Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board

Help! (with Teak Improvements)

Posted By: Sean Burlingham
Date: Tuesday, 24 January 2006, at 1:02 a.m.

My Bertram has a teak box for the remote spotlight on the flybridge hood, and the teak being 18 years old now, has cracked a quite a bit and is deteriorating. There are also a number of holes drilled into it from previous owners installing and removing who knows what.

What I want to do is, while it is still structurally intact, seal and fill it with epoxy, and then paint or gelcoat it to match the hood as close as possible. I have some limited experience with the West System epoxies. My questions about West System in this application are:

- I intend to mix a thinned-down batch (25% denatured alcohol) as detailed in various posts here, to seal the wood.

- Second application would be then to use a sandable filler in the epoxy to fill the cracks and holes. Is there a time limit between step 1 and 2, or should I be filling the holes first and then sealing?

- After initial filling and sanding I will add several coats of un-thinned epoxy. I am familiar (from lurking about here) about the cure time between coats without sanding (i.e. Capt. Pat fingernail test), or sanding between coats if exceeding that time.

After I get the thing epoxy sealed and sanded smooth and pretty, what do you guys think: Paint or gelcoat? I can get (supposedly) matching gelcoat for my boat from hightide but have ZERO experience using it, but understand about the surfacing wax bit and am willing to take a whack at something new.

If paint, what would be the easiest to apply with brush and still look nice? I was looking at "INTERLUX 4259 BRIGHTSIDE WHITE," a one-part polyurethane. Also thought maybe I should be picking one of the two off-white colors, which are "INTERLUX 4218 BRIGHTSIDE HATTERAS OFF WHITE." No Bertram off-white unfortunately but I bet it's similiar.

Any knowledgeable advice on this topic would be appreciated. I like to things right but only once, so I figured I'd better ask here before I start

Messages In This Thread

Help! (with Teak Improvements)
Sean Burlingham -- Tuesday, 24 January 2006, at 1:02 a.m.

Re: Help! (with Teak Improvements)
Harv -- Tuesday, 24 January 2006, at 9:28 a.m.

Re: Help! (with Teak Improvements)
Ernest -- Tuesday, 24 January 2006, at 5:14 p.m.

Re: Help! (with Teak Improvements) *PIC*
Sean Burlingham -- Wednesday, 25 January 2006, at 4:56 p.m.