85 Lund Tyee Interior Rebuild

Hi There

I am seeking help on what type of wood to use to rebuild the interior with on an 85 lund tyee 5.5. The helm station and port stations were rebuilt with interior birch veneer years ago that did not last. We are re doing everything and my dad wanted to use teak so he could just oil it every so often. Would exterior or marine grade teak veneer hold up if we epoxied the edges of the plywood core? I’m afraid that he is not going to oil the teak often enough and we are going to be dealing with ugly gray teak sooner than later. Would a better option be to use some Philippine mahogany like meranti or african like okoume veneer. Then just use some epifane varnish? What would you do?

thank you so much for the help!

Brian

You’re on the right track. It shouldn’t matter much between exterior or marine grade plywood for how well it will weather. For me I would save the money and use exterior grade. What you coat it with is the answer.

I was doing this a couple years ago and just did multiple coats of Thompson’s. Other people had better suggestions of a varnish variety. Sorry, I can’t remember specifics.

In researching for a restoration project on an 81 Lund Pike I found the “tin boat” website. They have a few different recommendation but the one that seemed to be the most popular is “Old Timer’s Formula”. It is one part Spar Varnish, One part Linseed Oil, and two parts Turpentine. You are to apply two coats by putting it on until it puddles and then remove the excess. It will soak into the wood like a sponge. It takes a couple days for the wood to dry between coat. Then you add two or three coats of Spar Varnish. Here is a picture of the console in my project. The center is Baltic Burch edged with mahogany.

By the way, all the under carpet surfaces were treated the same way.

They were marine plywood. with the seams reinforced with fiber glass cloth and epoxy resin.

Thank you all for the replies. I think we are going to use 3/4 bs1088 okoume plywood and epifanes matte varnish.

Ok so we ended up getting 5/8 okoume plywood for the interior panels. Then we are going to use pettit sea gold synthetic varnish. It’s supposed to be a low maintenance varnish. We are struggling on what thickness to use for the floor. It looks like the current floor is 1/2 with fiberglass resin only on both sides. This is not the original floor and i am having trouble finding out what thickness the original floor was. 1/2 and 3/4 marine plywood is available locally. I just thought 3/4 is a bit heavy and 1/2 just seems weak…so 5/8 is right in the middle but special order! I definitely would like to use the lightest material without sacrificing any durability or stiffness. What do you recommend?

thanks for your time

Brian

When I contacted Lund, my Pike had a 5/8″ floor. The thickness makes a difference, It changes the height of anything that is mounted on the floor and connects to the side of the boat (even carpet thickness affect that dimension). I would suspect that 1/2″ with cloth & resin is probably close to 5/8″

My boat was original 5/8’s and my buddy’s boat came with 1/2″. His boat has beam members up the wazoo so there is a lot of support. My boat has 2 I beams running bow to stern. So, looking at your subfloor structure should give you an idea what you can get away with. Personally, I’d hate having a spongy floor and just go with the 5/8’s.