Almost since the first day we took possession of our boat, Kim has been wanting to redo the main cabin door. It was a different color than the rest of our teak, but it was in good shape. I knew it would be a tedious, and labor intensive job, so I put it off for oh . . . about four years. For whatever reason, I finally relented and agreed to undertake the job, if Kim would help.

Here’s what we started with:

We used a chemical stripper to start removal of the old varnish.

Halfway stripped:

The old varnish was stubborn coming off. I also had some nooks and crannies to deal with:

Some areas needed a second round of stripper. After all the old varnish was finally removed, (about 6 hours later), I sanded the door with course grit, then medium, then fine.

Only half the job was done. We taped everything off and starting applying new. We went with four coats of Cetol Natural, and three coats of Cetol Gloss (clear). That’s a full week of applying one coat per day, and allowing 24 hours between coats. We had to be extremely careful going in and out of the salon, so as not to smudge the wet finish.

Finally, after 8 days, the finished product:

The sun was at a difficult angle, but it really turned out beautifully.

It looks so good, it makes the ladder and window frame to the left look like crap. Guess what we’ll be doing this week!