Painting Over Teak

[Larry H]

koliver,

That's encouraging as we are in the same climate zone. I will experiment with your technique as I have some Epifanes varnished handrails with spots of missing varnish.

Thanks

 

[BaltimoreLurker]

Back to this one ...

I've stripped the varnish off most of the rails and cap. I didn't want to work upside down so I removed the rails to get at the undersides. The varnish there was, no surprise, in almost perfect condition.

1) Underneath the stanchions was some bedding goop, reddish brown in color and still flexible, not hard and brittle, for the most part. What is that and what should I be using when I reinstall the stanchions?

2) My teak is now multicolored. Some bleached out to a very light color. Some a nice rich, brown color. Some black spots of rot? fungus? dirt? Oh, and yes, a few scorched spots where I got carried away with the heat gun. What should I be doing to get a more uniform color before refinishing?

For refinishing I'm currently leaning towards Cetol, a few coats of natural followed by clear.

Thanks

 

[boatman harry]

Hi Guys, I am a professional boat painter and I use a good epoxy resin watered down with denatured alcohol on the first coat. Teak being an oily wood you'll have to penitrate the surface to get the next set of coats to grab on and stick. 2-3 coats of epoxy and then primer and top coat. Its a process but will last for many yrs with minimal maintainance. Now on the flip side pity the poor bast____ that wants to go back to varnish. It can be done, but lots of heat gun and sanding. We've actually used the epoxy method under varnish also and have had extreme longevity from the varnish peeling and have to sand and apply new coats of varnish every couple yrs. The varnish will darken with time though. Overall this method works very well and eliminates lots of maintainance. HB

 

[geoleo]

A primer? Ah Ha!. Who knew? Even FF said to slop on a couple of coats of varnish and paint away.

I think that I would like to try to find a whiter white that is closer to the off white of the gelcoat. What is on there now is called "shell white" by Rustoleum and the matching Krylon color had no name on the can. As far as I can research neither make anything between what I have and stark white.

Maybe, as suggested by RTF, the auto parts store would be where to look. Now I need to hack off a piece of gelcoat to take with me.

But, what is on there now is growing on my lazy ass.

I learned in my Cocst Mgt days that there are200 tones of 'WHITE"

 

[geoleo]

What is a good enamel for caprails

Plan on using Kilz primer then 2 coats of a brown enamel. I don't care if it gets 'into the grain'-that will make it stick better. No Brightside - Shine doesn't last and sometimes gets lifted by bird poop. So just what are good enamel hard paints with gloss that lasts???

 

[Donna]

Plan on using Kilz primer then 2 coats of a brown enamel. I don't care if it gets 'into the grain'-that will make it stick better. No Brightside - Shine doesn't last and sometimes gets lifted by bird poop. So just what are good enamel hard paints with gloss that lasts???

I did all my exterior teak with petit e-z poxy. That was almost a year and a half ago. Sanded it all down, applied 7 coats and it still looks good. Most likely in February I will give it a touch up. About your stairs? Go buy trex and replace them with that. Trex can be slippery so just put a strip of anti skid tape on them.

 

[geoleo]

I did all my exterior teak with petit e-z poxy. That was almost a year and a half ago. Sanded it all down, applied 7 coats and it still looks good. Most likely in February I will give it a touch up. About your stairs? Go buy trex and replace them with that. Trex can be slippery so just put a strip of anti skid tape on them.

7 COATS a fanatic

 

[HopCar]

I think that I would like to try to find a whiter white that is closer to the off white of the gelcoat.

I think the color you’re looking for is Procol Harum White. It’s sort of a whiter shade of pale.

 

[Xsbank]

Oh groan! If it wasn’t the New Year I’d have to be rude to you!

 

[HopCar]

Oh groan! If it wasn’t the New Year I’d have to be rude to you!

At least you got it. I was once talking to a younger friend about what color to paint a boat and suggested Procol Harum White. He didn’t get it. Damn kids.

 

[Montenido]

This is a great thread for me as I am about to tackle my cockpit railing. What do you guys suggest for filling in joints between the boards in the corners? Some sort of sealant that is flexible, but that can be varnished over?

Thanks in advance, Bill

 

[grahamdouglass]

Painting over teak

A couple of years after I bought my boat in 2007 I sanded down the finish on my flybridge and afterdeck area. I used a belt sander. I then put seven coats of undercoat and 3 or 4 coats of Colean, a poly-urethan boat covering from Germany that was voted best varnish in Practical Sailor magazine. It was not really a varnish but a clear boat paint that had a special 'stretchability' so it would not crack and would fill in all the seams. Fast forward a few years and the after deck was really dirty while the upper flybridge still looked really good, because it was under the flybridge cover.

So I had a decision, redo the wood with Colean or some other finish, which meant sanding or just paint it over.

I painted it over with a two part industrial grade epoxy paint that is made to protect steel and concrete in an industrial setting. I then painted Kiwi deck paint over this.

Unfortunately the deck seams seem to show through the paint when it gets dirty. So we will see how it goes in the future. Living downtown close to a big city is fun but there is a lot of car pollution and other pollution that lands on your boat.

 

[Simi 60]

Our rails are made of merbau, similar properties to teak.

When we got her the varnish was all but gone and I refuse to be a varnish slave, so we machine sanded with 60 grit and then did two coats (roller) of self priming exterior acrylic paint tinted to a timber colour.

They are now into their 5th year in the tropical sun, the only sign of degradation is in high hand traffic areas.
These areas I scrubbed with a scourer and rolled on another coat a year ago.