Varnish Removal - Suggestions Please

[Rick486]

Hello All:
My perch seats are covered with teak strips around 2 inches wide and 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick. The strips are held on by screws through the underlying fiberglass structure, so they are easily removed. I varnished them initially and have added some coats since then to a total of around 8-10 coats. I used Captain's Varnish. The varnish is in great shape except it has darkened over the years and really needs to be stripped down to bare wood and an initial 3-4 coats applied. Could you please suggest the best way to removal the varnish from these teak strips.
Thanks
Rick

 

[py26129]

If you can take the strips off, I would do so and strip the varnish off using your preferred stripper, then clean, re-varnish and re-install.

If you want to leave them on the boat, I would scrape them in place using something like a Bahco 625 Carbide scraper and then re-varnish.

 

[jviss]

I recommend a chemical stripper. Teak surfaces can easily be damaged by abrasive varnish removal techniques unless you are skilled and experienced. I saw a fairly new boat where all of the external teak was ruined by an owner with a pressure washer!

 

[lehighsail]

I have done this on two boats. I remove the strips and on the underside mark them with a number so I know exactly where they go when done. I then sand them down by hand starting with fine paper and progressively finer paper down to 220 grit and then refinish with around 6 coats of Epifanes varnish with very light sanding between coats with the 220 grit. While the strips are off, I clean up the white seat and spray paint them with Rust-Oleum White Vinyl Spray Paint which gives a semi-gloss surface. Seems to hold up for years. By doing it this way the white part of seats get no varnish on them nor is there any gouging at all.

 

[capta]

Some months after laying 10 coats of Captain's varnish on a teak Lee fighting chair, I thought I'd give it a good cleaning. I used Industrial Purple full strength, with no thought. It stripped off all that lovingly applied varnish in a heartbeat! Better than any paint stripper I'd ever used. I believe lye was the key ingredient.
Definitely NOT the right tool for the job, but extremely effective, none the less.

 

[justsomeguy]

Mineral spirits.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

If you're really into some OCD perfectionism , remove the slats, use a razor sharp jack plane to remove the flat surface varnish both front and back, a 3/8" radius round over router bit for the edges, and finish with 180 grit paper.

Apply 5 coats of clear epoxy and 3 coats of varnish for UV protection and .....................

Still looks like wet varnish after 8 years. A good winter project.

 

[Len Ingalls]

This is an excellent carbide scraper. It works really well in stripping paint or varnish with a few pulls. No connection to company-just a happy customer. http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=20095&cat=2,42194,43390&ap=1
Len

 

[TomY]

All good methods. I still prefer a heat gun and stiff putty knife. No mess and fast.

I'd use a spring clamp to hold each slat to remove the varnish with the gun and knife. Then sand with a RO sander and 80 grit followed by a good tacking and 2-3 thinned coats of varnish (or a sealer/filler), all sides, without sanding between. Then sand with 150-220 and begin building it the varnish.

I try to just use a Scotch brite pad between coats. BUT, as soon as it's not perfectly flat-smooth, I'll use 220 - 400 grit paper, on a block, depending on how much flattening it needs.

One trick that might help, use a 4" foam roller and disposable plastic pans, to put the varnish on. Then tip the wet varnish with a wet foam brush.

The roller distributes varnish much more evenly than a brush alone. Even coats build faster, and with better results.

 

[Rick486]

Wow! This is what makes this page so great. Thank you guys for all the great ideas. After seeing Ralph's seat I am rethinking the project. My seats look about like his, although a bit darker. The varnish is still in great shape. If I do become hungry for a project in November, I think I will use Tom's suggested method with heat gun and putty knife, simply because I have a heat gun and many putty knives. But if I run into problems there I have all your ideas above to fall back on. Biggest pain with this project is the eventual need to remove the wooden slats, probably one at a time, to strip them. However, I really like Lehighsail's suggestion of numbering the slats and painting the underlying composite seat with Rust-Oleum, which requires removal and marking. For sure I will report back.
Thanks again for all the ideas.
Rick

 

[Brian S]

I use heat gun and carbide scraper. Specifically, the Bahco/Sandvik. I have scraped down the entire deck and interior of a 14' varnished boat, and then done numerous other varnish projects, and I have yet to flip the blade of the scraper because it's still not dull.

I have put epoxy on wood, then varnish over, but epoxy darkens the wood more than just straight varnish. Also, neat epoxy isn't great for impact resistance. I have been using 8-9 coats of Le Tonkinois Nr. 1 varnish, because I found it is easier to maintain a wet edge than when I have used Pettit Captain's, or Epifanes varnish in the past. The usual suspects of traditional marine varnish from Epifanes, Pettit, Interlux all have a fair amount of solvent which evaporates off, hence my issues with wet edge, whereas the Le Tonkinois is just oil and resin, and doesn't "dry" (by solvents evaporating off) so much as cure. Many will say that 10-12 coats of varnish are a good base coat. I'm usually going insane by coat 8 or 9... Keep in mind that you only ever get to the next to last coat of varnish, no matter how many coats you do. This is because next day you go back to find a void, or a sag, or a drip, or dust, requiring a fix and another "last coat," which of course winds up being the next-to-last coat...

It's important to realize that varnish is layers, much like an onion, and the top layer wears away. For this reason, one should lightly sand and re-coat 1-2 coats every year, which should keep the life of the varnish at least 10 years before you need to wood it down again.