Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board

Re: Help! (with Teak Improvements)

Posted By: Harv
Date: Tuesday, 24 January 2006, at 9:28 a.m.

In Response To: Help! (with Teak Improvements) (Sean Burlingham)

Sean,

I may not be correct on this but this approach seems logical. I would first clean and sand all accessible surfaces, then wipe down with denatured alcohol. Then I would use thickened epoxy to do all patch and crack work. The reason this seems logical to me is because the thickened epoxy will work it's way into the wood, although not as well as thinned epoxy, however, it would make a better bond to the wood since it would be a rougher surface to grab onto. Thinned epoxy as a sealer, still needs to be scuffed or roughed in some way for subsequent coats to get a bite. How will you scuff the inside of a hole or crack? Once all hole, cracks, and seams are patched I would sand them again to match the contour of the teak and enable the thinned epoxy to take hold. Once you reach this point you can continue the process as you described yourself.

One thing you may want to take into account is the look of the teak once it has been completely sealed with epoxy is that it may look like brand new "varnished" teak. At this point you may like the way it looks and decide to use varnish for your final coats as opposed to paint or gelcoat. If this is the case, you will need to add a pigment to your thickened epoxy so the finish will match. Or just add pigment to the thickened epoxy first this way you have more options on the final applications. I had to do a repair on my teak pulpit last year. Somebody had collided with me while I was tied up in my slip. There was a 6 inch chunk lifted and split from the rest of the pulpit. I made a batch of thickened epoxy, added some mahogony pigment(dark brown), and then slathered it into the damaged areas and clamped it down for 24 hours. Then sanded it smooth, wiped down with denatured alcohol, and applied thinned eopxy to the entire pulpit. Then followed with 2 applications of regular(unthinned) epoxy and 3 coats of Epiphanes varnish. It looked brand new and even people that knew where the damage was had a hard time finding it. This year, I will lightly scuff the varnish and add 3 more coats before splashing the boat.

Hope this helps,
Harv

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.