1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Propeller Shafts (part 1)

With the exterior paint work done, I have to get the propeller shafts installed before retiring Tent Model IX. The tent goes all the way to the ground, which keeps out any breeze that might blow away the argon shielding gas from weld areas…and the prop shaft cutlass bearing housings have some very critical welded joints.

Our Roamer originally came with 1.5″ Aquamet 17 shafts that worked fine for the 400hp twin turbo and intercooled Super Seamaster engines that were in the boat when we first got it. But when we decided to upgrade to Cummins 430hp Diamonds, with all of that power coming online at 2600rpm (vs 3200rpm for the Seamasters), the result was a safety factor of three. Since the recommended safety factor is at least five, that meant we had to replace the shafts with 1-3/4″ ones. While the original shaft log would accommodate the larger diameter, I had to cut off the cutlass bearing housings (with brand new, practically unused cutlass bearings installed back in 2009!) and have new ones made up and welded in place.

Struts await new cutlass bearing housings

The good thing about aluminum is that woodworking tools can be used to cut and shape it. A sawsall and circular saw with carbide blades got the old cutlass bearing housings off the boat fairly quickly.

New 1-3/4″ cutlass bearing, with matching housing and collets

Before we could weld the new cutlass bearing housings onto the original 3/4″ 6061 plates that make up the V struts, we had to ensure that the the struts were cut to the proper angle. The collets in the picture above are sized to fit around the new shafts, then slide inside the new housings.

Two-piece aluminum collets can take the heat of welding without catching fire

The cutlass bearings are made of rubber and phenolic, neither one of which responds well to the kind of heat we’ll generate when the housings get welded in. The two-piece collets are a tight fit to the shafts and a snug fit inside the housings, but not too tight…we need to be able to remove them after the welding is done and everything has cooled down.

Pretty slick fit…ready to install

Nice fit to the OE struts

When we raised the shaft/collet/housing assemblies into place, we found the V-strut cuts were pretty much where they needed to be. In the engine room, I verified that the shafts were dead center in the shaft log. I used a jack to raise the housings as high as the V-strut plate cuts allow before blocking them up.

The intermediate strut fit was good

Welding this intermediate strut assembly will prove to be a challenge, since my Miller Spoolmatic 30a has a straight nozzle. With only six inches between the hull and the bearing housing, it doesn’t have much room to allow us to weld inside the V.

Ten passes later, the housings were welded in.

My Miller Trailblazer 280NT and the spool gun performed flawlessly while the fabricator made multiple passes to fill in the “vee’d out” welded joint. On the rear strut, he was able to weld inside the vee as well as outside. For the intermediate strut though, the straight nozzle on my spoolgun just won’t work. We’ll have to take another crack at it with a flexible nozzle the fabricator will bring from his shop. Since we had both housings welded in (as far as we could with my equipment) on the starboard side, we prepared to swap the collets out so we could rig up the housings and shafts on the port side.

Bad news…stuck collet

The two collets on the intermediate housing came right out, but on the rear strut the rear collet took a bit of nudging with a hammer and chisel. Unfortunately, the forward collets just wouldn’t budge…at all…not even with a 10# mallet. So, we have to wait until next weekend to attack again. We’ll use a bit of heat and maybe a hydraulic cutlass bearing press to remove the collets and set them up on the other side. We’ll also have the fabricator’s welding gear that can weld in the tight space of the intermediate struts.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Helm Windshield Frames (part I)

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Priming the Cabin Top & Dashboard

Wow.

That’s all I can say.

OK…not really 🙂 , but seriously, what a slog it’s been to get to this point.

The last time the cabin top on this Chris Craft Roamer was whole, a consistent color, and shiny (to a degree) would have been sometime in the early to mid-1970s, when the boat was repowered with 534ci SeaMaster twin turbo and intercooled gas engines. The salon hatch for repowers that was collapsed has been rebuilt. The cabin top is now bullet-proof. The helm station sliding door openings are done. And everywhere you would have seen a seam between components, you now see nice fillets and rounded corners.

The problem is, though, that the closer you get to priming anything, the uglier it becomes. With complex construction based in aluminum, marine plywood and fiberglass, then topped with fairing compounds of varying colors and other characteristics, everything gets blurred together when a couple of guys spend days with six-foot longboards sanding down the high spots and making sure that every surface is true. Guide coat after guide coat of black spray paint further uglies up the project until it takes a real trained eye to see the beauty that’s just waiting to POP out for all to see.

Well, on Sunday, April 21, 2013, we got some serious poppin’ done!

Filling pinholes with Awl Grip High Build thickened with cabosil.

Pinholes are unavoidable in a faired fiberglass structure the size of a yacht cabin top.  If you prime and sand, then fill pinholes, you could spend a week getting them all and even then you’d probably miss lots that you wouldn’t see until you painted the boat. My weekend fairing/painting crew used the same technique to fill pinholes on the Roamer that they developed at Weaver Boatworks, where they build multi-million dollar sportfishermen on the other days of the week.

The process involves mixing a bit of cabosil with Awl Grip High Build. It’s hard to describe the consistency, but it’s not mayonaise, peanut butter or any of the other terms generally used to describe fairing compounds. It’s not runny…it holds a bit of shape. Let’s just call it the Boatamalan Secret Recipe. (Boatamalan = Boatyard worker of Guatamalan origin, a joking reference to the fairing crew’s Latin American ancestry). Whatever you call it, this stuff works wonders on pinholes and is applied with squeegees.

Boatamalan Secret Recipe on the dashboard

It’s not pretty when applied with a squeegee, but it won’t matter.

FRP door openings ready for Boatamalan Secret Recipe

Just enough Boatamalan Secret Recipe to fill the pinholes.

Boatamalan Secret Recipe isn’t used for shaping. Its only purpose is to fill pinholes. Where it might take a whole weekend to fill pinholes individually later on, it only takes a few hours using this approach.

Boatamalan Secret Recipe gets squeegeed all over the cabin top.

Smooth and pretty doesn’t matter at this point.

A thin layer of Boatamalan Secret Recipe covers the whole cabin top.

Boatamalan Secret Recipe applied

The next step after squeegeeing Boatamalan Secret Recipe all over is to apply Awl Quik, which is basically a sprayable fairing compound. After taping plastic over all of the openings, we fired up the compressor, put filters in the vent fans, and made the tent stinky!

Awl Quik yellow…not the prettiest color

This is sooo much better than before, when all of the different colors of material made it difficult to see the final shape. Now, all of the lines, fillets and rounded outside corners POP!

Dripping with Awl Quik

The painter applied two coats in rapid succession and then one more for good measure. The idea is to put enough Awl Quik on so we don’t sand through the Awl Quik/High Build layer when we longboard it. If we sand through it, we have to spray another coat and that means waiting another day before we can sand. Since we only work weekends on this project, that means another week will go by before we can spray the final primer–Awl Grip 545.

I’m diggin’ on the fillets at the dashboard.

Much nicer than the OE dirt-catching seam.

Before Awl Quik

After Awl Quik

Windshield base is true, strong and flat where it matters.

Check out those lines!

Beautiful fillets and rounded corners at the bow seat windows.

Don’t mind the runs and rough spots!

We applied two heavy coats of Awl Quik right over the squeegeed High Build and cabosil, so the surface reflects that now. The surface imperfections will sand off easily when we longboard. So long as we don’t sand through the High Build/Awl Quik layer, we’ll be applying 545 next weekend!

The bow seat itself got Awl Quik on the 3rd coat.

The painter needed a place to stand to put the second coat on the cabin top, so he waited to coat the bow seat until the last coat.

Salon window supports in Awl Quik

These supports in the salon window tracks are the only vertical structure over the whole length of the salon window openings. They’re made of mahogany and, from Chris Craft, rely on paint and bedding compound to keep rain water from wicking up the wood and rotting it out. Unfortunately, that approach doesn’t last too long.

We made new supports out of mahogany, but then fiberglassed them into place. Not only is this a more integrated approach than the original, it makes it virtually impossible for rain to ever affect the wood. The entire window channel is now fiberglass covered with Awl Quik.

Aft-most salon window opening on the port side.

The dashboard again…just because I love the way it turned out.

And that concludes our tour of the Awl Quik application

Longboarding begins anew next Saturday, bright and early. If we don’t breach the High Build/Awl Quik layer, we’ll have it sprayed in 545 on Sunday.

I’m all giddy! 😉

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Tools of the Trade.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Transforming Tent Model IX, Helm Door & Fillets

Tent Model IX served its winter-time purpose extremely well, holding up without a hitch when Hurricane Sandy came calling and providing lots of space to get work done on the interior. Model IX was the culmination of years of shrink wrap tent-making failures and successes. With winter finally past us (maybe! It is, after all, only April!), it ‘s time to transform Model X into a paint shed.

I began by adding scaffolding aft and working my way around to the other side.

Since we’re not doing any heavy longboarding on the hull this time around, the scaffolding deck is down around where the water line will be. This should give the painter sufficient access to apply nice, wet coats of Awl Craft 2000.

Time to build the second story scaffolding.

The second-story scaffolding is just below deck level.

This scaffolding will allow the painter to step off the deck and paint the exterior of the aft deck enclosure, then step back onto the boat at the transom. A couple of cross braces make a huge difference in stability. The tent plastic itself will greatly add to stability, too, once it’s shrunk.

Reusing concrete forms for the scaffolding deck.

Back in 2008, when we first got the Roamer, I got a good deal on phenolic-faced 4×8 sheets used in concrete forms that are made with waterproof, boil-proof glue. I planned to use it as sub-flooring throughout the boat. But after buying it I found that the phenolic isn’t smooth and doesn’t stay attached very long–it cracked and peeled after a year or two just sitting inside the boat while I was straightening out the paperwork SNAFU. So I ripped it into 24′ x 96″ pieces and used it for the scaffolding deck.

The scaffolding decking is supported lengthwise with two 2x4s per section and more lumber at the ends. You can dance on it! I used screws so it will be easier to sectionally dismantle. If anybody needs a portable paint shed at a bargain price in a couple of months, let me know!

Scaffolding around the bow

There’s a step up in the right side of the pic that allows the painter to reach all the way to the rub rail at the top of the stem.

The long view down the starboard side looking back.

The step up at the bow.

Reused the old bow seat for scaffolding.

The white section of the scaffolding deck is the old bow seat that I cut off and replaced with something better. It follows the curve of the hull pretty good!

From the bow seat to the stern, the decking is all phenolic-faced plywood.

Putting up the paint shed skirt.

I’ll put a new sheet of shrink wrap over the top, but I need a skirt from the ground to about 12″ up because shrink wrap doesn’t come in 60′ wide rolls… and it would be extremely heavy if it did!

I cut this clear shrink wrap plastic off of our 1968 Chris Craft Commander 42 last weekend, in preparation for a spring cruise to see the cherry blossoms. The cruise happened but the blossoms have been delayed by unseasonably cold weather.  By splitting the Commander tent in half, I got enough plastic to do 2/3 of the skirt. Once all the pieces are in place, I’ll weld the plastic together with the shrink torch and tape up the seams. That should happen next weekend, unless the wind continues to blow like the dickens.

Meanwhile, on the inside of the boat…

The helm station door openings are now ready for fiberglass.

Since I last reported on the helm station door openings, we added strips of marine plywood to the steel uprights to make a pocket into which the doors will slide to keep out the weather.

Ready for FRP and fillets!

At the helm station, the dashboard fillets are also done and ready for sanding and primer.

Before: original dashboard pod seam–a great place for dirt to gather and hang out.

After: a nice and smooth fillet

FRP tape and epoxy holds the pod to the cabintop under the fillet.

That’s it for last weekend. Next weekend I’ll finish converting the tent to a paint shed, sand the fillets and prep the helm roof for primer.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Helm Station Door Openings

Since 2007, when I cut off the old aft deck enclosure with a chainsaw, I’ve been developing a vision for how the helm station side door openings would work. Finally, over one week in 2013, the vision coalesced into pretty much exactly what I had in mind. I love it when a plan comes together! 😉

The helm station entry circa 2007 when we first got the boat.

The helm entry on both sides had been radically altered back in the 1970s. It was cut off vertically where the big C-channel beam comes down from the roof after that looooong 45* run.

Circa 2008: Reconfigured steel C-channel beam supporting the helm roof.

After cutting 3′ off of the sides of the fiberglass cabin-top as part of the deck and aft enclosure project, I cut and rewelded the steel C-channel beam so it’s vertical over nearly all of its length. This makes a stronger structure than original and also provides the forward edge of what will become the door opening.

Circa 2008: the stbd helm door opening

Fast forward to March 1, 2013.

Not much had changed here in the intervening years, but by 2013 I had a definite plan for how it would look in the end. The large, curvy block of wood is 8/4 mahogany stock that Chris Craft used to provide vertical structure to the sides of the cabin top. I’ll end up using it for molding somewhere. 😉

Weld area, FRP cut and rotten mahogany

When we replaced the teak side decks with new aluminum plate, we had to cut some of the fiberglass from the sides of the cabin top so we could fit the new plate and access the weld area. When we removed the old teak deck and rotten plywood underlayment, we found just a hint of rot in the bottom edge of the 3/4″ x 4″ mahogany board that the bottom edge of the cabin top screws to where it meets the deck. This rot, which was much worse in the bulkhead below it, was the result of the seam failing where the aluminum side deck transitioned to teak–a poor design if ever there was one.

2 sheets of 3/4″ Douglas fir marine plywood make up the filler piece between the fiberglass exterior and the helm door opening.

The fiberglass piece we cut out to weld in the new aluminum deck in 2008 is back where it should be…in 2013.

Ideally, we would have fiberglassed the plywood at the same time as the FRP panel, but the carpenter needs to finish making the “3rd side” of the box surrounding the steel upright. Once that’s in, we’ll FRP the whole thing and put in the final fillets.

Marine plywood frames out the helm station door opening in late March 2013.

Rather than using 8/4 solid stock like Chris Craft did to make up the filler piece between the side of the cabin top and the steel upright, instead we sandwiched two layers of 3/4″ doug fir marine ply bonded with US Composites 635 epoxy and wood flour/cabosil. The filler piece is screwed and glued in using the same wood flour epoxy mixture.

For the boxes around the steel uprights, we’re using 19mm okoume marine plywood that’s also screwed and glued in place. We have one more piece of okoume to cut for each side, then we’ll fiberglass and fair the entire thing in preparation for paint. On the inside, we’ll use solid mahogany stock rather than plywood and finish it off bright.

The window track drain is cut out and all edges are radiused for FRP coating.

The inside surface of the sides of the FRP cabin top is ground and ready for 1708 FRP.

The epoxy gluing the plywood to the sides of the cabin top is strong, but the joint will last forever if we put a layer of 1708 bi-axial fiberglass cloth over the joint.

The top o’ the box is bonded to the helm roof.

We will fiberglass this joint, too, but first we need to put a 3rd side on the box–a piece of 3/4″ okoume plywood on the steel beam that the door will slide up against when its closed. The 4th side of the box–on the inside–will be a solid piece of African mahogany. The outside face of the box and the solid mahogany facia board inside will be wide enough to provide a pocket into which the door will fit when closed.

Window track drain made of 1708 bi-axial fiberglass cloth wetted out with US Composites 635 epoxy.

All that remains to do is fiberglass and fair the plywood at the helm door.

With wet epoxy all over the boat, it was time to go home. I’m beat.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fillets!

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fairing the Cabin Top (cont.)

It’s been a very busy two weeks. The weather gods suck…windiest winter ever, and what’s the deal with two snow storms in March, including one just before the Cherry Blossom Festival???

Oh, also, if anybody thinks up how to produce 20cfm of air at 90psi with only 120VAC on a 20 amp breaker in the boatyard that services 16 power pedestals, drop me a line. 😉

The fairing work continues on the cabin top, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at the end-of-the-day pix. We’re also taking a different approach to the cabin top-to-deck joint than Chris Craft did.

Back at the Chris Craft factory in 1969, 1″ x 4″ mahogany boards were bolted to the deck structure all the way around the opening that will become the salon and galley. The FRP cabin top was then craned onto the deck, with the bottom edge fitting tightly to the mahogany on the inside.  Screws spaced 8″ apart secure the bottom edge of the cabin top to the mahogany. Large radius quarter-round mahogany was then screwed in place over the seam, with bedding compound to keep things dry.

It was a good approach except for a couple of problems that arise over decades of use: The coating on the wood fails eventually, so there’s a maintenance premium without as associated payoff. The bedding compound eventually gives up, usually in just a spot or two. This allows small amounts of water to leak in and go unnoticed, rotting out whatever mahogany it comes into contact with without a telltale drip to alert the owner.

So our approach has been to cover cabin top-to-deck joint seam with 1708 biaxial fiberglass, which we’ll cover with very nice, water-shedding fillets.

Circa 2008: quarter-round mahogany covering the cabin top-to-deck-joint seam.

This shot is from when we first got the boat, and shows the port side deck looking aft at the transition from aluminum decks to teak. The quarter round is broken from where the teak deck buckled, but you get an idea of how it worked. Also, note the paint has mostly fallen off the wood. It doesn’t matter how you do it, paint will not stick to exterior wood and stay there like it will to fiberglass or metal.

I think there’s a better, more modern way.

Circa 2013: heavy 1708 bi-axial FRP covering the cabin-top-to-deck joint seam where once there was wood.

As when we fiberglassed the cabin top, bowseat and dashboard, we use US Composites 635 epoxy for the FRP layup (with just a touch of cabosil to improve adhesion between the ‘glass and aluminum) and then hot coat it while it’s still tacky with fairing compound made of 635 epoxy, 3M microbubbles, and cabosil.

Though the deck was sandblasted in 2008, we ground it back a bit and also stripped the gelcoat from the cabin top before applying the FRP.

Same thing on the bow, where there was evidence of two old leaks at each corner that no doubt contributed to some of the rotten bulkheads we found when we first started the project.

Oh, my achin’ shoulders! Fairing work also continues.

It’s amazing how much fairing compound you put on compared to what remains in the end. The windshield base that had been previously repaired is now much stronger and straighter than it was before.

Fair lines from the bow seat to the helm.

We’re blocking the filler to sharp lines at the edges, which made low spots and wiggles very apparent. Before priming, we’ll sand the sharp edges down to a nice radius.

That’s a whole weekend worth of sanding and fiberglassing, but she just doesn’t look much different than when we started. We really are heading into the painting home-stretch, though.

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Helm Station Side Door Openings.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fairing the Cabin Top

A potential buyer popped up for the Ford Lehman engines I had rebuilt for the Roamer back in 2008 before getting my wits about me and deciding on Cummins 450 Diamonds. So I spent two days over the weekend moving big pieces of iron around the State of Maryland, getting them back to the shop that did the rebuild for a quick check up in preparation for some videos.  On Sunday, the Boatamalans came by with their 30″ longboards and attacked the fairing compound we laid on the cabin top last week. While the guys were sanding away, I was out working on transforming Tent Model IX from a hurricane-tested winter work tent to a paint shed.

The dashboard is cleaning up nicely.

I decided to make the instrument pod part of the dashboard structure since the instruments have excellent access from below and there’s no benefit I can see in having it screwed together from below with an exposed seam above. All the joint between the two does is grab dirt. Once the dashboard is faired, we’ll put a nice fillet over the joint between the two after tabbing them together with lightweight fiberglass.

The bullet-proof windshield base.

There’s just a very fine line of yellow at the top of the windshield base to indicate there’s Kevlar bi-axial cloth below.

The previous repair area at the base of the windshield has been properly re-repaired.

Very little fairing compound was needed here, which is good since additional thickness here would increase the challenge of reattaching and bedding the windshield frame.

Shaping the starboard windshield base.
Everything looks very good here.

Process basics: apply expensive fairing compound to the surface, then sand most of it off!

The 30″ longboards are very good at finding the high and low spots in the fairing compound. Most of the dark lines here are where there were overlaps in the 1708 bi-axial fiberglass layer, creating high spots. Others, though, are high spots from where the original hard top shape simply wasn’t fair.

It’s anybody’s guess whether it was that way when new or if the wrinkly bits were caused by the monster Super Seamaster engines wracking the superstructure by bashing along at much faster than original design speeds.

Some of the original frames create high spots in the salon top roof.

Once it’s faired to this point, the fairing compound filling the low spots isn’t especially thick.

Salon roof frames create high spots all the way across the cabin top even far forward of the salon hatch roof repair.

The guys are doing a good job making the cabin top lines straight.

They faired the turn of the cabin top to the cabin top sides to a very sharp edge. We applied the second coat of fairing compound to the low spots and will do the final fairing next weekend. Once that’s straight and all of the low spots are gone, we’ll come back through and put a nice radius on it.

Nice radius on the brow.

This is a subtle styling spot on the bigger Chris Craft cruisers, but it’s notorious for developing cracks and pocks in the gelcoat. The guys did a great job reproducing and blending in the radius at the brow on the leading edge of the cabin top, now vastly improved with a continuous layer of 1708 bi-axial FRP.

Ditto on the port side.

The lines are really looking good here.Just a few touch ups were needed with fairing compound.

Meanwhile, I was busy transforming Tent Model IX on the outside.

I need to widen the aft section so we can prime and paint the aft enclosure, put a “cap” on top so we can paint the helm station roof, and drop the sides to the ground all the way around to keep paint fumes under control.

Basically, I’m turning it into a big paint spray booth.

The tent transformation is nearly done on the starboard side.

1.5″ PVC hoops will go over the helm station roof from the long uprights aft to create a new tent roof frame 5′ higher than now. I’ll then cut the existing PVC film and raise the whole aft section over the top of the new hoops. Then, with lots of shrink wrap tape and the torch, I’ll weld new shrink wrap film to the old so it goes all the way to the ground and secure it along the sides of the tent structure all the way around.

I’ll be begging the goddess of the seas for dead calm on that day, let me tell you!

Next week, we’ll finish longboarding then put some nice fillets around the dash pod and at the cabin top to deck joint. Time permitting, we’ll also get the fairing work done on the fore and side decks. I’ll continue transforming the tent and hope to have that done by Sunday, when the forecast is for 5mph winds!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fairing the Cabin Top (cont.)

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Helm Station Dashboard

The same problems we saw on the cabin top were apparent on the helm station dashboard: completely degraded enamel paint over old gelcoat with some cracks, pock marks and blisters. The plan was to strip off the gelcoat, fill blisters with wood flour -thickened epoxy and apply a single layer of light boat cloth fiberglass over the whole thing. While stripping the gelcoat, we found that a previous repair under the windshield was completely inadequate. So we shifted gears, brought out the Kevlar and 1708 bi-axial fiberglass cloth and made the whole thing much, much better than new.

The gauges will come out and go to Kocian Instruments for reconditioning.

“Roamer Cruise Control”
Gotta love the ’60s!

Cruise Control-ometer…how cool is that?!?!

None of the instrument shops I spoke with had ever seen one of these before, but Dale Kocian said he should have no problem making it as good as new.

With the gauges out, it was time to strip the dashboard.

Preliminary stripping revealed some trouble.

Shabby previous repair on the port side.

In fact, the repair under the windshield on the dashboard side of the cabin top was even more poorly done than it was on the exterior side. When we started, the only visible problem was a crack running top to bottom immediately under the port side center windshield upright (on the right side of this pic). As we stripped away the old gelcoat, the sander went straight through the left side of the repair! Turns out there was only ONE layer of light boat cloth here and it wasn’t wetted out very well. The gelcoat and paint over the top didn’t show any hint of what lay below.

When we found this, I made the decision to ramp up the new FRP schedule for the dashboard to the “bullet-resistant” standard we used on the rest of the cabin top: Kevlar and 1708 bi-axial fiberglass.

It is now absolutely certain that the missing fasteners I mentioned in my article on removing the windshield were, in fact, not the fault of Chris Craft. This windshield has been out before to repair a pretty significant break in the fiberglass at the base.

My guess is that the boat was significantly faster after the 1973 repower from 427 Fords to 534ci twin turbo and intercooled Super Seamasters. Bashing through rough seas, something Roamer hulls excel at owing to the deadrise that carries all the way back to the transom, the higher speed put more stress on the FRP superstructure than what the relatively low-powered 427s were capable of dishing out. Something had to give, and that something was the resin-heavy FRP layup at the base of the windshield uprights.

Other areas of the dashboard needed help as well.

Even places where the gelcoat showed no imperfections before being stripped revealed voids and dry fiberglass cloth once we hit it with a grinder. You simply cannot see these things without grinding off the gelcoat.

Small cracks at every sharp corner revealed problems in the FRP below.

The edges of the dashboard had been damaged back when the boat was in regular use.

Resin-heavy FRP layup resembles prehistoric amber.

With the gelcoat removed, the resin pool at the underside of the base of the windshield lights up to reveal all of the fractures in this brittle material. It’s a shame, really, since there were spots where the original fiberglass mat could have used a bit more wetting out.

The underbelly of the windshield base repair area.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the people who repaired this even bothered leaving this piece sort of hanging there underneath. It’s only tabbed in place in a few spots with 9oz boat cloth. It serves zero purpose.

Pock marks…no surprise what’s below that.

Pits under where there used to be pock marks in the gelcoat.

Starboard side windshield base repair.

This repair, which is under the starboard center windshield upright, is nowhere near as extensive as on the port side.

Stripped and ready for a new FRP skin.

First, we brushed US Composites 635 epoxy thickened with wood flour into all of the seams and across every blistered area.

We used the same mix to fill any voids that remained, then we rolled on unthickened epoxy to wet out the old FRP layer.

Next came the Kevlar, but only at the base of the windshield where it’s strength is needed most.

Next comes the layer of 1708 bi-axial fiberglass cloth.

After rolling the air bubbles out of the Kevlar layer, we brushed more wood flour-thickened epoxy across the edge of the Kevlar to make a smooth surface for the 1708 layer.

Rolling the air bubbles out from under the new FRP layer takes time.

Bullet-resistant windshield base.

Fairing compound “hot coated” over fresh FRP on the dashboard.

We used the same approach with fairing compound on the dashboard as we did on the rest of the cabin top: using the same US Composites 635 epoxy, we mixed 3M glass bubbles with Cabosil to make fairing compound that we applied over the still tacky 635 epoxy in the FRP layers. This results in a perfect chemical bond and eliminates the need to sand the fiberglass after it cures and then apply the first layer of fairing compound.

Unfortunately, I ran out of 3M glass microballoons, so I used some phenolic microballoons I had laying around, which is the red fairing compound you see in this pic. Phenolic microballoons are somewhat cheaper, but we find they don’t sand as nicely as glass.

The dashboard is ready for sanding and a final coat of fairing compound in the low spots.

This work on the dashboard took place on March 1, 2013. Since I’m only able to work on weekends and holidays, this means we’ve come to the end of all of the historical work on the boat. Things have come a long way since we first acquired this 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46. I’m reasonably pleased with the progress I’ve made since clearing up the paperwork SNAFU that almost sank the project. Since August 2012, when I finally got the paperwork cleared up, I installed the Cummins 450 Diamond engines and have completed almost all of the necessary major superstructure repairs and revisions:

• the bow seat is vastly improved over the original;
• the salon roof hatch is stronger than anything Chris Craft originally built into any of their various models;
• the cabin top is bullet-resistant and will almost certainly never crack again; and
• now the windshield base is fully bullet-resistant, too.

The next steps in the project will be to:

1) transform Tent Model IX from a winter storm tent that survived Hurricane Sandy to a paint shed;

2) finish the wooden structures for the helm roof supports and sliding doors; and

3) fiberglass the wooden structures around the helm roof supports and tie them into the cabin top structure.

Once that’s done, we fair the decks, prime the decks and superstructure and then…paint with Awlgrip starting at the helm station roof and working down to the bottom paint.

Unless something catastrophic happens (hey, it’s a big project and I’ve got grandkids–you never know what life will throw at you 😉 ), she should be painted by the end of May.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fairing the Cabin Top.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Bullet-proof Cabin Top

By February 2013, it was time to take the next step and get the cabin top covered with new fiber reinforced plastic. The plan was to put one layer of 1708 biaxial fiberglass over the salon roof hatch repair area, then cover the whole cabin top with a single monolithic layer of the same material. Modern biaxial cloth is a huge technological advance over anything that was available in the late 1960s, offering much greater strength than even heavy woven roving with a much, much lighter final layup. Since the original Roamer 46 cabin top FRP layup was only three layers of light woven boat cloth (and very resin heavy in spots), this new FRP skin should greatly strengthen the roof. No more collapsed hatches from broken roof frames and 3″ fiberglass tape!

On the big day, my fairing crew boss showed up with a surprise (albeit an expensive one): several yards of biaxial Kevlar cloth. He felt this would be the best option for the first layer over the salon roof hatch repair and for the base of the windshield.

I’ve looked at the original spec sheet for these Chris Craft Roamers, and I can say for an absolute fact that “bullet-proof cabin top” was NOT a factory option. But it will be on mine! 😉

Previous repair to the base of the windshield.

The repair was done in lightweight boat cloth and it was dry in spots. There was another repair to the starboard side but not as extensive as this. We decided the best approach would be to apply a new layer of FRP from the bow seat, over the windshield base support area, and all the way to the dashboard.

We also stripped off the remainder of the gelcoat on the aft end of the cabin top sides.

The helm station door frames still needs to be built and tied into the cabin top, but I haven’t had time to do it yet. I’ve also been looking for a competent carpenter who can do the work but thus far haven’t had any luck. I’ve found competent carpenters who are too busy to focus on a big project. Incompetent ones, needless to say, are everywhere and ready to work…but no thank you.

1708 bi-axial fiberglass is pretty stuff.

Random oriented mat on one side stitched to 90* bi-axial on the other.

Bi-axial Kevlar Fabric is Bullet-proof (and almost scissor-proof!!)

My Wiss 1225 scissors are pretty good, but that Kevlar fabric put up a good fight. It’s incredibly tough stuff, and we haven’t even saturated it in epoxy yet!

Boatamalans* brushing US Composites 635 epoxy thickened with wood flour over the hatch seams and other imperfections.

We’ll brush and squeegee wood flour-thickened epoxy into all of the blisters I documented while stripping the cabin top. Doing so fills the blisters and gives the FRP layer a solid surface to bond to. If we just ‘glassed over the blisters, we’d get air bubbles under the new FRP.

* Boatamalan: portmanteau indicating highly skilled boat workers of Central American origin. 😉

Rolling on the US Composites 635 epoxy to wet out the new cabin top plywood and old fiberglass roof.

Bullet-proof Chris Craft

Ruis, the head Boatamalan, tells me that they use Kevlar and 1708 fiberglass bi-axial on the bottoms of Weaver Boatworks’ multi-million dollar sportfish boats. Apparently, the manager at Weaver took a sample of their bottom layup to the shooting range and set it up as a target. Later analysis showed that .308 rounds would penetrate two layers of fiberglass, but they could not pass through one layer of 1708 over Kevlar. The ‘glass layer was damaged, but the Kevlar stopped the bullet.

OK, I’ve been informed that “bullet-proof” is the incorrect term, since a modern .50 caliber machine gun might (with some effort) breach the fabric. Bullet-resistant Chris Craft is apparently the preferred term.

That’s still pretty freakin’ kewl! 😉

Wetting out the 1708 bi-axial fiberglass.

Once a big fiberglass job like this begins, everybody has to move fast until it’s over.

Unfortunately, I was unable to take pictures after this because I was the official epoxy mixer. We went through 20 half-gallon batches that day.

After putting the 1708 biaxial layer down all the way to the bow seat, we cut more Kevlar and 1708 and applied it to the base of the windshield. By the time that was done, the epoxy in the hatch area had set up.

Time for fairing compound!

US Composites 635 epoxy + 3m Microballoons + Cabosil (5:4 ratio) = world’s best fairing compound.

After the FRP layer was done, I continued mixing resin for the fairing compound.

Since we’re using the same epoxy for the FRP layup as the fairing compound, chemical compatibility is perfect and so is the chemical bond between layers. When we sand the fairing compound layer and apply more compound to the low spots, we won’t break the fibers that give the FRP layer strength. This approach is also less labor intensive than applying the FRP then sanding it to apply fairing compound.

My secret resin makin’ lair. What a dusty, sticky mess!

Frosted goodness.

The evil cracks and weak spots from the original FRP layup are forever entombed…in modern epoxy, Kevlar, fiberglass and glass microballoons.

Once the epoxy cures, we’re ready for the fairing crew!

That was a very long day…and it happened only two weeks ago.

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Helm Station/Dashboard.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Removing the windshield

With the cabin top stripped, it was time to remove the windshield.

I started by removing the center and side windows.

After removing the screws from the perimeter frame, it takes some careful prying to get the frames out. The safety glass had begun to delaminate, so I wasn’t particularly concerned about breaking anything.

Braced for removal.
The helm roof is supported at the back and in mid-span, but with the windshield gone all of the forward support will be gone.

Windshield fasteners on the under-side of the cabin top.

The nearest one is properly seated, but the far one is 1/8″ or so away from the fiberglass. It was never installed properly.

What the hell were they thinking???
The first screw could have had a few more turns on it, I’d say.

From the looks of the cracking pool of resin around it, I’d say that washer has never been seated.

Four screw holes…three screws.
The second hole has never had a screw in it.

There’s no evidence of a screw or washer having ever contacted the FRP there. On the upside, the pool of resin doesn’t go all the way across.

A veritable ocean of resin.

What we have here is about 1/2″ thick resin pooled up along the bottom of the windshield support. The fiberglass in this area is light boat cloth sans roving…not exactly the best FRP layup for a high stress area like this.

This is a patch, right at the base of the port-side center windshield support.

The entire area appears to have broken at some time in the past, but the repair is extremely shoddy.

Again, missing fasteners. At least the FRP looks like it was done well here.

With all of the fasteners out, the frame came out pretty easily.

The upper edge was sealed very well to the helm station roof. The lower edge…not so well.

The leading edge of the frame was sealed, but none of the screw holes were.

Sealed up in spots, but mostly not at all.

Of course, we also had the obligatory line of silicone spooged into the leading edge. It doesn’t keep rain out, but it sure plays havoc with any paint you try to put on the boat!

The steel corner supports had long since turned to rust.

While it made removal easier, you have to wonder what was holding the windshield in!

The windshield is out and the area is almost ready for fiberglass.

But back to that repair at the base of the windshield.

I don’t know what to make of this. The FRP layup wasn’t very good. The whole thing was swimming in resin, and that was obviously Chris Craft’s doing when they made the cabin top upside down in a mold. But that patch at the base of the windshield was obviously done after the cabin top was made. From the inside, the patch is barely held in place with a few strips of light boat cloth. It seems unlikely Chris Craft would have done this in the factory.

Then again, there were 6 screws actually fastened properly long the bottom edge of the window frame, and some of the holes that didn’t have screws also had no scratches around the holes…as if no washer or screw had ever pressed against the under-side of the fiberglass. If the FRP repair happened after the boat left the factory, it would make sense that the windshield had to come out. But then I’d expect there to be signs of fastener damage to the FRP from Chris Craft’s original install…unless this was a “Friday” boat and they did a shoddy job of it in a rush to get to a beach party.

In any event, it’s amazing the thing held together. We’ll just have to make sure it’s done better than the way it was done before!

With the salon roof hatch back in, the cabin top stripped and the windshield out, the next step on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit is to ‘glass the cabin top!

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Strengthening the Salon Roof

While installing the hatch and 1/4″ marine-grade Douglas fir plywood that underlays the FRP skin on the salon roof, I cleaned the old fairing compound off of the cut edge of the original Chris Craft fiberglass. What I found was…disturbing.

The previous weekend, I put in the salon roof plywood.

When putting in the battens, I finally “saw” something that had been obscured by fairing compound.
See the wavy FRP layup?

Catchin’ the wave now?

See the little dude on the surfboard? 😉

What we have here is three layers of fiberglass. The top layer follows the shape of the mold, as does the bottom layer (presumably, so the boss wouldn’t notice what was going on in between).
But in between, they thickened up the layup in a high stress area at the base of the windshield by mooshing the middle fiberglass layer into a corrugated pattern. Thing is, resin rich FRP layups like this are extremely brittle. Which might explain the cracks we were seeing at the base of the windshield. The FRP layup here is almost 1/2″ thick. On the leading edge of the hatch, where they didn’t corrugate the middle layer, the FRP layup is only about 5/32″ thick.

To make up the depth in the FRP layup, we decided to start with another layer of 1/4″ marine plywood.

Since the salon hatch hole measured 5’x10′, I had to scarf three sheets together to fill the space. The upper layer of plywood is oriented longitudinally, whereas the lower layer was transverse. This cross-oriented, two-layer 1/4″ plywood underlayment is reportedly the same layup Weaver Boatworks uses on their multi-million dollar sportfishermen decks.

Vacuum bagging would have been the best approach, but the hillbilly method of laminating works too.

After wetting out both layers of plywood with US Composites 635 epoxy, I coated them with a bonding agent of 635 epoxy and wood flour (wood dust and cabosil). After laying the top panel in place and squeezing out as much air as possible, I started carrying heavy things up the stairs and put them on the salon top. The whole time I’m thinking “I am getting too old for this $4!t”. 😉
The idea was to not have any nail or screw heads on the top layer, since they have a tendency to “print through” the fiberglass and top coat.

On the inside of the boat, I felt I could strengthen the salon top with additional longitudinal pieces.

The original Chris Craft design only had longitudinal pieces around the hatch opening. Weaver Boatworks uses a similar frame structure for the boats (though in laminated plywood rather than solid mahogany), but with longitudinal pieces running down the entire length of the structure.

I added two strakes of 3/4″ plywood longitudinal stiffeners to the salon roof.

The panels are each cut to fit very tightly between the frames, then are edge sealed with US Composites epoxy and glued in place with wood flour-thickened epoxy. I’ll put additional longitudinal stiffeners in all the way from the aft salon bulkhead to the forward-most roof frame before I take down the supports I’ve been using to hold the roof level.

Final bonding of the longitudinal stringers.

After putting a nice fillet on the wood flour-thickened epoxy glue, I used 9oz boat cloth to make the longitudinal stringers a permanent part of the roof structure.

With the path forward worked out for strengthening the salon roof substructure and framing, the next topic in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Stripping the Cabin Top.