I’m making good progress on the V-berth head (AKA the Throne Room), which has to be fiberglassed, faired, and painted (just like the aft stateroom head) before I can put the portholes in, which has to happen before I can splash the boat hopefully later this year. As with the aft stateroom head, I’ll be fiberglassing and fairing the ceiling panels prior to gluing and screwing them in place, since it’s very difficult to fair overhead panels. One thing that’s different about the V-berth head, though, is that the whole room will be a shower. We’ll need a shower curtain to control flying spray from getting into the cabinets, but we don’t want any unsightly hardware. It’s also a small space, so the curtain needs to be easily removable when the room isn’t being used as a shower. I’ve decided to use rare earth magnets as invisible shower curtain hardware.
Rolling out and cutting the 1708 fiberglass
Fully saturated with epoxy
After the fiberglass is wetted out, I waited until the epoxy got tacky and then applied a coat of homemade fairing compound using a 7:3 mix of glass bubbles to cabosil.
A light coat of epoxy fairing compound
By putting a coat of epoxy fairing compound on the FRP while it’s still tacky, it develops a perfect chemical bond since the same epoxy is used for the FRP and the compound. When we apply the Alexseal waterproof fairing compound over the top, we won’t have to grind the surface of the fiberglass. Just hit the epoxy fairing compound with 80 grit on a 7″ sander, and spread the new stuff on. This keeps the FRP matrix stronger, since we don’t break any glass fibers, and it also means there’s no itchy fiberglass dust to deal with.
Eureka Zone track saw cuts the excess fiberglass off perfectly straight
Ready to install magnets on the backside
A stick of 1/8″ thick rare earth magnets
The magnets grab each other through the full panel thickness
My magnet curtain holder plan passed the first test here. There are a bunch of different strengths of rare earth magnets, so I’ve been wondering if the ones I selected were too weak or too strong. These feel about right.
1/2″ router bit set to 5/32″ depth
Holes are cut
Magnets fit just inside
Wet out the hole with epoxy, then add a dab of epoxy thickened with wood flour
Moosh the magnet to the bottom of the hole, then smooth with a squeegee
Magnetic forces do not appear to affect epoxy cure times. 😉
I’ll put some magnets in the wall, too, so the curtain keeps shower spray in
Just a couple for good measure
Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Throne Room Wiring, Plumbing, and Final Panel Install
1969chriscraftroamer46 
That’s a great idea. Nice work.