Trojan Boat Forum

I was able to get up to the boat last weekend to get a start on my project. I will try to remember to bring my good camera next time because this cell phone is not getting the job done....

Please forgive the mess, but this is a work in progress...

I spent most of the day tearing out the carpet in the Salon. I am pretty sure it is original and perhaps some of you experienced folks can comment. It was some sort of synthetic material somewhat like the green-grass indoor/outdoor carpeting. It was laid down over traditional carpet padding and stapled to the floor around the perimeters. I wore a tyvek hoodie, googles, and a respirator because this stuff was literally disintegrating. I removed all of the carpeting and padding and gave it a good sweeping and vacuum, but I need to come back and scrape up some of the double-sided tape residue and do some staple removal. Regarding Staple removal... I will start with trying to pull them all out, but if it's too slow going, I'll be armed with a 3# hammer and just pound them flush.

After their removal, I noticed that there is some water ingress on the aft corners of the salon and that area of the floor is in poor shape; especially the starboard side. The starboard side from the gunwale to the door will have to be cut and replaced. The port side might be OK; I need to get underneath. The support beam for the floor/rear on the starboard side also pulled away and is laying in the bilge. I have not pulled it out yet to see what kind of shape it's in. I can see some 3" rusty screws sticking down through the door jam... I will probably replace these with stainless 1/4"-20 machine screws and fender washers for more support.

Overall, the floor is OK. It's solid and painted in primer-grey, but it is C grade plywood and the edges are a little rough especially where the staples were removed. I think a hard surface or carpeting will be a suitable replacement as any kind of vinyl will show all of these imperfections. I really don't want to get involved with filling or fitting a layer of hardboard. I have been looking around for deals on foam-backed carpeting. I think that will be the easiest and quickest method.

I got involved with some electronics work. I removed the cable raceway from the starboard side window area and the teak (mahogony?) board from above the windows. I wasn't planning on getting into electronics yet, but I think I can sell some of this older gear and recoup a few dollars at some upcoming fishing/boating shows.

The following are some examples of how bad the woodwork is in the salon and galley. It looks like some water staining was involved, but mostly I think this just has not been refinished in a decade; if ever. I think I am going to remove the doors and maybe the upper pieces on the sides and take them home to refinish in the heated shop. That way I can have them in and re-finished and not worry about spilling varnish on the new carpeting.


The PO had a folding card table that fit in this slot. You can see the difference in the color on the area that was covered and it doesn't look horrible.

Yup you got some work ahead....not sure how you are going to refinish wood panels but if you are going to try and match the stain that is on there ,I know from redoing ours that the matching stain is min wax Red Oak #215 , it is a dead ringer and I believe that was used at the factory...Mike

The screws used in the interior woodwork are Freerson or Reed and Prince screws, not Phillips. If you use a Phillips screwdriver, they will strip out quickly. The nice thing about the F32 is that you can unscrew pretty much all the woodwork to work on it or access hidden areas. Good luck with your project.

mikeandanne wrote:Yup you got some work ahead....not sure how you are going to refinish wood panels but if you are going to try and match the stain that is on there ,I know from redoing ours that the matching stain is min wax Red Oak #215 , it is a dead ringer and I believe that was used at the factory...Mike

In another post, someone used Cetol Natural Teak. I was planning on going with this.

Looking at the pics when I bought mine it had the same stains of water I just scrubbed it with bleach let it dry good then oiled it back up. Turned out nice.

Someone else here mentioned cleaning it up with goop hand cleaner and bronze wool.

I would recommend you use Teak-A two part teak cleaner & brighter and then varnish it with a good quality MARINE satin interior polyurethane. if you are really into this boat and for the long haul, you'll love the results, but it is a lot of tedious and dirty work.

When we bought our F-32, I thought the interior was mahogany because the interior wad a dark red / brown, I tested a little teak cleaner on it and was amazed that it was 30 years of teak oil and dirt. We stripped the $#it out of it with almost 4 gallons of the two part kits, but the results were amazing.

search my threads and you'll see the project

gettaway wrote: When we bought our F-32, I thought the interior was mahogany because the interior wad a dark red / brown, I tested a little teak cleaner on it and was amazed that it was 30 years of teak oil and dirt. We stripped the $#it out of it with almost 4 gallons of the two part kits, but the results were amazing.

I think some if it is Philippine mahogany. I removed some of the boards and they are not as heavy and dense as teak should be.

I made some progress with weekend with the warmer than average temps. I had planned on stripping and sanding this month, but I was not expecting to do any staining or poly. But with the short burst of relatively warmer than average temps, I was able to get the boat up to about 65 degrees with a small electric heater.


Here is the same port site panel that is posted above. This was taken down with a random orbit sander and 120 grit. It's a nice clean finish and smooth. It removed most of the staining and surface dirt.



this is the area that was just done before moving on to the next. You will see some shavings on the floor. My good sander with the dust collection port blew a belt and the dust was making a terrible mess. I tried hitting the wood with a block plane. It was working pretty good, but it's not straight enough and flattening it would remove way to much material.



I went with a darker stain that I would have liked, this is Minwax Red Mahogany. It is very close to the original stain and it blends well with areas that are not sun bleached. The original colors in the non sun-bleached areas are a little deeper and would require a more aggressive cut. This would take more time as I would have to go over it twice and these side panels are veneered.


It is a nice looking color however. I would have liked to get a layer of poly on this, but I thought it would be best to make sure it completely dried. I might get one more chance before the next cold snap.

Looking Good Bill!!

Very nice! I will be doing the same in a few weeks!