1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Final sanding the cabin top

Summer continues to kill progress on the paint job. It’s been 90° and more, with 50~60% humidity for the last two weeks. In the tent it’s 100° by noon and the heat index is at least 500°, based on gallons per hour of sweat that are rolling off of me. The only way we make progress is to arrive early and leave before anybody drops from dehydration. We sanded the cabin top and fillets at the deck and toe rail with 320 grit Mirka Autonet. Now all we have to do is sand the deck, which will happen today. Then we’ll wash the whole boat and tent, tape everything off and start spraying shiny early in the morning. The next day, we’ll come back and tape again, then lightly sand the shiny overspray into the nonskid areas and it it with nonskid.

First, we sprayed a guide coat of rattle can black paint on the deck and cabin top

We’ve gone through four cases of rattle can paint so far. If you want a fair paint job, you’ve got to have guide coats and sand only until the black spots disappear.

Machine sand to the edges

The guide coat also helps keep the edges nice and straight.

Fillets get hand sanded

Lots of complex curves and corners mean lots of hand sanding.

More complex areas and fillets at the helm door opening

More fillets and complex corners

The high density foam pad on the deck in the pic above helps ensure that the fillets are sanded smooth without putting “finger divots” in the curve.

The bow seat window and “eyebrow” area were a beeotch

There are lots of curves and corners here, and sanding upside-down to boot. It’s all worth it, though…

Guide coat shows the line for the window upright

The cabin top is as smooth as silk and ready for “the shiny.”

The cabin top has come a long ways since we first found it. Under that Awl Grip 545 primer is a layer of 1708 fiberglass and another layer of kevlar (hence, the bullet proof Chris Craft cabin top). Now all it needs is shiny Awl Craft 2000 in Matterhorn white.

But first, we’ve got to finish sanding the decks and then wash the boat. If all goes as planned, that will happen this week.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Shiny Gauges