installing the deck teak questions

Mike8088 · Jul 21, 2009

We tried it.

We bought our O'day 26 several years ago. The brightwork was in bad shape, so during the winter we removed all of it. The toerails and hatch slides needed to be replaced. After applying about 6 coats of varnish to everything in our shop, we reinstalled the teak during the following spring. We didn't get great results. Once we installed the bungs, we lightly sanded the whole piece and added a couple of coats of varnish. As you might expect, the bungs always looked a little lighter than the rest of the wood. We thought about just applying the varnish to the immediate area surrounding the bungs to darken the color, but never followed through on it. This year, we sanded everything to bare teak and applied Waterlox Marine Sealer and Finish. It's much easier than varnish. You just rub two coats of sealer on and then two coats of the finish. It gives the wood a natural look and doesn't peel. It just fades over time. Plus, now everything is a uniform color. Good luck.

Joe11688 · Jul 21, 2009

emergpa1 said:
On my oday 26, there are teak toe rails, hatch slides, and grab rails. I have removed them to my shop, removed the old finish, and have applied on layer of cetol natural marine teak. I would like to be able to put the finish on them, and then reinstall them on the boat. but the problem is that after i install, I have to put the bungs over the screw holes. then sand them down. This would of course ruin the finish.
I would like to get different opinions as to how to go about finishing the teak and installing the pieces back onto the boat.
Thanks
keith

This is a tough question to answer: Myself, I would rather finish these pieces in the shop or outside in a dust free area, and then mount them on my boat. When I did my cabin over last year, I removed all the wood. I left certain pieces intact because I didn't want to have to replace the bungs. Other pieces that would not stick out and be obvious, I didn't bother to bung. I think that I would mount the hardware and install the bungs with a good waterproof exterior glue, and after the glue dried, use a sharp chisel to cut off the bung about 1/8" above the surrounding wood surface. As much as I love using my Dremel Tool on boat work, I think that I'd forgo it for a tiny part of a piece of sandpaper using my finger. In other words, if I'm going to mar up the area around the bung, I'm going to make sure that it's a very small area. Then I would probably hit the area with a 600 wet/dry paper and touch it up with Cetol. As you've probably read, bungs need to be installed so that the grain follows the grain of the surrounding wood. What to use for a glue is debatable. Some guys say to use epoxy and the books all said to use varnish at one time. I remember reading that Elmer's exterior waterproof glue works great for bungs because you won't be able to see the glue line when it dries. Don Casey advises to use a cue tip to clean out the hole with acetone to remove surface oils and let it dry before gluing the bungs in. These are my ideas on this. I can honestly admit that I really don't know anymore about it than you do.
Joe

Joe11688 · Jul 21, 2009

emergpa1 said:
thanks for the ideas. I think that i will do two coats of cetol in the shop. mount the teak, install the bungs, put two coats on the bungs, then a final coat overall......

That sounds like a plan.

appleman · Jul 21, 2009

emergpa1 said:
On my oday 26, there are teak toe rails, hatch slides, and grab rails. I have removed them to my shop, removed the old finish, and have applied on layer of cetol natural marine teak. I would like to be able to put the finish on them, and then reinstall them on the boat. but the problem is that after i install, I have to put the bungs over the screw holes. then sand them down. This would of course ruin the finish.
I would like to get different opinions as to how to go about finishing the teak and installing the pieces back onto the boat.
Thanks
keith

I put all my wood back on unfinished. I put plugs in with a small amount of epoxy to glue them in. I have my own plug cotter, so all plugs were very uniform.The plugs were cut from scrap pieces of teak left from making the parts, so color matched fairly well. The plug holes on the pieces I re used were carefully cleaned with a 3/8" forstiner bit. The "extra", I removed with a small block plane, with a very sharp blade. I then finished sanded. I used blue painters tape to carefully mask it all off and then put the finish on with a good, tapered angle "cutting" brush. There were some very small spots of cetol on the gel coat where there is non skid, because of the difficulty of getting a good seal with the masking tape. At first I was very annoyed by this, but in the over all scheme of things, I was the only one that noticed.

I struggled with whether to finish first or latter, but I decided it was easier to do a good masking job, than try to make the plugs look better than an afterthought.

Rick

jaforster · Jul 27, 2009

I did what you are planning

keith - dont fret on this one. I did exactly what you are doing on my O'Day 23. I removed the hand rails and replaced the hatch slides. After prep'ing I put on a couple of coats of Cetol Light in my garage. Then installed on the boat and used bungs I got from Rudy for the hatch slides.

The bung installation was as described with a chisel and then sanding. I'm not sure what I used for glue. After that a couple of coats of Cetol you could not tell the difference - maybe a small difference but nothing dramatic that I recall and I am a bit of a sticler for this kind of thing.

The next year when I lighly sanded and added another coat of Cetol .... the finish was identical on everything - so if there is a small difference this year it will dissapear next summer after everything has a few months in the sun.

I hope you post some pics when you are finished - Good luck with the transition from the backyard to the water...

James

adirondackbob · Jul 28, 2009

Keith, for what it's worth, on my 1983 Oday 23 I did pretty much what Joe and James did on their boats. I finished everything before reinstalling it on the boat. I hated messing up the finish on the grab rails and hatch slides when I installed the bungs (just as Joe describes), but I was careful to sand down the bungs without ruining too much of the surrounding finish. Yes, the bungs look a little lighter than the rest of the teak, but I can live with it. They're smooth!

FYI, I also used Cetol and despite many complaints I've read about its "orange" tint, I like the look. I used three or four coats on everything: hatch slides, grab rails, and toe rails. Looks nice.

Also, I followed Don Casey's advice for installing the bungs and used a little epoxy. Seemed to work very well.

All in all, the boat looks way better than when I bought her. The previous owner admitted that he had long ago given up on maintaining the teak, and it showed: not only all gray but spotted with lichens! I know it's a lot of work to maintain, but I don't mind and it looks good.

Good luck. Sounds like you'll eventually have a sweet looking boat.

Bob

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