1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Remaking the Salon Settee II

The missus and I took the boat out for a quick blast up the Potomac on Saturday. What a hoot! The Cummins engines continue to light off immediately. Temps and pressures are stable. The bilge pump counter still shows zero three weeks after turning on twice during our seven hour journey from Deale, MD, to our marina on the Potomac. Adjusting the propeller shaft packing glands dried up the bilge completely. So that’s all good.

But I have no air conditioning, in part, because the air intake duct for the salon AC unit will be built-in to the salon sofa bed/settee. So recreating the settee is a bit of a priority.

But first, I just want to say how nice it is not to be in the tent

Even without AC, just throw open the hatches and windows and a cool breeze comes through

But back to the refit.

The big white box behind the settee was a closet and bathroom

Since the forward bathroom is  now in the V-berth, and I prefer mahogany to white paint, my approach with the settee will depart somewhat from Chris Craft’s white painted box.

I saved the original settee forward panel to use as a pattern

The original settee lower panel makes another good pattern

You can see the lines on the floor where the original panels attached to solid mahogany cleats. These are all very helpful in reminding me how this thing was assembled back in 1969.

Chris Craft used 3/4″ mahogany plywood for the settee, but I’ve got some leftover Tricel

Tricel panel scraps can easily be joined together using solid mahogany splines and epoxy to make a bigger panel.

I use tape to indicate depth-of-cut for my Harbor Freight oscillating multi-tool

I generally use one inch splines to join Tricel, which means I have to remove 1/2″ of the core material from each panel where they’ll join together.

Just like that

Core material removed and spline test fitted

Final test fit

Wet everything with US Composites 635 epoxy then apply wood flour-thickened 635

Slide the parts together and clamp in place

Next day, the panels are ready for trimming

Looks good

The new settee begins to emerge

Time for mahogany veneers

Contact cement works best for thin veneers

When I use 1/8 mahogany plywood as the veneer (e.g. for the galley bulkhead), I prefer to use epoxy as the adhesive. But it just doesn’t work for thin veneer, so I use contact cement instead.

Two coats of contact cement on the panels and veneers, one to go

Once the cement is no longer tacky, I put some sticks down

The sticks keep the veneer away from the panel as I get ready to apply the veneer. I use a flexible plastic squeegee to press the veneer to the panel along one edge and then work my way across the panel. When I run into a stick, I pull it out and keep pressing the veneer to the panel. This helps avoid air bubbles and blisters. Once the cement on the panel touches the cement on the veneer, that’s it…so you have to do it right the first time.

Nice mahogany panel for the settee!

Lower panel looks good, too

Next day, trim the excess veneer with a razor knife

Sand the mahogany with 220 grit Mirka Abra Net

Next, I applied Pettit 1095 Standard Filler Stain to match the rest of the salon

Next day, the panels were ready for ICA base coat clear two-part urethane

Three coats later, the salon was very stinky

Definitely need carbon organic respirator filters when applying ICA.

Looks great the next day!

Sand with 220 grit Mirka again

Before re-coating, I made my final cuts to square up the panels

Just need to knock off some ugliness here

Three more hot coats of ICA base

I prefer natural mahogany, but that Pettit stain doesn’t look bad at all

Dry fitting the floor splines

Next I removed the Tricel core material for the floor spline

You’ve got to be very careful not to bend the face veneers with the core removed or the ICA will crack

Final test fit

Looks good!

Next, glue and screw the floor splines in place

Wet out the panel joint with 635 epoxy, then apply wood flour-thickened 635

Slide it all together, et voila!

Looks good at the top corner

Floor spline joint is tight

Nice transition to the pantry cabinet

Some day, I’ll make a face frame for the pantry cabinet that covers the plywood end grain. But for now, this is turning out exactly as I’d hoped!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Dialing in the CAPAC Anti-Corrosion System