refinishing the interior

[melp64]

Has anyone ever removed all the trim sanded it down, then reinstalled it, plug the fasteners and then stained and varnished. I know I can take all the drawers and doors and sand them all down at home but I was wondering about the frames and the panels. Id love to just refinish all of it off the boat. But you still have to plug and sand so I don't see that working.
I'm hoping someone else did this and has a good system

[Ron Hill]

Dan : I've always just used oil on the interior teak so there has never been a problem when reinstalling (after taking home w/frames) then plugs over the screws.  So I oil the sanded reinstalled plugs on the frames.

A thought

[melp64]

I'm not much of a painter and everything I've seen online is first coat of epoxy and then varnish. I don't think anything has been done to the woodwork since the boat was built. It looks like the wood was stained and never had a finish on it. Now it has fade marks and water stains from the port holes do you think oil will still work on this? The outside woodwork is 10 times worse its cracked and gray, I was hoping a good sanding stain and a lot of finish would bring this back to life.
Have you ever replaced the countertops on your boat. I have been trying to see how the tops are attached to the fiberglass but haven't been able to see any fasteners.

[Jim Hardesty]

everything I've seen online is first coat of epoxy and then varnish

That's a technique used to produce a deep looking finish.  Friends have tried it, did look great at first, didn't hold up well and was a bear to strip and refinish.  The epoxy turned cloudy.   For varnish my first coat is 50% thinned varnish and a minimum of 2 top coats. 
Jim

[ewengstrom]

We bought our boat in August 2019 and I gutted it over the winter and refinished the entire interior of the boat. Everyone has their own method and frankly, it makes for some great reading. You need to use the method that makes you happy.
As for me, for years now I've used spar varnish (satin) on my boat interiors with no problems. I did use a two part teak cleaner on all the parts removed from the boat and also on those that I didn't remove, I believe ours had been coated in teak oil and teak cleaner is all it needed to remove the old coating(s)  It's a VERY messy process to do it this way (in the boat) but the results were worth it in my opinion. The interior teak brightened right up and after some lite sanding it finished up nicely, just be sure to let it dry completely after the teak cleaning process. .
Also, be very careful sanding any of the bulkheads, that's a teak verneer plywood and it is very, very thin so don't get carried away with a sander of you will most certainly regret it.
The interiors of our Catalina's are built as components and then installed, so getting any parts out isn't as tough as disassembling a boat that has cabinets that were built in place and are generally much harder to disassemble.
Some teak bungs will need to be removed and other components also removed to get at the galley counter top. The counter tops themselves are screwed in from underneath, all of them are like this and depending on the components you have to remove, it really wasn't the hardest part of the job IMHO. Sinks seem to be held in place with silicone caulk so that needs to be cut to remove them and this greatly increases access to the screws for the counter tops.
You'll get lots of ideas as you keep reading and these are just my thoughts. Best of luck if you decide to do this job, it's not a job for the faint of heart but once it's finished (or in this case "refinshed") you'll be able to look with pride on YOUR boat.

[melp64]

Thanks Eric
I plan on redoing all of it on the inside. I only have drawer openings in the galley area so getting the countertop removed looks like it will be a huge project. When you did your inside did you have to replace the cabin sole? If so did you create them to match the origanal soles or did you use a laminate floor. I haven't been able to figure out how to post pictures (I'll have to ask my daughters)

[ewengstrom]

I did remove much of the interior cabinetry to strip and refinish them in my shop and also to facilitate easier access to the water heater and counter tops. I did apply two coats of finish at home to the frames and then reinstalled them, glued the bungs in and trimmed and sanded them down, then I put a few coats over the entire frame again and the end result looks great....and I got to do the hard work in my shop and not a freezing boat in January/February.
I did remove those small bulkheads between the galley cabinet and settee area shelf and also the one just forward of the nav station. It really was the only way to get the counters out and the bulkhead over the galley ice box was rotten anyway so it needed to be replaced. Again, it was just bungs and screws so once you get used to replacing them......it's not a difficult job.

As for the cabin sole, ours was badly discolored but I was able to strip it down and refinish it, I'm pretty happy with the results but it was a lot of hard work to get it there. A good friend also bought an 88 C34 and several pieces of his cabin sole were honestly shot. He ended up buying two sheets of 1/4" teak and holly plywood from somewhere up near Annapolis and used the old flooring as a pattern, it really came out very nice and obviously makes the interior look outstanding. The cost of these two pieces of plywood was north of $500.00 and he picked them up and did all the carpentry work himself so you can see this isn't a cheap fix. Keep reading if other flooring ideas fit your life better, there are alternatives out there that may not cost as much and are easier to work with. Again...YBYC!!!!!

As for pictures, I struggled with that for while, it was the size of the photos that was the problem for me. I shoot all my photos on my phone so I've found that if I resize them on my phone I can post them from there with no issues. Hope all this helps brother!!!! 

[melp64]

Eric Thank you for the info
I have started on the doors and drawers and some of the frames that the previous owner must have taken off as the screws were exposed. Because of the condition of the doors and drawers I had to sand some of them. This took all the dark color away. I want to keep the dark cherry look. When you sanded some of your woodwork how did you get the dark color back. Did you stain those parts or did the varnish bring that color back.
You mentioned that you replaced the small bulkhead between the galley and saloon, I will have to do the same thing as that bulkhead is rotten. I have not yet figured where the water came from, I cleared all the deck drains and the two in the cockpit.
One of the other thing I found was all the doors that went to the engine were black on the inside. The small little cabinet that has a angle to it, the outside of the cabinet was black also. I cant imagine that this would be normal. Also it had a red perkin switch that was installed into that cabinet, but nothing was hooked up to it.

[tmac]

Dan, many types of wood darken with age.  Cherry and teak are two of the most notable for this process. Its part of what is termed "patina".  As a (now retired) home remodeler, I was often faced with making changes to woodwork and cabinetry, and I always had to give my clients two options: 1.) Use stain on the new components to match the color of existing, aged woodwork, and then know that the stained portion as it ages will eventually become darker than the existing woodwork; or 2.) Simply match the type of finish that was on the original wood, and let time eventually even out the color to match the existing woodwork. 
You are faced with the same two options.  If you stain it to match the other woodwork now, it will eventually become too dark.  If you just oil it now, it will start out lighter, but will become darker over time. 
Patina is a hard thing to match!

[ewengstrom]

I stripped my entire interior, bulkheads and everything and used a teak cleaner on everything that both removed the teak oil and "brightened" the wood. The interior used to be dark, it no longer is.
TMAC nailed it though, if you simply have to have the darker wood you'll have to stain it but then it will continue to darken anyway and will end up darker than the surrounding wood that wasn't refinished.
If you just go back with the teak oil it will start darkening over the next few years.....YBYC Dan.