SEMCO teak treatment

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Jim Westpfahl

SEMCO teak treatment

Post by Jim Westpfahl »

HELP! Can no longer stand the muddy appearance of the "brightwork" on our 25D. The prior owner applied SEMCO's teak treatment. I reapplied the same just so I could launch her this spring. While in the water I would like to strip the SEMCO down to bare wood and apply either varnish or similar finish. Any knowledge out there on the most efficient method of stripping the SEMCO?



JamesW7644@AOL.COM
Bob Malinka

Re: SEMCO teak treatment

Post by Bob Malinka »

Jim:

At one time many years ago I had varnished the teak (7 coats), looked great, but that was a lot of work and the varnish did not hold up well. I then used SEMCO but found that it didn't hold up well even though it was easy to apply. I found myself putting on at least 4 applications each boating season, more work. My father used varnish also on his Marshall 22 with same results then he tried Cetol as a test on some areas of the brightwork and it held up really well over several years. Seeing this I then stripped the finish on all the brightwork on my Cape Dory and applied the Cetol.

I used the Amazon Teak cleaner and scrubbed the teak real good. Then sanded the teak and applied teak filler where necessary for cracks, chips or scratches to get it nice and smooth. Then applied 3 coats of Cetol. I used the flat finish Cetol with stain for first 2 coats sanding between coats with 220 open coat, then applied the Cetol clear gloss for the 3rd top coat. The brightwork looks real good and you just have to wash, sand very lightly and apply your service clear gloss coat each year after that.

Bob
S/V Ranger #144
1984 CD25D
Jim Westpfahl wrote: HELP! Can no longer stand the muddy appearance of the "brightwork" on our 25D. The prior owner applied SEMCO's teak treatment. I reapplied the same just so I could launch her this spring. While in the water I would like to strip the SEMCO down to bare wood and apply either varnish or similar finish. Any knowledge out there on the most efficient method of stripping the SEMCO?


Ranger1442@hotmail.com
Fred

Re: SEMCO teak treatment

Post by Fred »

Jim Westpfahl wrote: HELP! Can no longer stand the muddy appearance of the "brightwork" on our 25D. The prior owner applied SEMCO's teak treatment. I reapplied the same just so I could launch her this spring. While in the water I would like to strip the SEMCO down to bare wood and apply either varnish or similar finish. Any knowledge out there on the most efficient method of stripping the SEMCO?
You're in for a heck of a lot of work...that stuff gets way down into the grain of the wood, and is a pain in the you know what to strip. Start by scrubbing with a mixture of 75%water,25% bleach, and a cup or so of liquid laundry soap. Use this to scrub with a maroon scotch pad> (actually you will need more than one)

The scrubbing gets rid of mildew, as well as removing the semco. You will actually see the stuff runnning off your boat. This will get most, but by no means all of the semco off.

Now you get to start sanding...

Good luck



fred@hotsheet.com
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