Remove brightwork to renew

[David W]

Hello all, my spring boat chores have turned into summer chores. One is to redo to brightwork. We don't have a lot, a pair of 6 loop and a pair of 10 loop handrails plus some trim around the companionway.

Last time we did this work, we masked off the deck...scraped, sanded blah blah blah, applied 6 coats, (light sand in between coats )all the usual. It's a 40 min trip to the boat each way so this represented a significant time investment.

This time I'm considering pulling the wood off the boat and bringing it home to do in my shop.

Anyone out there done this? We're you happy with the result?

 

[Tim R.]

You can do this but I bet you have bungs that cover the hardware. How will you apply finish to them?

I would remove, bring home to strip, remount, install bungs and mask. But this time use a two part like Bristol finish that you can apply multiple coats in one day.

If you work hard on the weeknights and you have two good weather days Saturday and Sunday, this could be done in a week.

 

[Eric M]

I guess it depends on if you have to pull plugs out to get to the screw heads. I take home anything that I don't have to pull plugs. It seems that more often than not the failure location of our brightwork is a crack around a plug so you want all the coats you can get on that joint. Allthough it is easier to work in the garage at home, I found the cetol I use on our teak requires sun to fully cure so had to move the parts outside after they had not cured fully in the garage.
Hope that helps

 

[kendall]

It's the way I normally do it, I just find that I get much better results when I can dedicate full attention to the part.

I also go to the auto parts store, and pick up some insulation retaining buttons.
When you remove the rails, put a little dab of sealer under the head and push it into the hole. It keeps it sealed up while the rails are off, much faster than using the screws to seal them, and easily removed cheap enough to toss out each time, but easily re-used if you'd rather.

Example link to show what they look like: http://www.clipsandfasteners.com/Hood_Insulation_Retainers_s/25.htm

 

[CalebD]

Bubble gum or Butyl tape would also work to cover the bolt holes for the rails.
An inelegant solution I've used is duct tape.

 

[David W]

I do have to remove bungs

And that is the part that was tripping up my plan.

The masking is a complete pain. Thought about laying down a single layer of tape after I remove the handholds, remounting them on top and then cutting the tape out to match. Take the holds home, do the prep work, remount, finish and pull the tape.

Who am I kidding, this is going to be like the last time...a pain. But think I will go with the Bristol two-part.

Sigh