Boat wood trim refinishing...?

Question

I have a boat with wood trim inside. It has been finished before and begining to look a little rough. What type of stain or finish should I use? It is a pleasure boat that is kept on fresh water lake.

Answer 1

Yankee Sailor is 100% correct. Use only Marine Grade Varnish and Stain.

Do internet search for "Marine Spar Varnish" and you will find many outlets.

This is one of the best:

http://www.valsparglobal.com/val/residen...

Answer 2

having built and maintained wooden yachts in the Caribbean for 30 years, my take is this......

I would never allow steel wool on a boat...it leaves little flakes behind that rust in a heartbeat down here....you may get longer than a heartbeat on a fresh water lake, but I wouldn't do it......

polyurethane has no place on a boat. It has zero resistance to sunlight...it turns yellow........and, being a plastic, doesn't have the flexibility to maintain surface on a boat.....even on a 'glass boat, that interior trim moves around a little and any plastic resin varnish will just crack away.......

like any painting project, be it drywall in an attic or a garage floor or a living room wall, preparation is the key.......the more work you do the better it looks and the longer it lasts.....so, ideally, you would strip all the old surface off, especially any area that is loose or cracked or peeling......its a  mess, whether you use stripper.,a caustic and dangerous chemical.........or sand it off  making a LOT of dust, but the hours spent at this stage is weeks or years ahead you wont have to redo the job....if you have large areas that are holding well but just dull, strip the bad areas to bare wood....you may have to apply a stain to the bare areas to try and blend them in..........this never works perfectly, but its a short cut many take rather than strip EVERYTHING to bare wood......

then get a MARINE SATIN GLOSS  varnish.....Interlux and Pettit make great products....sand the good varnish till its a uniform dull milky looking surface.......do one this coat of varnish to bare wood, then two or more coats over everything, lightly sanding with 320 grit paper or BRONZE wool in between.......finished job should give you 5 to 8 years.....

oh yeah one more thing........many if not all stock boats use veneer plywood below..the teak or mahogany veneer is literally paper thin over a fir or pine substrate....be REALLY paranoid about sanding thru the veneer

Answer 3

To get a really lustrous finish on indoor hardwoods try this;   Remove all of any previous finishes and sand down to a smooth finish, scraping away any areas of dark patches.  get a tin of polyurethane varnish and using half of the contents in a jar thin it down with Varnish thinners on a ration of 50/50.   It will look almost like water.   Apply the first coat, leave for 16-24 hours and apply the second coat (the thinned varnish will have become a little thicker). Apply a third coat, wait for 16 - 24 hours and using the same thinned varnish apply a fourth coat.   Gently rubbing down between coats.  When the fourth coat is dry apply a coat of the un-thinned varnish and allow to dry for 48 hours.   Purchase some Triple 0 wire wool and some solid furniture wax, make a pad of some of the wire wool and wipe it around the wax then gently rub with the grain of the wood until the imperfections disappear.   Repeat this process and finally polish off with a clean lint free cloth.   The finish brings out all the life within the wood and is silky to touch.   Easily maintained by using wire wool and wax to remove any marks.   Try it out on any polished wood to see the effect.