Keith’s teak swim platform

Yeah- what's your secret Keith?

I clean and oil my teak once a year (in the spring)- it looks great for the first month of the season, but starts to grey out. By the end of the season, it looks pretty ratty. My cover does not extend over the platform, so I attribute the summer fade to sun exposure.
I use a 2 step cleaner, then an oil.

the real key is...preparing it for the oil! Clean it relly well with teak cleaner and scrub brush...use the cleaner at 100% with no water and scub with the grain and rinse...and do it a second time!Getting all the old discolored oil gone is what will give it back the look you want!
Also...some sanding my be in order. once it's really clean and you have oiled it...it will clean easy each year!

220 or higher...sometimes I just rub it down with steel wool...

I think it's only going to look like that if it was worked over on a continual basis since new.. I've not seen one that nice from someone taking an old worn out, grey deck and cleaning it. That is unless they took off some heavy layers with a belt sander... Just my 2cents..

Moj'

Brian,
I was dissapointed with the two part chemical system I used this past summer on the Tique. It was real bad though.. Maybe I didn't do it right, and I even sanded.. No that the Tique has been sold, I'm going to be in the process of refurbing the one on the even older Nautique I bought.. That one has poly on it, so I know I'll need to sand all that off !!!..

Moj'

I used stripper to get poly off of mine, then steel wool to pull the stripper and poly off. Because it took away the old, loose grains, I did not have to sand. Then used a two-part cleaner and it looked great. The oil I used seemed to fade quickly when it was warm out, though.

What stripper did you guys use that seemed to work the best?? I've got years of build up on this platform is seems !! And it's a long winter, so I can work this thing over a loooong time LOL..
Moj'

Mojo,
Bix stripper will get rid of any varnish or poly. (It needs to soak about 10-15 minutes) If you have a build-up of previous stains a deck stripper could work--something like "Wolman's Deck Strip" is very effective. Wet the surface first, apply the product with a brush, then wash away. You could use a power washer (and may have to), but with teak be careful, don't get too close, or spray against the grain.
Wear gloves and long sleeves with strippers.
On the balance I don't know if this would be easier than sanding. On a large surface, like a deck, you definitely don't want to sand.

Chuck

I'll be taking my platform off my 88 SN this winter so I can work on it and so I can fit my boat in my shop to work on it too. What do I need to know about reinstalling? Do I have lag bolts & screws holding it on or do I have bolts going through to the inside? If I have lag bolts, what do they screw into? Do I have to seal the holes when I install it? If so, what's the best way? Will I have any possible problem areas to look out for?

Thanks
Kurt

If mine are lag bolted in, what is the material the hole is drilled into? Wood? Fibergla$$?
Do you just fill the hole with a good 3M sealer, replace the bolts & screws and clean off the excess sealant?
I may eventually replace with bolts and nuts but I believe the fuel tank must come out first. A project for next winter.
Kurt

I took my platform off to refinish it. I thought I would try to post some before and after pictures.
Here is the before pics. Notice the remnants of varnish on the bottom of the deck:




I used deck cleaner and sanded the platform. I sanded the top by hand except for the beveled spaces between the blocks. It still had varnish there so I used a Dremmel with a sanding disk to remove it. On the bottom side I used my polisher/sander to remove the old varnish, then finished by hand.
Here is the deck before I oiled it:



Here is the first coat going on. I just used McCloskey's Teak Oil because that's what they had at Orchard Supply.



Here is the second coat going on. Notice how much the first coat soaked in? It was about a week between coats just because I was too busy to work on it. I know... no excuses.



On the bottom corner of this picture looks like sanding gouges on the picture but are in fact a fairly knotty piece of teak. It just adds to the character of the deck.
I still have about 4 or 5 more coats to put on. I should tell you, I'm no woodworker but this went pretty fast and you can see the progress as you go. I will post the finished product when I'm done.
Thanks all for your help on this.
Kurt

Hey Kurt, looks nice. Where do you use that boat? McClure? Don Pedro? Tulloch? New Melones? BKH

I've only had it out 3 times in Melones. I just got it in September. I have all the seats out and ready to rip out my old carpet and replace.
Where are you from that you know all my lakes?
I am closest to Melones, about 10 minutes to the launch ramp at Tuttletown.
Here is a picture of New Melones and my house:



I can walk to the lake in 10 minutes but there is a locked gate and no ramp so I have to go to hwy 49 to Tuttletown to launch
Kurt.

88, I live on the Delta in Discovery Bay, but have spent most of my life boating here in Norcal. Oddly, Melones is the only significant Norcal Lake I've never been on (driven by it, but never been out there). We like to get away from the Delta. Here, we're out in the boat for an hour, and then back to real life. When we go away for the weekend, we spend a lot of time on the boat. Usually make 3 or 4 trips to McLure each summer, and we're looking to go to other lakes just to get away. BKH

I am in the process of reworking my swim platform off of my 86 Nautique 2001 and on some of the parts there are really little nails that look as if someone used that as a solution for the pieces becoming slightly loose? Does anyone else have these? I know that the main way of them staying in is with the screws on the bottom, which i need to replace, but I was wondering if these nails are necessary or just there to scratch up the bottom of my wakeboard/ski