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Author Topic:   painted teak

higgit posted 05-21-2001 08:23 PM ET (US)
I just bought an 1986 20 Outrage. I know both the gentleman that I bought it from, and the owner before that. However, origanally this was a Florida boat and all of the teak was painted with this orange/brown paint that someone recently referred to as snap-it. Needless to say I have removed every piece of teak that can be removed easily and stripped it, power washed it, and sanded it to near perfect. The gunwales are giving me fits. I can't use the really toxic paint remover on the gunwales fearing gelcoat repercussians. The "gelcoat safe" stripper I've tried from West Marine, it's called 299, doesn't work very well at all. Any ideas how to get this done, short of removing all of that teak as well? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, T Higgins
Tom W Clark posted 05-22-2001 12:43 AM ET (US)
If you can't use chemical strippers then here are the mechanical alternatives. Scrape or sand (or both). If it were me, I would use a very good carbide scraper to remove the paint. The best scrapers I have are made by Sandvik and have an orange handle and a head that holds a very thin but very sharp blade. They are sold in some paint stores and boat stores. They are not the usual hardware store paint scrapers with the four sided steel blades. There are three sizes and I recommend the large and the medium. They are not cheap, they cost perhaps $25 a piece but the blades have two sides and can be bought separately. When these scrapers are new they will cut right down to the wood and pull tissue paper thin layers of wood off leaving you with minimal sanding to fair the surface of the teak out.
You may have to remove a fair amount of the teak's surface as it is a porous wood and the paint may have worked its way down into the grain if the original sealer or varnish had worn off before it was painted.
lhg posted 05-23-2001 10:02 PM ET (US)
Sounds like your teak was finished with early versions of Cetol or Sikken's synthetic wood finish. Often this stuff looked orange/brown in color. Terrible stuff, particularly if not applied correctly!
higgit posted 05-23-2001 10:33 PM ET (US)
Thanks for the information. I'm going to try to contact the manufacture and see if they have any suggestions.

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Author	Topic: painted teak
higgit	posted 05-21-2001 08:23 PM ET (US) I just bought an 1986 20 Outrage. I know both the gentleman that I bought it from, and the owner before that. However, origanally this was a Florida boat and all of the teak was painted with this orange/brown paint that someone recently referred to as snap-it. Needless to say I have removed every piece of teak that can be removed easily and stripped it, power washed it, and sanded it to near perfect. The gunwales are giving me fits. I can't use the really toxic paint remover on the gunwales fearing gelcoat repercussians. The "gelcoat safe" stripper I've tried from West Marine, it's called 299, doesn't work very well at all. Any ideas how to get this done, short of removing all of that teak as well? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, T Higgins
Tom W Clark	posted 05-22-2001 12:43 AM ET (US) If you can't use chemical strippers then here are the mechanical alternatives. Scrape or sand (or both). If it were me, I would use a very good carbide scraper to remove the paint. The best scrapers I have are made by Sandvik and have an orange handle and a head that holds a very thin but very sharp blade. They are sold in some paint stores and boat stores. They are not the usual hardware store paint scrapers with the four sided steel blades. There are three sizes and I recommend the large and the medium. They are not cheap, they cost perhaps $25 a piece but the blades have two sides and can be bought separately. When these scrapers are new they will cut right down to the wood and pull tissue paper thin layers of wood off leaving you with minimal sanding to fair the surface of the teak out. You may have to remove a fair amount of the teak's surface as it is a porous wood and the paint may have worked its way down into the grain if the original sealer or varnish had worn off before it was painted.
lhg	posted 05-23-2001 10:02 PM ET (US) Sounds like your teak was finished with early versions of Cetol or Sikken's synthetic wood finish. Often this stuff looked orange/brown in color. Terrible stuff, particularly if not applied correctly!
higgit	posted 05-23-2001 10:33 PM ET (US) Thanks for the information. I'm going to try to contact the manufacture and see if they have any suggestions.