To paint or not to paint?

[Boatyarddog]

Originally Posted by newbie-

So I have a 1979 Catalina 30. The interior isn't fancy but there is quite a bit of wood surfaces inside. Some of it is showing its age. Faded, stained, marks, some scratches. I know I could spend some time with a bunch of sandpaper and try to restore the wood surfaces. Success would vary from place to place.

But it would be simpler to clean the surfaces and paint over the wood. But then I'd lose the wood grain. Which might be sacrilege on a sailboat? It's hard to go back once you've painted.

But it could look a lot cleaner and newer with paint.

What do you guys think? Is it such a bad thing to paint the cabin interior?

I'm not saying I'd shop there, but Amazon has teak veneer 4x8 panels you can glue on.
I hate Jeff Bezos, capitalist, but there are other vendors.
Or else a combination of Paint and wood is nice.
The character of old interiors is priceless, but if it's ugly or too dark, add some light.
Cheers,
SV Cloud Duster

[Gaia]

I would use two part polyurethane varnish on inside trim if the weather allows it. Here in the Rio Dulce it would be difficult to keep a wet edge on anything large in area due to the heat.

We used two part varnish inside on beams in our cabin and other trim and they are still beautiful and glossy with no fading of the underlying cherry and ash layers in the beams and they were varnished 25 yrs ago. (In Canada) we also did a lot of oiling of mainly cherry wood but it does not last anywhere near as long. Reoiling however is not difficult.

Often handled areas like posts etc are better varnished with two part rather than oiled as handling them continuously is not then a problem

Our teak and holly floors are oiled because of the slippery nature of varnished floors. We are about to reoil them and that can be done here.

Re painting vs varnish? Very much a personal question. We like the look of wood and in the tropics where we spend most of our time on a Tom Colvin Gazelle which has oodles of portlights, gloominess is not a problem. Too much white might be as it is almost always sunny and bright.

Jim sv GAIA

[gonesail]

restoring and varnishing plywood is tough. better to go with the Herreshoff style .. paint the bulkheads and varnish the solid wood trim. I would use a satin oil based enamel. it will look good forever.

[jharding]

before I sold the hunter I used to have I went over all the wood with a oil product, maybe Watco not sure and it made all the wood look like new, better than it did anytime I owned it, it looked so good I didn't want to sell it. It took very little effort and I couldn't believe how bad some of it looked before oiling and how good it came out. Places that were heavily soiled from hands I cleaned with scotchbrite and a good household cleaner. before you go sanding try some oil.

[Northbound44]

In my opinion, painting a high quality boat interior is the best way to decrease his value. I would never ever buy a boat with home made painted Bulkhead that suggests the boat had water damage or Bulkhead repairs. If you have a sailboat in need of repairs , if you want to keep it safe and preserve his resale value,there is no short cut.
If the boat value is inferior to the price to pay to repair it, promoting safety is the priority and if painting is the way to make it possible economically, go for it!
“When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to loose ( Bob Dylan).

[KadeyKrogen38]

Catalina of that vintage had oiled teak interiors I suggest you clean well with Murphry’s wood soap and re-oil. Oil will cover/hide most scratches.

[Exctyengr]

I will join the few nay sayers on this thread. Catalina installed a quality teak interior and off set the cost of this by oiling, not varnishing the end result. The oil darkened the teak and, over time, collected dirt, smut, scratches and so forth. (I had the same on my '87 Cat 36). A good cleaning, light sanding (be very careful on the plywood bulkheads) and then three coats of varnish (two gloss, final satin) and you will have a new boat. No question about decreased value or sales appeal just a first class job.
Good luck, post pics

[Captain Puget]

It’s not all or nothing… you can paint only those surfaces that make sense from a condition or use standpoint and keep some wood for accent.

I chose to keep the bulkheads wood and the coach roof sides painted. Nice contrast and it does brighten the interior.

[MJH]

Originally Posted by newbie-

So I have a 1979 Catalina 30. The interior isn't fancy but there is quite a bit of wood surfaces inside. Some of it is showing its age. Faded, stained, marks, some scratches. I know I could spend some time with a bunch of sandpaper and try to restore the wood surfaces. Success would vary from place to place.

But it would be simpler to clean the surfaces and paint over the wood. But then I'd lose the wood grain. Which might be sacrilege on a sailboat? It's hard to go back once you've painted.

But it could look a lot cleaner and newer with paint.

What do you guys think? Is it such a bad thing to paint the cabin interior?

There is no question...clean it up and varnish it...it will add warmth to the cabin. Painting over interior wood is a sin and raises the question "How bad was it underneath that it needed to be painted." During my last boat search there were a couple of interiors that were painted and they looked terrible, stark, cold, and appeared to take more time to sell.

Break the job down into manageable parts and take your time doing one part at a time to not overwhelming yourself and doing a quality job. You will be pleased that you did.

~ ~ _/) ~ ~ MJH

[Squanderbucks]

SqAndre Bucks a 1965 Chris Craft Cimmander and it’s interior was originally pretty much varnished and stained mahogany and mahogany veneer.
A lot of the forward cabins bulkheads and trim I refinished one semigloss oil based varnish. Looks nice but some areas were wallpapered with vinyl - like head area and in the V-berth areas.
But I wanted to brighten up the main salon but couldn’t bring myself to paint it in case a future owner wanted to keep the original mahogany look. So I covered the bulkheads below the side windows with white Formica. Looks nice, brute and is easily cleaned
Should a future owner want to go back to varnish there wold be no problem stripping off the Formica and not have to fight with a paint in the wood grain that could not be removed.
So paint if you like. But you might want to consider vinyl wall covering or plastic veneer. Also eliminates the dust that goes with other finishes.

[Scaramanga F25]

Painting will be more work than cleaning,

[Phantom Jim]

There is a product named "Restore A Finish" by Howard that may well restore the existing finish. It is available at hardware stores for $8 -$9 in a variety of wood shades. Give it a try, it made my boat interior look really good and was not a lot of effort.

[slowpoker]

Have you considered a good quality vinyl wallpaper? Did my Catalina with white, easy to do , less work than preparing for paint and can be removed easier than paint later.

[newbie-]

Thanks for all the great feedback! You guys have convinced me not to give up so quickly on the original wood. Worst case, I can always paint over it if the results aren't working out.

The hardest bit is trying to preserve some of the hard corners and not rounding everything out. I'm thinking about trying some steel wool on the worst of it.

One example I looked at for painting is the refit they did on the Sailing Uma channel. If I remember correctly, they painted every single wooden surface. And it looks pretty good. So I think it can be done well either way.

[KadeyKrogen38]

Never, ever use steel wool, you will have rust stains in the wood and around everything close. Use bronze wool or sandpaper.