1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Making the Aft Stateroom Center Fascia Board

With the aft stateroom starboard fascia board and the port side fascia done, next I made the center fascia. Chris Craft originally used three separate boards across the aft end of the stateroom, with lousy joinery between them. And they were painted white, of course, even though they were made of pretty mahogany. I’m going a different route: I’ll use one long board and eventually clear coat it with ICA two-part polyurethane clear.

Chris Craft loved that white paint over mahogany

It’s been Fair for the last ten years

OEM stamp on the backside

The old boards on the new one

For a while there, I was considering reusing the old boards. So I ran them through my Dewalt planer until they were down to pretty mahogany. But since they’ve got screw holes in them and the original center board is long gone, I decided to use the old boards as patterns on either end of one long board I’ll make.

First I clamped them to establish the length of the new board

Then I clamped a 6-foot ruler to both boards and traced the arc between them

Once I’d traced the whole thing, I got ready to cut.

I always get nervous before making cuts on big pieces of lumber

Looks good so far

After cutting about halfway, I put sticks under the cut end to keep the unsupported wood from sagging.

Just about there

Nailed it on the first try!

Starboard fascia board fits perfectly!

That looks great!

Back out to the salon to round off the lower edge

Looking good

Next, I cut plywood panels that the Whisper Wall headliner tracks will attach to.

I saved this solid piece of original 3/4″ plywood for 10 years

There’s always that question of whether to throw out a piece of scrap plywood or keep it. During the demolition phase of the refit, there were lots of pieces of plywood that I put in a ‘keep’ pile. This one was big enough and in great shape, so I knew it would come in handy one day.

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

The original headliner cleats are too narrow for the Whisper Wall track

I traced the curve of the original headliner cleats with a Sharpie

All the way to the starboard side

Then I removed the OEM cleats

For the last step, I glued and screwed the new headliner track attachment panels in place

Done!

The fascia boards are off to the paint shop. I’ll have them sprayed with eight coats of ICA base coat and two coats of top coat. They should be ready to install in a few days.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Gorgeous Aft Stateroom Fascia Boards