1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Headliner Prep

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The Whisper Wall headliner I’m going to use has tracks that hold the material in place. The perimeter track butts up against walls or other vertical surfaces around each panel, and a separate track is used where the headliner material joins another headliner panel. Which means there need to be horizontal panels for the track to attach to where there are walls around the perimeter. So I’m going to be spending several weekends installing lots of little plywood panels to fill the gaps between overhead frames and give the tracks something to sit on.

The perimeter track is the one on the left

Gaps between frames are all different

The biggest horizontal panel will secure the aft head sliding door track, too.

Good thing I kept this 3/4″ okume plywood scrap

That’s about right

Not bad, but I need to knock a bit off in the middle

Plane it down to the pencil line for a perfect fit

It’s amazing how much trouble 1/32″ too much material across only 2″ in the middle of a 46″ panel can cause. Fortunately, a hand plane knocks that off quickly.

Next, I used my Kreg mini jig to drill pocket screw holes

1″ x 1″ mahogany cleat will secure the panel to the frame

There’s not enough room between the wall panel and frame to use pocket screws, so I’ll use a cleat instead. Everything’s dry fitted and ready to go.

Epoxy seal the top-side of the panel

After wetting out the cleat with epoxy, I applied wood flour-thickened epoxy glue

I clamped the cleat in place and went home. It was cold overnight, so the epoxy hadn’t fully cured by the next morning. But it was enough to hold the cleat in place while I installed the panel.

Next day, the panel is glued and screwed in place

Ready for door and headliner tracks and a valance panel

I’ll install a sliding door track here, but I also need to make a valence panel to hide the track. I’ve got plenty of mahogany in stock for that. The Whisper Wall perimeter track will then butt up against the valence panel for a nice transition from horizontal headliner to a vertical mahogany valence panel.

Does that make sense? It does to me, and I suppose that’s what matters. 😉

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Headliner Prep II