LEAKING CABIN TOP TEAK TRIM

[twodzusfittings]

As I continue to repair and eliminate leaks, I have found a few more. The big question is: Trim or No Trim? Obviously it's a preferential issue for appearance, however I find washing the teak, getting rid of the dirt build up that gathers behind the trim between attaching screws a real pain and then the quarterly wiping down with teak oil to keep it looking good and healthy, a real pain, even with using painters tape to avoid discoloring the plastic (for lack of a better word). I wonder how it looks without. And now that I have my new windows in that are non O'day style, maybe without would make it look better.

And then I thought of replacing the trips with this kind of stick on product, once the old screw holes have been filled and sealed with gelcoat. At least the maintenance issues are resolved!

What are your thoughts?

 

[Project_Mayhem]

How long will it stay looking good? Will the chrome look cheesy or cheap?

I wouldn't bother with gelcoat, just epoxy, for something that's getting covered up but that's just me

 

[Steve_Catalina]

On my Catalina4 34 I removed the eye brows teak and filled the small screw holes. After a month never missed them again many c34/ 36 and I'm sure others removed. Good luck

 

[Project_Mayhem]

I think it was @dmax that had replaced his teak toe rail on his O'Day with Plasteak. Same configuration. Whomever it was, they ended up destroying the toe rail to get the screws out as trying to preserve it took too much time. I removed a few of mine and I would agree that it's incredibly time consuming

 

[jibes138]

I replaced the teak “eyebrow” by filling in the screw holes. Then I just used blue vinyl tape to cover the area. Looks fine but I need to replace the tape after five years in the sun.
For the screw holes use a countersink in a drill going counterclockwise to bevel the holes. This gives a nice area for the filler to fill and eliminates any raised sharp edges around the holes. Once sanded smooth it looks fine. Epoxy with colloidal silica thickener works good.

 

[Project_Mayhem]

To reduce or even eliminate sanding, put a piece of tape over the uncured epoxy after applying it to the hull. Most of the time it'll get it pretty close to flat. If you can apply just the right amount of epoxy, there's no sanding needed

 

[twodzusfittings]

I think it was @dmax that had replaced his teak toe rail on his O'Day with Plasteak.

Yes, this is my issue also. A couple of the sections are cracked or have been repaired. Some of these screw attachment points also leak and need to be fixed. Where my spring line rests on the capping it is showing signs of wear. I was thinking of attaching additional skene bow chocks like these and removing all the teak capping.

 

[Project_Mayhem]

I forgot to mention that you should put tape over the hole, then countersink, then apply epoxy and a final layer of tape. This is useful in case you overfill the hole with epoxy. WIth this method, the overflowing epoxy wont stick to your gelcoat. I only use blue 3M masking tape. I've used other, more expensive 3M tape and they can be nearly impossible to remove if left on for too long

 

[jibes138]

I forgot to mention that you should put tape over the hole, then countersink, then apply epoxy and a final layer of tape. This is useful in case you overfill the hole with epoxy. WIth this method, the overflowing epoxy wont stick to your gelcoat.

This is a really good idea, thanks for sharing it!

Someone on a gelcoat thread suggested storing shelf life limited gelcoat in the freezer to extend life but his wife had a fit.

I had a small dorm room size freezer in my garage. I used it to store pre-mixed thickened epoxy and the low temp essentially stops the reaction and once warmed it worked fine. For filling screw holes and similar repairs it can save some cash, epoxy is very expensive.

 

[jibes138]

I recently had a turnbuckle fitting fracture on my upper starboard lifeline. It was at the dock when I put something heavy on it. Given the boat is 40 years old I am planning to replace the lifelines and fittings.
You guys should take a good look at yours since they’re all about the same age.