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Author Topic:   Refinishing severely neglected Teak Trim

flippa posted 05-26-2013 02:37 PM ET (US)
I have owned my Revenge for just over two years now. The boat had been repowered four years prior to my purchasing it, so mechanically it is in great shape and was well maintained (mechanically) by the prior owner. The hull was in very good condition as well. The previous owner replaced all the cushions, updated the wiring and electronics and had a new Mills enclosure installed on her. The only bad part of the Revenge is that he completely ignored the woodwork, as had the prior owner.
After saying "I'll deal with it next year" for the past two seasons, I finally decided to clean up the teak trim. All the teak is in extremely poor condition; it is severely weathered and filthy. It had not been maintained for many, many years if at all. There are many checks & cracks in the surface and deep dark staining in the grain.
I have read numerous threads here and articles on other sites. I wanted to try & stay away from the cleansers and brightener kits due to potentially damaging the woodwork any further. I had less than satisfactory results when refinishing the woodwork on a Grady White many years ago using a teak cleaning & brightening kit. I actually damaged the teak on the Grady and it looked worse than when I started.
I decided to remove everything from the Revenge and start sanding down to clean wood. After sanding down much of the trim, I finally realized that I would never be able to get the wood completely smooth or remove all the dark stains in the grain of the wood by sanding alone. The trim I have sanded looks a thousand times better than it did before I started, however I feel that if I sand until the wood is perfectly smooth and the dark areas are gone, there will be nothing left. The damage is just too deep.
I just today cleaned up the wood that I sanded with a solution of Oxalic Acid (wood bleach). This has greatly helped, but hasn't entirely removed all the dark areas. I will try another application of the Oxalic Acid to see if it cleans the trim up some more then I will continue sanding.
Have any of you been able to restore teak trim that was severely neglected? What tricks did you use? I know my trim will never look like new, but wanted to try and get much of the dark staining out of the depressions in the wood if possible. If the teak is this far gone, do I resign myself to cleaning it up as good as I can and considering it the "patina" of a 28 year old boat, or is there a way of deep cleaning the teak?
egres posted 05-26-2013 06:47 PM ET (US)
Flippa,
Check this one out.
There may be some know how applicable to your needs.
http://www.whalercentral.com/userphotogallery_3.php?photo_id=1416
You would do best to remove all teaks from boat structures and deal accordingly.
EaglesPDX posted 05-26-2013 07:31 PM ET (US)
I took all the teak off my boat, had it dipped and stripped and then used West's Premium Varnish on it.
Having it dipped and stripped was the real time saver.
jimh posted 05-27-2013 09:31 AM ET (US)
Recently I received an email and some photographs of teak which had been scrubbed with a solution of water and vinegar for the purpose of removing the dark areas in the teak. The results were quite good as judged by the photos I saw, and the use of vinegar seems rather environmentally friendly and inexpensive. It may be a method worthy of trying on your older teak.
Exactly what is meant by "dipped and stripped" as a method?
flippa posted 05-27-2013 10:10 AM ET (US)
Thanks for the tip Jim, I will give it a try on one of the trim pieces & see how well it works.
I hope to at least reduce the amount of dark areas in the trim. I sanded down one of the smaller pieces that rests at the base of the cabin bulkhead down smooth, said to myself "That looks pretty good" and oiled it. It looks like it was refinished after being in a fire.
jimh posted 05-27-2013 11:14 AM ET (US)
I also recommend looking at the images I have taken and posted in
http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/014322.html
It might give you an idea of what sort of weathering occurs in just two years of freshwater exposure with oiled teak.
In some ways, it seems like saltwater might be kinder to teak than freshwater. I think the freshwater exposure tends to promote the mildew or dark staining. It may be that the salt in saltwater inhibits it.

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Author	Topic: Refinishing severely neglected Teak Trim
flippa	posted 05-26-2013 02:37 PM ET (US) I have owned my Revenge for just over two years now. The boat had been repowered four years prior to my purchasing it, so mechanically it is in great shape and was well maintained (mechanically) by the prior owner. The hull was in very good condition as well. The previous owner replaced all the cushions, updated the wiring and electronics and had a new Mills enclosure installed on her. The only bad part of the Revenge is that he completely ignored the woodwork, as had the prior owner. After saying "I'll deal with it next year" for the past two seasons, I finally decided to clean up the teak trim. All the teak is in extremely poor condition; it is severely weathered and filthy. It had not been maintained for many, many years if at all. There are many checks & cracks in the surface and deep dark staining in the grain. I have read numerous threads here and articles on other sites. I wanted to try & stay away from the cleansers and brightener kits due to potentially damaging the woodwork any further. I had less than satisfactory results when refinishing the woodwork on a Grady White many years ago using a teak cleaning & brightening kit. I actually damaged the teak on the Grady and it looked worse than when I started. I decided to remove everything from the Revenge and start sanding down to clean wood. After sanding down much of the trim, I finally realized that I would never be able to get the wood completely smooth or remove all the dark stains in the grain of the wood by sanding alone. The trim I have sanded looks a thousand times better than it did before I started, however I feel that if I sand until the wood is perfectly smooth and the dark areas are gone, there will be nothing left. The damage is just too deep. I just today cleaned up the wood that I sanded with a solution of Oxalic Acid (wood bleach). This has greatly helped, but hasn't entirely removed all the dark areas. I will try another application of the Oxalic Acid to see if it cleans the trim up some more then I will continue sanding. Have any of you been able to restore teak trim that was severely neglected? What tricks did you use? I know my trim will never look like new, but wanted to try and get much of the dark staining out of the depressions in the wood if possible. If the teak is this far gone, do I resign myself to cleaning it up as good as I can and considering it the "patina" of a 28 year old boat, or is there a way of deep cleaning the teak?
egres	posted 05-26-2013 06:47 PM ET (US) Flippa, Check this one out. There may be some know how applicable to your needs. http://www.whalercentral.com/userphotogallery_3.php?photo_id=1416 You would do best to remove all teaks from boat structures and deal accordingly.
EaglesPDX	posted 05-26-2013 07:31 PM ET (US) I took all the teak off my boat, had it dipped and stripped and then used West's Premium Varnish on it. Having it dipped and stripped was the real time saver.
jimh	posted 05-27-2013 09:31 AM ET (US) Recently I received an email and some photographs of teak which had been scrubbed with a solution of water and vinegar for the purpose of removing the dark areas in the teak. The results were quite good as judged by the photos I saw, and the use of vinegar seems rather environmentally friendly and inexpensive. It may be a method worthy of trying on your older teak. Exactly what is meant by "dipped and stripped" as a method?
flippa	posted 05-27-2013 10:10 AM ET (US) Thanks for the tip Jim, I will give it a try on one of the trim pieces & see how well it works. I hope to at least reduce the amount of dark areas in the trim. I sanded down one of the smaller pieces that rests at the base of the cabin bulkhead down smooth, said to myself "That looks pretty good" and oiled it. It looks like it was refinished after being in a fire.
jimh	posted 05-27-2013 11:14 AM ET (US) I also recommend looking at the images I have taken and posted in http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/014322.html It might give you an idea of what sort of weathering occurs in just two years of freshwater exposure with oiled teak. In some ways, it seems like saltwater might be kinder to teak than freshwater. I think the freshwater exposure tends to promote the mildew or dark staining. It may be that the salt in saltwater inhibits it.