Replacing Faux Wood Cockpit Trim

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Coda

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I’ve got eight trim pieces on the sides of my cockpit on my 1995 Grady White 268 Islander that are getting pretty soft and bleached out. I honestly don’t know or remember what material these pieces actually were. I’ve got both 1/4” and 1/2” thicknesses.

Instead of resanding and refinishing, I was thinking about potentially replacing these with a synthetic lumber option. I have a friend with a tabletop CNC mill that should be able to cut and shape the pieces from rough stock.

Anyone go this route, and if so, any recommendations on which materials to use? PlasTEAK?

Thanks!

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I think the answers to your question are largely based on what you want it to look like in the end. Meaning, it could be as simple as using PVC or HDPE, white plastic board.
 
I guess I'd like to have it look as close to the OEM look, or kinda teak-ish? I know some folks have moved away from the wood trim look saying it looks "dated," but to me wood just keeps it looks vintage appropriate.
 
Gotcha.

I used Plasteak (or maybe it was Plasdeck) a long time ago on a windlass refit install (this boat never had one). I really like it because it had the best true look/feel to real wood that I could find. Nice stuff. However, it's thin and meant to be used more like flooring.

It's also not something you would DIY cut as the edges would be odd looking.

Unless they have something else available that I'm not aware of?


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IMO, nothing looks better than well kept teak especially on a classic boat - it really shows the pride of ownership. There was an early 90's Grady on my dock up until this year, where the owner was meticulous about the teak. Made the boat pop.
 
Thanks. Yeah, there are a bunch of options for polymer flooring, but not as many for actual lumber to build stuff out of. Agree that actual teak does look great, but just wanted to see if I can get close with something less upkeep demanding.
 
Yeah, I'm kinda struggling to think of something that looks like true wood and can be CUT and still look good. Anything "composite" that I can think of will have an obvious "fake" edge to it once cut - which will look like it belongs in one of Jeff Foxworthy's "You might be a redneck if..." skits :)

The stuff you have is called Duratrim. Maybe it's best to clean that up?

Another option is to go ahead and get actual teak wood.

Here's a thread about Duratrim - there are lot's of them:

J

Thread 'Fake teak wood'

Hello, I have a 1994 19' Tournament and I want to refinish the wood trim. It looks like teak but I think its fake does anyone know how to refinish it ? its dull when you wet it it looks great !

thank you,
 
Thanks all, the more I think about it, I may just end up cleaning these up, sanding them a bit and reapplying some of the stuff that Grady recommended.

Squidder, that hydrodipping looks really neat, can they do that with basically any unfinished wood stock?
 
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