The decks of the battleship Missouri, associated since 1945 with the U.S. victory over Japan, have long been losing a battle against the elements.

Wooden planks are rotted and warped, and the overall effect is more ramshackle barn than all-business battleship. It’s so bad that the deck is covered in a patchwork of hundreds of plywood overlays that cover the holes.

For all of the Missouri’s armor, firepower and history, one of its main attractions is its teak — 52,000 square feet of it from stem to stern. Missouri officials say that is equivalent to about 1.2 acres.

"All the old sailors, one of the first things they want to see is the teak deck," said Paul Dyson, vice president of marketing and sales for the Battleship Missouri Memorial.

Only about 15 percent of the teak dates back to World War II. Most of the rest is a fir-and-teak laminate put on by the Navy in 1986, and a lot of it has deteriorated so badly it needs to be replaced.

The good news is that the nonprofit museum and memorial docked in Pearl Harbor will be speeding up the deck’s replacement after it picked up enough teak in 2009 to redo about a third of the ship.

Crews on the "Mighty Mo" will be tackling the teak as the museum’s next big project following a three-month dry-docking — its first since 1992 — and a top-to-bottom $15.5 million paint job late last year and early this year.

Brett Palmer, the ship’s carpenter, said a crew of up to five full-time employees will be on the job, along with volunteers including 83-year-old Bob Albin, who has helped out on the Missouri for 12 years.

Palmer said he and others will be replacing teak "as fast as we can do it," adding, "We’re just getting ready to start back up here in the next month. Everyone is getting retrained on how it’s laid down."

It will still take possibly five years to replace the rotting teak, Palmer estimates.

One hurdle the Missouri had to overcome was objections from historic preservation organizations over plans to do away with the hundreds of bolts that were originally welded to the steel deck and were used to secure the teak. Circular plugs of teak were used to cover the nuts that screwed onto the bolts.

The World War II teak was about 2 inches thick. Much of the decking was replaced in 1986 by the Navy with a fir base topped with teak. The battleship opened as a museum in Pearl Harbor in 1999.

Money was the reason the Navy used the laminate, said Keven Williamson, director of volunteers. "They were trying to save money somewhere because teak is so expensive."

The Battleship Missouri organization wanted — and subsequently received approval — to use a 1-inch polyurethane base beneath nearly an inch of new teak to prevent water from getting to the steel deck and causing rust.

Over time the caulking between the planks deteriorated, allowing water to contact the steel plate.

"The rust burns the cheap wood — the fir that’s underneath there," Williamson said.

"It acts like a sponge," Palmer added.

Historic-preservation issues prevented the Missouri from replacing teak for the past year, officials said.

An agreement has since been reached to use the polyurethane and glue down the teak but to keep a portion of the World War II teak and provide models that show the original bolt attachments and evolution of the teak methods used, the museum said.

The Missouri paid about $250,000 to China in the spring of 2009 for teak, officials said.

A Missouri representative traveled to the Chinese-Myanmar border to inspect the teak, which was grown in Myanmar but milled and sold by China, the museum said.

"We got an excellent deal on it because the market had fallen out of the teak market," Williamson said.

He said the plan is to "go back and get more."

"I’m in the process right now of trying to locate more teak," Palmer said.

About 4,500 square feet of teak has been replaced to date. Crews will have to go back and put in the circular plugs replicating the covers that went over the nuts.

On a portion of the battleship’s fantail, the teak is particularly bad, rotting away around the old bolts and at seams, creating puka. Planks also have a springy feel in some spots and are pulling up at the ends.

For all its disrepair, the teak was not a disappointment to some visitors last week.

"I expected it to be like this or worse because the ship is so old — it was in World War II," said Andra Halkjar, 19, from Washington state.

"I realize this is an old ship, so I’m not surprised that they’ve got those types of repairs," California resident Robert Wynn, 78, said of the plywood patches.

Missouri officials are talking about selling portions of the replaced planks or turning them into pens to offset the cost of the new teak.

The Missouri also is looking for volunteers with woodworking or related skills who could devote consistent time to the teak replacement effort.

Short of that, patronage always helps.

"For those who are unable to volunteer their time at the Missouri but want to help in some way, they need only visit," Williamson said. "Every dollar spent at the Battleship Missouri Memorial goes back to the maintenance and preservation of the ship. That includes the teak deck restoration project."