Trojan Boat Forum

Hi

There was some comment recently concerning what to do with recovering the hatch. A couple of seasons ago, the teak veneer on my hatch was badly rippled and essentially, all worn out.

I removed the hatch itself and took it to home to my garage workshop.

I decided to strip off all of the old, ruined teak veneer and this left me with an uneven splintered mess. I sanded it with a belt sander and then applied polyfilla into all the uneven grooves and gouges. Then I sanded the polyfilla as best I could in order to obtain a smooth surface for the new surface material.

I decided to cover the area with white melamine which I eventually glued into place, very carefully. It took a bit of measuring and remeasuring, to get it to fit exactly.

Before gluing the melamine sheet onto the top side of the hatch, I completely sanded down the surounding Teak sides of the hatch and then finished them with cetol.

Only after that work was finished did I actually glue down the melamine.

Then I carefully masked the teak "cetol finished" outer edges of the hatch and then spray painted the melamine hatch top with white gloss melamine spray paint. I applied several coats.

It has stood up very well.

Hope this is of use to someone.

Rick

http://s869.photobucket.com/albums/ab252/rickdow/hatch/

Good looking job. I have been considering a similar rework on mine but haven't decided what to do yet. My teak is still good condition, just needs a good cleaning I believe.

You have certainly given me some food for thought. Yours turned out great.

I am thinking about cutting down some old/broken teak into thin strips to redo mine, but it looks like the way you did it would be a lot easier.