sanding

[marv]

Am thinking about Cetoling my CD27
some areas have varnish others have cetol..
Would like to know how to prep the rails what type and grade of sandpaper to use
Sand by hand or refinishing tool ? heat gun?

why does the area need to be bleached??
how have you sanded and refinished without getting the adjacent fiberglass areas messed up??
thank you mucho.



mibrinn@aol.com

[charlie palumbo]

Am thinking about Cetoling my CD27
some areas have varnish others have cetol..
Would like to know how to prep the rails what type and grade of sandpaper to use
Sand by hand or refinishing tool ? heat gun?

why does the area need to be bleached??
how have you sanded and refinished without getting the adjacent fiberglass areas messed up??
thank you mucho.

Marv,
tape the deck adjacent to the rails. If the current finish is smooth and heavy with old varnish I would use 60 grit but only with a detail sander (Ryobi is very good also the mouse).Keep a black sanding sponge handy as you will have to do some areas by hand. If the current finish is loose, weathered, peeling a bit, I would use 80 grit.
After this sanding, brush away the dust, and sand again with 120 or 150 grit. clean the dust again. wipe the bare wood clean with denatured alcohol or mineral spirits. Remove all the blue tape.
retape with fresh tape...I use cetol on my handrails and bowsprit only.I varnish the rest....cetol looks good but to me varnish has a great gloss on a cape dory. this job is verey time consuming but rewarding. I suggest you purchase rubber knee pads. By the way I would not bleach....it wears out the grain.I would only use a heat gun on the cockpit coaming...even then very carefully.Also do not cetol over old varnish. have fun...........Charlie




jcp1347@gateway.net

[David Hodos]

My wife and I have just completed sanding (what a way to spend a week's vacation) and refinishing all of our teak with Cetol. It's a 1974 CD25 that had terrible looking teak. Some varnished, some cetol over varnish. I did use 2 sanders a B&D Mouse and a Riobi. I actually had the mouse catch on fire! I used 60 grit on the varnished areas and lighter sandpaper on cetoled only areas. I used 3 very thin coats of cetol, spreading it out and using fine steel wool and a tack cloth between each coat. I think it looks very good. As long as you keep the cetol coats very light, it seems to retain most of the 'golden' look. I agree it takes a lot of time, but when you've finished you'll be happy for the effort.

Good Luck,
David



dhodossr@aol.com

[Serge Zimberoff]

'Practical Sailor' just had a review of sandpaper brands and types within each brand. Bottom line is each of the major names has a grade that is distinctly superior to the rest for removing old varnish. Best news is that the new grades resist loading. I went out and immediately bought the one a local auto paint shop had and they were right...wonderful results. I used 3M Imperial Purple 80 grit followed by 120 grit. Other equivalent recommendations were Carborundum's Premier Red and Norton's Blue (A975). The price is easily worth it!



serge@srtrop.com

[Jim Adams]

Just spent the last week removing old varnish & prepping the teak for Armada on my CD30. Got the first coat on last night and it looks great.

I found a biodegradable stripper that works! It's called Ready-Strip (you can get it at www.restorationhardware.com or at one of their stores if you have one in the area. You will need two quarts at $12 each. This stuff is fantastic. Brushes on as a green paste, turns chalky white when it is time to remove. Take a sharp scraper and it takes multiple coats of old finish off like warm butter; sand off what the scraper can't get to. BEST OF ALL...you don't need to tape around it or worry about your gelcoat. Once the stripping is complete the extra simply spray it down with water and it wipes off without harming the gelcoat. If you have decent enough water pressure it will blow it right off without touching it. This saved me years of sanding! The container says it takes 4-12 hours to cure...in Houston at 90-95 degrees it was more like 15-30 minutes.

Do your heavy sanding with an 80 grit. Finish with 180-220 grit. I can't agree more that you need to find the best quality sandpaper available.

Instead of bleaching, I used Star Bright Teak Cleaner (Sodium Hydroxide solution) then Teak Brightener (Oxylic Acid solution) after the heavy sanding and again after the finish sanding; which was probably overkill. This will restore the teak to pretty much the orignal wood color and even it out. You only need to use a bleach solution if you have dark areas due to water damage. For this see the post a few weeks ago by D.Stump & L.DeMers.

Have fun...this is A LOT of work but the results are well worth it! And remember that your finished product depends almost entirely on the quality of your prep job.