped the door out to the cockpit and the teak steps up to the flybridge the PO had also painted over, then used Cetol Marine Natural on it and they look fine.
Whereas the pilot door on its own on the side, as raised above, does sort of match the overall white look and a varnished door there, without all the windows and other external timber varnished to blend with it, would look a bit odd, so I left that painted.
The pics below sort of illustrate the point if you look close. Sorry not close-ups.

My vote is to paint. Our pilot house doors are painted the rear doors are not but they are more protected from the elements. After sanding, we primed with Interlux Pre-Kote then brushed on Interlux Brightside one-part polyurethane thinned with Interlux 333 Brushing Liquid.

Greetings Daddy & All:

I am a romantic by nature
If you can sand those doors without leaving white spots, varnish them. Painting teak should be considered a crime.

P.

Strip and varnish. If you paint teak, it might as well be something cheap like pine.

The PO of our boat had painted the teak toe rails white. We (mostly the Admiral) removed most of the paint with furniture scrapers. That left the little flecks of white paint in the grain. The Admiral (bless her heart) slowly removed all those with some paint stripper and a small bronze brush. For a finish, we did what was recommended on this site. Two coats of Smith's Clear Penetrating Sealing Epoxy, followed by three coats of Cetol Natural. We love the results, worth all the effort.

I agree painting teak is a crime, right up there with using 3M 5200 as a sealant everywhere.

Bilgewater said:

The PO of our boat had painted the teak toe rails white. We (mostly the Admiral) removed most of the paint with furniture scrapers. That left the little flecks of white paint in the grain. The Admiral (bless her heart) slowly removed all those with some paint stripper and a small bronze brush. For a finish, we did what was recommended on this site. Two coats of Smith's Clear Penetrating Sealing Epoxy, followed by three coats of Cetol Natural. We love the results, worth all the effort.

I agree painting teak is a crime, right up there with using 3M 5200 as a sealant everywhere.

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Whether I paint or varnish I'm going to coat in West with special clear hardener but I have not heard of using Cetol instead of varnish for the top coats. Any problem getting the Cetol to adhere? How long ago did you do it? Did you put the Cetol first coat on before the epoxy was fully set?

Varnished boats look good at the dock.Painted boats look good at SEA!

Sailor of Fortune said:

Varnished boats look good at the dock.Painted boats look good at SEA!

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But more people see them at the dock than at sea.

Ever priced teak lumber? I didn't think so.

If you knew how much it cost you would understand why people say its a crime to paint it.

Varnish them first. Then if you change your mind you can paint them over the varnish. If you change your mind again, you can strip off the paint and there will be the varnish. It will just be a refinishing job.

I realize it's a sin to paint teak, but I'm one who likes to USE my boat rather than spend my time refinishing teak or any other wood. Recognizing how difficult it would be to remove all traces of paint from those doors, and that all traces must be removed to have the teak look good, I'd vote for painting it with a quality white paint.

Varnish right now 3 or 4 coats of any old varnish.

This is a base that will accept a good hi fill marine primer , and a topcoat of any marine paint.

The NEXT OWNER may be a masochist and love sitting in the slip for all season "freshing" varnish.

In the Carib , A coat a month is std.

It will be easy to strip down to varnish , with no wood or detail loss,, for the next fellow that has Varnishing as his lifes work or hobby..

markpierce said:

Hah!

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I guess it's how you define hard work. Our boat is under cover so has less exposure, even so with teak rails on the main deck, bridge and the seating trim it's three days every 1-2 years with Cetol marine gloss. Scuffed area's get a little 3-M pad treatment. It helps being under covered as applying in hot sun could lead to some bubbles. For us the results are well worth the effort.

rwidman said:

But more people see them at the dock than at sea.

Ever priced teak lumber? I didn't think so.

If you knew how much it cost you would understand why people say its a crime to paint it.

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Depends on where you live. This past fall we bought 35' of clear teak, had it milled to 1/2" by 2" with a 1/2 round on one edge and then sanded for $55 US total. Cheaper and more rot resistant than clear pine.

If we had to maintain all the exterior teak with clear marine finishes we would never have time to cruise.

Daddyo said:

Whether I paint or varnish I'm going to coat in West with special clear hardener but I have not heard of using Cetol instead of varnish for the top coats. Any problem getting the Cetol to adhere? How long ago did you do it? Did you put the Cetol first coat on before the epoxy was fully set?

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DO, Cetol is nice, and it should adhere fine to a properly applied penetrating epoxy substrate, but it is no where near as pretty as a varnished surface, IMO. Paint teak? I believe that would be the recommendation of the person who restored the artwork, below.

If you want the perfect look, do a good job of sanding, or removing all the paint using chemical stripper or heat gun and a pull scraper. Sand well, apply thinned epoxy to saturate the wood, wet sand to smooth, slop on a few coats of Interprime sealer to fill the grain, quick sand flat, then apply about 8 coats of Flagship varnish. Don't bother sanding between all coats, just the 4th and 7th. This may sound like overkill, but when you have the piece off the boat and on the bench, the difference between 3 coats of Cetol and 8 coats of varnish is about an hour and a half extra work. The difference in appearance, however, is well worth the effort.

After applying the epoxy, wait at least 3 days before applying anything else - this is important.

Just one man's opinion.

The art restoration equivalent of painting teak:

Unless you can get every speck of paint out of the wood grain I would recommend painting them. If you varnish over wood that has been painted and still has paint way down in the grain it will look really bad. Based on what I see in your photo I would paint them. I think you will be very disappointed if you varnish the door if the way it looks in the photo is as "stripped" as you can get it.

Daddyo - One step I left out was to clean with TSP after all the scraping and sanding, prior to the epoxy. The Smith's epoxy went on with 24 hours between coats. It's a very thin two-part mixture, and really penetrates the wood. Provides a nice barrier coat to water intrusion. The Cetol then was applied, again with 24 hours between coats. Adhesion was fine, and each coat looked better than the last. We did it last summer, but haven't had the boat out in the elements yet. The Cetol will give a fine look, but not a mirror-finish like a varnish would. It's also easier to touch up, a quick sanding and then brush on the spot with more Cetol. I wanted nice, rich looking teak, but not a mirror finish I would be a slave to. I'm happy with it.

Nothing looks worse than "almost there" when stripping/sanding previously painted brightwork. I know the costs involved but, I stand by my observations that almost good brightwork just plain sucks.
Sorry if I offended any yacht club commodores.

Well it turns out I didn't have the choice. Some paint and discoloration was just too deep to get out So epoxy and paint it is. First coat of epoxy is on and yeah it looks like almost good brightwork.