Paint for teak rails.

[ancora]

Looking to paint my sundeck teak rails. Not interested in Concors De Elegance, ergo the painting. Saw a boat with the rails painted a reddish/brown color that looked presentable but do not know the brand of paint.

[Comodave]

We painted a lot of the teak on our last boat with Brightside polyurethane paint. Sanded to bare wood, wiped with acetone and then 2 coats of the primer (forgot the name right now), followed by 3 coats of Brightside. Looked great and was holding up bery well when we sold the boat.

[Simi 60]

You can see what ours looked like.

Gave it all a quick sand with a random Orbital and 60 grit
Rolled in a couple of coats of Sherwin Williams self priming acrylic paint tinted to appropriate colour
Drank beer

6 years in sub tropical climate so far
Have given a high wear area a coat since then but as an experiment in how much prep does it really need , I simply scrubbed with a scourers and water and next day rolled in two coats and a year later it hasn't shown any sign of letting go

Add: these rails are merbau, but similar characteristics as teak

[Pete Meisinger]

I used Brightside, white. Love the result. So far it has held up for three years and still looks great.

pete

[Kaniksu]

That's the way. It looks great

[ancora]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

You can see what ours looked like.

Gave it all a quick sand with a random Orbital and 60 grit
Rolled in a couple of coats of Sherwin Williams self priming acrylic paint tinted to appropriate colour
Drank beer

6 years in sub tropical climate so far
Have given a high wear area a coat since then but as an experiment in how much prep does it really need , I simply scrubbed with a scourers and water and next day rolled in two coats and a year later it hasn't shown any sign of letting go

Add: these rails are merbau, but similar characteristics as teak

That's the color we are looking for....Sherwin Williams for sue.

[Mako]

NIce job Simi.

And if you have a few spare afternoons, could apply a subtle wood grain faux finish. Bet you couldn’t tell the difference at that point from a few meters away. I assisted the engineer on a big woodie as he “created” zebra wood paneling in his boat. Really beautiful.

[Kaniksu]

Simi if at all possible, could you post the colour or formula from the paint can? I like it enough to copy it.

[w8n4sun]

Simi, does the paint hold up to the wood moving from cold/heat temperature differentials?

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by w8n4sun

Simi, does the paint hold up to the wood moving from cold/heat temperature differentials?

This is the condition today of the self priming acrylic done over 6 years ago
Prep then was sand off old flaking varnish with 60 grit using sander
Dust with banister brush
Wipe 2 pack epoxy primer into bad cracks
And paint over the top with 3 coats of self priming acrylic

Pic one shows the worst of it at 9am this morning
Pic 2 shows what the majority is like
Started work @ 9:10am

[Simi 60]

I have lightly hand sanded worst spot
Wiped 100 ft of rail with metho soaked rag
Forced some paint into the cracks with plastic scraper
And rolled 2 coats of paint on.
Job completed @ 10:30am

[w8n4sun]

Wow, very impressive work. Thanks for the tips.

[BruceK]

A neighbour uses Semco on his, yours are an improvement, and they don`t need redoing every 3 months.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Kaniksu

Simi if at all possible, could you post the colour or formula from the paint can? I like it enough to copy it.

Nope, sorry, paint is out of tin and in plastic bottles now
Go to hardware store, get paint swatches to find a colour that suits.
That's what we did.

[heysteve]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

This is the condition today of the self priming acrylic done over 6 years ago
Prep then was sand off old flaking varnish with 60 grit using sander
Dust with banister brush
Wipe 2 pack epoxy primer into bad cracks
And paint over the top with 3 coats of self priming acrylic

That looks great! My boat has some teak caulk in various places to seal joints. Did you have to deal with that?

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by heysteve

That looks great! My boat has some teak caulk in various places to seal joints. Did you have to deal with that?

No

[Cheeky]

I'm giving up on traditional varnish types after doing a full bare wood sand and varnish that didnt last well even with 6-7 coats.
Switching to Cetol Marine Natural Teak once ive got all wood prepped again.
the local boat painter did a neighbours boat a few years back and it still looks great. my understanding is the NATURAL version of this looks less 'orange' which is what put me of initially.
Will post pics when i get a rail done.

[HypnoBob]

"BEHR DECK Natural Clear Transparent Waterproofing Wood Finish.

"BEHR's best wood finish, this advanced 100% acrylic formula delivers complete protection from the elements for up to 4 years on decks and 6 years on fences."

Here's what we did. I took the handrails and caprails on our DeFever 49 CPMY down to the bare wood. Then slathered on a coat of the Behr finish. By the time I finished one circuit around the boat, it was ready for the next coat. Did that one more time (3x).

Kept a jar with about a pint of the stuff along with brush inside the jar in a cabinet on the flybridge. About every six months in places of heavy usage, I would slather a little more on.

Lasted our three years onboard and another year after before we sold the boat.

Created a natural beautiful semi-gloss finish. We were constantly being asked what we used. I would definitely do it again.

[Comodave]

Originally Posted by Cheeky

I'm giving up on traditional varnish types after doing a full bare wood sand and varnish that didnt last well even with 6-7 coats.
Switching to Cetol Marine Natural Teak once ive got all wood prepped again.
the local boat painter did a neighbours boat a few years back and it still looks great. my understanding is the NATURAL version of this looks less 'orange' which is what put me of initially.
Will post pics when i get a rail done.

We did that and it didn’t last 3 years in Michigan where the boat is in a shed half the year. We prepped very carefully. Personally I would go with paint.

[Bmarler]

We switched to the same cetol several years ago. Was so tired of how much time it takes to maintain varnish.
We also lowered our expectations a little and don’t feel like the wood has to look perfect, just good.
The cetol is easy to touch up, and easy to add coats to. The natural teak color is perfect for us.
We are thinking though, in the future, we may find a paint color scheme that will do away with the wood finish on the exterior. Maybe.