Refinishing the cabinets downbelow

[David Goldsmith]

We've just bought a '77 Hunter 27 with the intent of fixing her up a bit. I've pulled off the cabinet doors which are dark and dirty with age. I want to refinish them, does anyone know what kind of wood was used to make these? Anyone had success (or failure) trying to refinish them? We're looking for a nice light finish, varnished.Thanks,David

 

[David Foster]

Congrats on the great new boat!

We have sure enjoyed ours.I've got one of my drawers at home. Could be teak. The fiddles are. In any case, the recommended process is to strip them down, sand them, and then varnish. (That's what I'm doing, piece after piece.) Ours looked pretty good when we got the Lady Lillie two years ago, so yours probably have some earlier attempt on them.The wood in the cabin is not light. To get there, you would have to cover with paint, or bleach the wood somehow. That's beyond my knowledge.Welcome - she's a great boat.DavidLady Lillie'77 h27

 

[Carl Foster]

Refinishing interior wood

David,believe you may be my next door neibor,if so give a holler and i'll detail how i did mine.The most impotant point is that the panels are teak veneer and veneer is very thin,over aggressive sanding will get you in trouble real quick.what i have found is cleaning with staight Castrol Superclean small section at a time will remove old finish and not go thru veneer,as far as bleaching i don't know as i was satisfied with the color as it came out[changes quite a bit with 20 years of dirt and grime].I used satin varnish on mine.

 

[David Goldsmith]

Hey there Carl!

Nice to hear from ya Carl, yep, we're in slip #8 right by you. Right now we're doing the drawer fronts and cabinet doors, the veneer will come later. What did you do to yours?You can e-mail me at davesg@freenet.tlh.fl.us

 

[Steve Dion]

I think it's teak!

David:I think that the interior wood is teak. I have not seen one with light colored wood down below. The original wood was oiled (not varnished). I do not think that even bleaching will make it light, only clean.