Updating interior
We recently acquired an 88 C30 that had the original oiled interior that was very dark from a buildup of dirt and oil. It now looks like a new boat with a bright shiny clean varnished interior. It was not that hard a project, and I've done the same job on other old boats. The trick lies in getting the wood [all of it] clean and ready to accept varnish. The trim can be manually scraped to new wood, but that's the hard way. I stripped out everything in the boat, and went at it with a two part cleaner [Teka, A&B] using buckets of water and a lot of sponges. One application does it, leaving the wood ready to lightly sand when dry. Three coats of regular varnish transforms the teak to it's original warm glow. I was leery of using the cleaner on the veneer bulkheads, but figured I would have to paint them if I bugered them up scraping, and had nothing to loose. The plywood came out better than the solid trim. I think Catalina used an exceptionally good quality plywood as it took the abuse with out a particle of failure. I'm sure this method would work only on wood that has been oiled or just left unsealed, and not on anything that has been varnished or sealed with a varnish like product. Try a small area out of sight for a test. The wood wround the sink was black with oil and grime--it now looks new. The interior teak on my 30 is beautiful stuff, as is the quality of the joinery. Now with the varnish, it will stay lovely for the duration. The whole job on our 30 took less than 50 hours, and maybe $80 in material, $20 Teka, and three quarts of Interlux 96 varnish. The gloss is best for the base coats, and then go to semigloss for a top coat if wanted. My mate won the color conflict, and we had all the cushions redone in hunter green sunbrella fabric, and I have to concede it looks fabulous. If I can answer any questions, I'd be glad to help. Ron B LHP FL.
