Any experience lightening cabin teak?

I have a beautiful 81 E-33. The teak down below has gotten quite dark, the previous owner used lemon oil each year as a coating. I just tried washing the wood with a mixture of hot water, bleach, and liquid tide detergent. This removed a surprising amount of dirt but didnt do much to lighten the wood. If anybody has experience or advice would like to hear about it.

I used some Star Brite Teak cleaner for the first time on our old boat geting it ready to sell. This was on the exterior teak. It lightened it up a bunch. You may want to try a small area with some sort of teak cleaner/brightener where it won't show much before doing the large areas. Strong stuff, be careful not to get it on anything else.

Yuck. oiled wood will progressively darken (actually quite quickly in some cases). The only remedy I know of is to sand it down, but you'd have to go a 1/16" or so, I'd think - too deep for veneered surfaces.

I've never tried the cleaners though. Certainly worth a try.

Good luck.

OK thanks for the info, don`t think I have it in me to sand acres of teak. Either live with it or try a teak cleaner.

Lightening up the veneer

We just finished "round two" of our interior re-finish upgrade. The trim pieces around the cabin sides and the teak and trim around the anchor well are now varnished. The impetus was the water stains below all four of the main cabin fixed ports from the prior owner ignoring water leaks for several years.
Of course, in boat projects, one leads to another, and so on... :nerd:
(This all started with the refurbishing of the table and sole pieces after we bought the boat.)

Kathy wanted to get rid of some surface stains, the dark look of the old oil, and the reddish cherry stain that Ericson used to "blend in" the different pieces of trim and the panels.
Just cleaning the surface with warm soap and water and then some thinner will get rid of most of the old gunk. The cherry stain is much harder to displace, and sanding very much will go through the veneer on the panels.


What she did was to go with the tried-and-proven Teaka A and B product that we have always used on the outside and on any large pieces removed from the boat. We did the table and leaves and cabin sole pieces with this right after we bought this boat, BTW.
Since having either the acid or the neutralizer run down into the cracks would be "a bad idea" she laid a bunch of rags along the bottom of the affected area, and used little makeup sponges (it's a girl thing, I guess...) to apply both chemicals. Then water was wiped on with wrung-out rags to clean up the surface. A light sanding with some 150 or 220 and we applied several coats of varnish.
The result is wonderful, IMO! I ended up replacing many off the little bronze screws that hold on those long skinny teak battens that cover the stapled headliner edge (some broke off in the removal process).

Of course, now the rest of the cabin, like the bulkheads, looks rather drab...
Next project!

We should have this boat looking rather good, in another 20 years, at this rate!

You all know how it goes...

Loren in Portland

I have used the 2-part teak cleaner and brighters with very good results on cabin soles, bulkheads, doors, drawers, etc.

Vince Benn
"Wild Blue"
E-380

If the finish is really thick, you might try a regular paint stripper. This will get you down to the wood pronto without sanding. We use to take the stripper off with bronze wool which polished the wood as it removed the finish

Teak interior job

I "refinished" my E-28 interior by using wet/dry 400 grit paper on a rubber sanding block that was wetted with mineral spirits. The surface was cleaned smooth as a baby's face and all of the gooey "teak oil" was removed as well. When wet sanding with mineral spirits, use paper towels or rags to wipe the surface clean. The cleaned unfinished surface will be dull and maybe discolored evenly depending on how much you wet sanded the surface. To finish, apply Minwax Wipe On Poly (clear or satin) using a folded, clean rag as an applicator. Do not use tongue oil because water will stain the finish. Works great and can be done in small sections. Will lighten up the wood but not to the extent of teak cleaners. You also want to consider staining if you want a color change.

<> Jim
S/V Princess Matoaka, #514

I'm puzzled as to why several of you aren't using a satin varnish finish on the interior--wouldn't that avoid the darkening of teak/tung oil, be easier to keep clean, and last longer (as well as look great!)?
I was thinking of sanding the interior lightly with about 180 grit paper, then 2 - 3 coats of satin varnish--anyone see a problem with doing that? (The current finish appears varnished, but has become worn in a few places).
Thanks,
Frank.