Getting paint to stick on teak dorades.

sailboy21 · #1 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008

Forgive me if there is a thread on this topic already but I couldn't find it. Anyway, the paint and primer started to peal off my teak dorade boxes in sheets. This was never a problem in the tropics, but the high humidity and large temperature cycles of Alaska have proved a challenge. The wood is bunged up and generally ugly, so the all-natural option isn't one.

The port box is worse than the starboard so I started on it. I chipped all the paint off and then applied a coating of git-rot after it has dried out during our one sunny day of the year. I wish I could get Smith's epoxy up here, but I can't so git-rot seems to be the next best choice as a primer/sealer. I applied 3-M vinylester filler over the sanded teak/git-rot surface. But I don't like where this is going. For some reason I am imagining sheets of filler chipping off instead of just paint

I thought about glassing the darn things right to the deck, but that is a hell-of-a time consuming project for what are really lame dorade boxes to begin with. Then I could just prime and paint them again and hope for the best. Or maybe I could just sledge hammer the things off and buy some new ones. Plastimo makes a slick PVC product, but they are white and kindof fugly themselves and can't be painted to match my color scheme. Does anyone make a fiberglass dorade box that can be painted?

SCoffshore · #2 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008

nothing likes to really stick to teak due to the oils. Best bet is to bleach the wood, dry it ot and then coat with epoxy resin, not vinylester or polyester resin. Epoxy resin is able to soak further into the wood grain. Good luck!

gc1111 · #3 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008

Try to get paint on the interior of the boxes. Odds are that moisture coming through the wood from the interior is what is lifting the paint off.

sailboy21 · #4 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008

Painting the inside seems like a good idea. Last time I had issues with these boxes I tried to remove them and discovered whatever bedding compound was used was going to require serious effort to unbond. It appeared destruction of the boxes was going to be necessary.

So.. Crazy thoughts. I found fiberglass dorade boxes but they want $160 a piece for them! So that got my to thinking. All they are is a stupid upside down box. How hard would it be to make one. And then it hit me. I already have the mold for them! My wife will kill me, but whatever. She wasn't all that mad when I used the cake pan for the blower plenum on my homemade hydronic heater. A 2 lb loaf pan looks like the perfect dorade box to me! It is already pretty smooth inside, and just needs a hint of mold release agent and a couple layers of matt and I'll be good to go! Seem like a good idea? I can even mold the bottom directly to the shape of the deck. Hmmm.....

sailingdog · #5 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008

Just make sure you use enough mold release agent so that you don't have to damage her pans...or she'll damage you.

Also, clean them out very, very thoroughly....

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailboy21

Painting the inside seems like a good idea. Last time I had issues with these boxes I tried to remove them and discovered whatever bedding compound was used was going to require serious effort to unbond. It appeared destruction of the boxes was going to be necessary.

So.. Crazy thoughts. I found fiberglass dorade boxes but they want $160 a piece for them! So that got my to thinking. All they are is a stupid upside down box. How hard would it be to make one. And then it hit me. I already have the mold for them! My wife will kill me, but whatever. She wasn't all that mad when I used the cake pan for the blower plenum on my homemade hydronic heater. A 2 lb loaf pan looks like the perfect dorade box to me! It is already pretty smooth inside, and just needs a hint of mold release agent and a couple layers of matt and I'll be good to go! Seem like a good idea? I can even mold the bottom directly to the shape of the deck. Hmmm.....