The mahogany plywood and solid mahogany are flying into place on the aft deck. One thing that’s been incredibly discouraging to see every single time I go through the aft deck is the mahogany plywood at the dashboard. It’s full of holes from old equipment that won’t be going back on the boat, and there’s no way to bring the face veneer back to a presentable state. But veneers can be tricky, so when I bought the additional stack of Lloyd’s BS1088-rated mahogany ply recently, I included in the order a bunch of 1/8″ ribbon stripe ply for this and other places that need veneer. The odd thing is, this water-proof, boil-proof mahogany marine plywood is ~$66 per 4′ x’8′ sheet. Ribbon stripe mahogany veneer is roughly double that. I’m not smart enough to understand how that works out, but I’m going with the 3mm (1/8″) mahogany plywood for my panel veneer work going forward.
It’s a bit depressing, isn’t it?
Keep in mind, this is what we started with way back in the day
Teak quarter-round isn’t bad
The problem is the big hole they cut in the bulkhead panel for the old autopilot system. The teak quarter-round is basically junk.
That’s some old varnish
Quarter-round is gone
After I cleaned up the joint between the teak deck and mahogany bulkhead, I took some measurements and transferred them to the veneer panel.
Time to dry-fit the veneer plywood
Not bad for the first fitting
Knock the top off so it matches the dashboard height
That EurekaZone track saw is awesome for this kind of stuff. Once the height was right, I used my Makita jigsaw to cut the hole for the steering pump and the relief for the helm dashboard.
That’s more like it
Engine Room CO2 fire extinguisher manual trigger is in the way
First I went to the engine room and disconnected the trigger cable from the release valve. Then I pulled the trigger free.
If you ever wondered how to take these apart…
It’s an elegant piece of hardware
Fire extinguisher cable pull tech, circa 1969
That’s original 1969 varnished mahogany right there
There are some who question horizontal grain orientation of mahogany wall plywood, but I figure if it was good enough for Chris Craft back when it was the #1 powerhouse boat manufacturer on the planet it’s good enough for me.
With all of the hardware out of the way and the bulkhead veneer final fitted, it’s tempting to bust out the varnish, but first I’ve got some wiring stuff to attend to. Once that Whisper Wall headliner gets installed, it’s going to be very complicated running wires up to the helm. Better get that out of the way first.
Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Deck Wiring
1969chriscraftroamer46 