does any one know what product is the best to use to clean interior teak paneling and trim
i have a 39 foot aft cabin marinette
joseph

I got a receipe for discolored teak, bug crap, mold and mildew. It's about 6 - 8 oz of dawn detergent. about 2 oz of clorox and a dash of TSP. Put it in one 32 oz spray bottle. Top off with water, shake and pour half into another 32 oz spray bottle and top both off making 64 oz of cleaner. Use a scotch pads on the tough spots. It will clean the wood and just about anything else. My project 32' sat out for years. The interior cleaning took a long time. Once I finished it looked so good I didn't go any further. I prefer "patina" to more work. However, a test proved that a light sanding followed by teak oil (Watco) gives a beautiful factory fresh result.

There are some Marinette fanatics who have completely disassembled the entire cabin and sanded and varnished all the wood. THAT IS NOT FOR ME. Once an owner starts splashing varnish around it is a whole new ball game. My project 28' was varnished all over. I had to melt down the chipped and cracked finish with Park's funiture refinisher. Then I sanded where I had to and applied teak oil. Inside the bathroom area I did apply marine varnish (Minwax). I also had to pull out all the rotten delaminated 1/4 paneling from the salon and cut replacements. I couldn't find teak paneling so I stained and varnished luan. Matching the teak color was a pain. My luan was cheap and I had to paint and seal the back and edges. If I had to do this again I would track down better paneling that I could oil.

We cleaned the surface with lacquer thinner, green pad sanded a few spots, then restained with Min-Wax. Looks great after 4 plus years, and is easy to touch up as necessary.

Jeff

Hey! I used to live in Paducah! Great place to boat.

JEff

I guess I'm a nut case. I pulled all the wood out of the boat, stripped it with Stripease, sanded and bleached it, and put on three coats of Epiphane Bootlak, a pretty good natural varnish.

The photo shows some of it on its way to the boat, via '94 Mustang Cobra Convertible:



This shows some of it after installation. The zebra pattern in the wood is particularly nice (Thanks Marinette):



I made a new dash panel out of mohog, the old one was really dinged up. It is hard to find wood as good as the stuff that came in the boat. Also took off the wheel and polished it:

My wife has continued the routine of our 1989 32 flybridge's original owner. She washed the interior once in the Spring and once in the Fall with Murphy's Oil Soap and hot water. Then she applies a thick coat of a beeswax product called something like Wood Kabin Kare (although I can't find that name on the net - I will have to ask the boss). Then the next day she buffs off the beeswax and the finish looks great.

John A.,

I mixed up a little of that concoction of yours and tried it on some flybridge teak. While it may go on colorless, the odor from the vinegar and turpentine sure does linger quite a while. Don't think I'm going to try it inside.

John B.

Jeff,

Thanks for the advice - I hope to get around to the shifters but there are other more pressing needs....

While on that subject, it has been driving me nuts trying to get both engines and all four throttles to work together. When the gas engines were swapped for the much slower diesels, the props simply would not use enough power. So, the installers "fixed" it by adjusting the throttles so that the engines never went to full fuel, and thus wouldn't go to the rev limit. I have re-pitched the props and readjusted the throttles, as well as lubricating them. Now the engines can spin the props better, but they don't track when the throttles are held together, and don't work the same on both sets of controls. I run around and readjust here and there, but I don't seem to be improving things much.

Do you have a (finite) procedure that will get the throttles adjusted? I know I should be able to figure this all out for myself, but damn it's mechanical (!) never my strong point.

Doug

Jeff,

I was afraid you were going to say something like that -- it's sort of what I have been doing only more organized. I have just been making small adjustments that I know are in the right direction... but all that climbing up and down is exhausting, and once you are at anchor the throttles are fine.

Still in DC, will have a go on throttles a little later in the summer...

D

I am still trying to comprehend all of this. Poor me has only one engine to worry about. Maybe I should count my blessings instead of getting a bit pi$$ed when I have to put her back into the slip.

Johnny B.