Cleaning "teak" on cockpit seats
- Thread starter kenvail
- Start date
You can buy teak cleaner & brightener. They come in either a combined one step bottle or two separate bottles. You can also read the contents and make up your own oxalitic acid wash. Just look in any marine catalog.
I've used the Te Ka product for parts I could remove from the boats (i.e., wash boards). Works great! I've been a little leery of using it on parts I could not pull of the boat - i.e. hand rails, etc. For those part I've used a one part cleaner from West Marine. This works pretty well too, not quite as well as the Te Ka, but less harsh.
Take them off. Sand them down. Varnish them with 6 coats of varnish. Make covers and put them on when not on boat. They will look beautiful for years.
I had a 2005 Hunter 38 and now a 2009 Hunter 38 both are factory equipped with fake teak. The only real teak on the boat is the small piece mounted on the hatch above the companionway as a handle. Everything else is stainless steel. Owners manual recommends mild detergent only. Maybe your 2006 is different.
Hmmm. I'd go with the cleaners after removing them from the seats. If they require much sanding you risk the screws poking through from underneath. If there is varnish on them a heat gun and scraper will take it right off. The dirt and mold can be removed very effectively with the cleaners. I have used Te-ka with great success but as mentioned earlier only on parts I can remove from the boat.
I used Epiphanes for the first few years and they looked great but when it starts to peel it cannot be overcoated and must be removed. This time I applied three coats of natural teak Cetol followed by three coats of gloss Cetol. Also, I remove the seats in the winter ( just three screws underneath). Cetol can be overcoated.
On a previous boat I used Cetol on the teak deck rails and it lasted years and was easy to spot coat.
Have fun.
I used Epiphanes for the first few years and they looked great but when it starts to peel it cannot be overcoated and must be removed. This time I applied three coats of natural teak Cetol followed by three coats of gloss Cetol. Also, I remove the seats in the winter ( just three screws underneath). Cetol can be overcoated.
On a previous boat I used Cetol on the teak deck rails and it lasted years and was easy to spot coat.
Have fun.
If the seats use real teak strips, it's an easy weekend project to take the seats home, remove the teak strips, sand them to bare wood with a palm sander, and then do what Mike said and use two coats of Cetol Natural Teak and two coats of Cetol Gloss Topcoat. It lasts a full year and a half without any maintenance here in Florida, so you'll probably get at least a couple of years out of the finish up there. If you never want to have to do the job again, then once a year just lightly buff the strips with some bronze wool or a green abrasive pad and reapply another coat of the Cetol Gloss.
You'd have to do this job about ten or twelve times before you'd have to worry about screws poking through.
All the above is null and void if you have fake teak strips.
You'd have to do this job about ten or twelve times before you'd have to worry about screws poking through.
All the above is null and void if you have fake teak strips.
Our 2008 Hunter 38 has a product called Flexiteek. It's a synthetic teak product.
Mild soap such as Dawn is what's recommended.
The product can be sanded with a very fine grit paper if need be.
Check the Flexiteek web site for details.
Mild soap such as Dawn is what's recommended.
The product can be sanded with a very fine grit paper if need be.
Check the Flexiteek web site for details.
While I use a pressure washer on the deck I am reluctant to blast wood. Most pressure washers have enough power to remove softer parts of the wood leaving an uneven surface which is hard to finish smoothly. A cleaner is better and sanding a last resort. On the seats it's unlikely you will remove all that much to alter the screws depth if done gently.
If dspurgeons 2005 is synthetic teak, my 2008 is synthetic teak, and friends in our marina have a 2007 with synthetic teak I'd say odds are yours is synthetic teak too. Unless someone did a custom job on it.
It's actually a PVC type of material. Not real wood.
It's actually a PVC type of material. Not real wood.
I would suggest that you use something like Simple Green. If it is real wood you really do not want to use a pressure washer on it (or any other wood that you care about). SG is easy on material but really does an amazing job on a lot of surfaces.