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

These boats originally came with two drawers built into the settee: one long one facing into the galley, and another under the sofa cushion facing the aft salon wall. I’m using the space where the long drawer would have been as the salon HVAC inlet duct. But storage is always at a premium on a boat, so I’m refreshing the other drawer as part of this settee rebuild.

The drawer has potential

The varnish is more than 50 years old. The glue failed on the edge moldings, which were also held in place with staples that split two of the moldings. And somebody spilled blue paint inside the drawer. But the mahogany face and sides are in pretty good shape.

This crack in the face can be epoxied back together

The settee panels and corners dry fitted together

This is where the drawer will go

Tracing the drawer outline on the settee panel

Fitting the panel and plywood supports for the drawer slides

This is going to work!

Time to remove that varnish.

The mahogany drawer face cleaned up very nicely

I like how Chris Craft made drawer pulls by cutting angled, roughly oval holes in the wood. The holes double as additional ventilation, too.

Router and multi-tool cut slots for the drawer slides

Chris Craft didn’t use drawer slides on this boat. Instead, they tacked thin plastic pads on the panel edge under each side of the drawer for the wooden drawer sides to slide over. There was also a plastic guide at the back that ran on a plain steel track along the center under the drawer to keep it in position.

Modern, full-extension, soft-close slides are a big improvement

The drawer works!

Next, I had to finish making it pretty.

Cutting new edge moldings for the drawer face

I made up a bunch of panel edge moldings when I was working on the “Throne Room” (v-berth head) moldings, so all I had to do was trim these for the depth of the drawer face.

The mahogany sides of the drawer cleaned up pretty good

I started with 80 grit Mirka Abranet, then went to 120, and finished with 220.

But the Doug fir drawer bottom wasn’t going to come clean

That blue paint went deep into the plywood grain. So I decided I’ll just make it smooth and cover it. Because the salon is still my woodshop, I’ll be using this drawer as a storage area for a while. When the refit is closer to done, I’ll put mahogany veneer over the bottom.

Next, I applied fine-line tape around the perimeter of the drawer face

The tape will protect the bare wood from stain and varnish I’ll apply next

I’ll use epoxy on the bare wood to attach the moldings

Next, I applied the same Pettit 1095 filler stain used in the rest of the salon

The next day, I applied ICA base coat clear inside and out

Next day, I sanded with 220 grit Mirka and applied a second coat

That’s a good looking drawer

It’ll look even better when the mahogany veneer is installed…someday

Next, I miter-cut and fitted the new moldings

Then I used epoxy to bond the moldings to the face

Nice!

The salon settee drawer is done!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Finishing the Salon Settee Structure