1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Salon Headliner Prep

The aft stateroom headliner prep is coming along nicely. I decided to jump into the salon for a change of pace and get it ready for headliner, too.

Also, I wanted to express great gratitude to those of you who hit the tip jar. I’ve been documenting this refit as a labor of love, but it feels really great to know people put tangible value on my effort. Plus, since I went from the free WordPress site that had all those irritating ads to my own ad-free domain, every donation helps cover the cost of hosting. Thanks a lot!

Whisper Wall perimeter track will work great here at the salon aft bulkhead

The trouble starts here, at the helm station chase

There’s got to be a continuous surface for the headliner track to attach to. I’ve discussed the problems I’ve discovered on the port side–the broken salon fiberglass under the helm window, the mahogany safety rail in that area that was clearly not original, the stainless stanchion pipes that had obviously been replaced. My theory is that when they were doing the repower to the twin turbo SuperSeamasters, they dropped one of the engines on the port side helm windshield, which broke the salon roof and the mahogany safety rail, and bent some of the stainless stanchions. It also caused some of the salon ceiling frames to get way out of alignment. In the picture above, you can see how the horizontal frame doesn’t meet its counterpart in the corner…it’s higher. And like a teeter-totter, if it’s high on one end, it’s going to be low on the other.

All of the framing in this area has been pushed down

The horizontal cleat didn’t move

But the ceiling framing is 1/2″ low!

There’s no way the Whisper Wall track will work with this

I want to have a separate little hatch panel here, so I can access the wiring and cables under the helm station. But with the frames 1/2″ out of alignment with the perimeter cleat, that’s just not going to work. Plus, the frames are far enough out of alignment that they’ll ‘print through’ onto the headliner…can’t have that.

Something really heavy must have landed on this area to cause this problem

I’m not going to tear off the cabintop and start over, and the fact of the matter is that the ceiling is stable in its current orientation. So what I need to do is add material to bring the perimeter cleats to the same height as the rest of the ceiling framing.

First, I need a long, tapered cleat

This EurekaZone track saw workstation is great for making angled cuts quickly

That’s a nice fit

Nice transition between the cleat and frame

The taper will smoothly bring the track down to the original perimeter cleat

Looks pretty good

Cut a short tapered piece of mahogany for the side of the helm chase

The cleat is a bit too narrow

3/4″ okume plywood scrap will make a good filler piece

The filler piece will go here

Next, I drilled pocket screw holes with my Kreg jig

Last step: glue and screw everything in place

That’s a nice transition for the headliner track to attach to

Looks good on the other side

Wood flour-thickened epoxy is the glue

The 3/4″ plywood filler piece is glued, screwed, and clamped in place

Well, that’s one problem solved. I wish I knew for sure how this damage happened, but I’m sticking with my theory until something proves me wrong. If I’m right, can you imagine the horror on the mechanics’ faces as the engine and gear tumbled to the ground, wreaking havoc all the way down?

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Salon Entryway Panel