While the Whisper Wall headliner installer was busy doing his stuff in the salon, I was working on other stuff and doing what I could to stay out of his way.
I wrapped up the panel work in the V-berth three months ago, and the headliner installation was finished in mid-July. Before the boat splashes, I need to have the ICA top coat sprayed, which means I need to get moldings installed to cover all of the plywood edges.
Repurposing an old mahogany door stile
I wrote about breaking down the old wing doors back in February. This is as good a time as any to put that pretty mahogany back into more noble service than being white-painted doors for a half-century. Seriously, click the link on that article to get the full impression of the long, hard road these mahogany boards have experienced.
New V-berth moldings made from old mahogany
On the left-side molding, you can see the stains from weathering that happened at the piano hinge screws. The wood is solid here and that edge won’t be very visible, so I’m going to leave it. If anybody ever notices, it’ll be a great conversation starter.
That looks a lot better than a raw plywood cut edge
Nice tight fit
More moldings
It doesn’t catch my attention when I’m on the boat, but looking at the above picture I almost wish I’d oriented all of the horizontal panels so the grain aligned. The catch is, I had a limited amount of matched 1/4″ ribbon stripe plywood and I didn’t want to run out before all of the surfaces were covered, regardless of grain orientation. Still…
The last of the V-berth moldings
With all of the moldings rough cut and fitted, they’re ready for sanding and coating with ICA base coat clear. But that stuff is super stinky, so I want to get more mahogany ready for finishing before I mix up a batch.
Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Transom Panel
1969chriscraftroamer46 
Like Bob says, I’ve been watching from the beginning as well and am using some of your ideas and methods when I start to ‘freshen’ up my Silverton. Fortunately I don’t have anywhere near the same amount of work, but the methods are sound!
As far as the orientation of the panels, there is almost always something. For me the sign of a good craftsman is looking at a finished project and finding it’s flaws and thinking how to do it better, but if all we did is look for perfection, projects would never get done! I can’t tell you how many times personally I’ve finished a project and find something and think to myself how I should have done it differently. Learn, Grow, and let it go. It’s tough, but we’ve all been there.
Keep up the great work! It is coming together very nicely and well thought out!
Rich, thank you so much for your thoughtful comments. You’re absolutely right.
And thanks for the kudos and for hanging in since the beginning! I appreciate both!
If you’re posting pix of your Silverton, please post the URL.
Cheers,
Q
I’ve followed your fantastic blog from the beginning and enjoyed every post. Your skill set is unbelievable and this project has been a joy to follow. Have to say that I really could use a narrative as to just exactly where you are with respect to finishing the project. When I think about how far you’ve come, I imagine you must be near splash time but then I see the photos you post and think that there might just be a lot more work. Any chance you could give us all a sense of where you are in the totality of the project? Part of me (selfishly) hopes you continue this great project for a few more years and part of me can’t wait to see the video of your launch!
Bob Z, thanks so much for your kind words.
I’ll put some thought into the ‘big picture status’ of the project over the next week and try to spell it out in an article soon. I understand exactly what you mean: there are times when it looks so bloody close, but then I turn and look at some of the big challenges that remain and…it’s not entirely clear how close I am to splashing.
Stay tuned!
Cheers,Q