1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Deck Helm Doors III

Good news!

The surveyor came by today and was very impressed with what he saw. He doesn’t expect the insurance company will have any demands before I splash the boat. He thinks he can have the updated survey report back to me by next Wednesday. I’ll immediately send it to the insurance company, so hopefully by Friday I’ll know if they approve of getting the bottom wet. I tentatively plan to start dismantling the tent on Thursday. Might have the boat back in the water for the weekend!

The missus did a great job cleaning in preparation for the surveyor

That’s a good looking dashboard

I keep most of the interior mahogany covered with cardboard and a moving blanket is usually draped over the helm, so not even I know what the boat looks like under all that protective covering and dust. This may be the first time I’ve seen the whole area cleaned up!

Diaper report from the fuel manifold: no diesel leaks!

So, that’s the good news. But now, I have a tale of woe from last fall, when I was furiously trying to get the boat ready to be splashed. I discovered a huge problem with the aft deck entry sliding doors: the doors are rectangular, which is perfectly common, but the door frames are not. The side decks on all old Chris Craft motoryachts are angled down from the bow to the transom, so water will run off. But the aft deck hardtop is basically parallel to the waterline. So the distance from the bottom of the helm door openings to the top is shorter at the leading edge than the aft. That’s not a good situation for a sliding door, where the top and bottom of the door frames are usually parallel.

When I tore out the original teak side deck and had it replaced with aluminum plate, the fabricator welded the 2″ square aluminum tube that would become the lower door frame at the same angle as the deck.

2″ square tube is at the same angle as the deck

When we were painting the aft enclosure in 2013, it didn’t even occur to me that the door opening wasn’t configured right. If only I had a time machine…

When I tried to install the linear tracks for the helm doors in late 2022, with the door closed there was 1/8″ gap from the top of the leading edge of the door to the upper guide track…perfect. But at the trailing edge, the gap between the door top and upper guide track was 1/2″! And when I slid the door open, the leading edge door top had that same 1/2″ gap, but the gap at the trailing edge of the door was 1-1/4″!

Those two surfaces need to be parallel or sliding doors won’t work. What a mess.

My first “solution” to the problem was a mahogany threshold

Thicker at the back, thin at the front

After making the threshold, though, I realized it wouldn’t work. The leading edge of the door fits in the pocket at the leading edge of the frame nicely when it’s sitting on the 2″ square aluminum tube. But with the mahogany threshold in place, it jacks up the trailing edge of the door, which opens a big gap between the lower leading edge of the door and the pocket that the leading edge slides into. So the bottom will need to stay as-is. The hardtop will have to be modified so it’s parallel with that 2″ aluminum square tube on the bottom.

It was around this time that the Boatamalan painter was doing crack repairs around the hull. Since he was on the lookout for cracks, he spotted several on the underside of the hardtop where it overhangs the side door entries. In other words, there were fairly big gelcoat cracks that needed to be repaired in the vicinity of the sliding door problem I was having. So we went for broke and got ‘er done.

I epoxy glued and screwed big pieces of tapered mahogany to the hardtop on both sides

Really wish I’d thought of this in 2013…

Fiberglassed then faired with Awlfair

The Boatamalan took over with crack repair and fairing

The last of the cracks were dug out

More Awlfair

After sanding the fairing smooth, we tented the area and sprayed Awlquik medium build surfacer.

After sanding the Awlquik, we re-tented the area and sprayed Awlgrip 545 primer

A dusting of black paint for a guide coat

After sanding the 545 with 320 grit, we re-tented the area again and the Boatamalan sprayed the Awlcraft 2000 Matterhorn White topcoat. The next morning, I arrived at 6am to find…

SHINY!

After pulling all the tape and plastic, the repair areas looked great!

With the upper and lower door frames now parallel, I was finally able to install the doors. But what a mess that was! To any other bonehead who takes on a project like this, pay very close attention to your future door openings early in the project!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Aft Deck Helm Doors

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fixing the Nor’easter Damage II

With the hardtop damaged fixed, the crew moved on to the windshield frame and cabin top. The Nor’easter in March 2018 broke the overhead tent frames, which are made of 1-1/2″ PVC pipe. The high winds pushing against the tent skin caused the broken pipes to whip back and forth for hour after hour, which gouged and abraded the Awlcraft 2000 shiny paint on the cabin top and rubbed through the  Awlgrip used for the non-skid. Keep in mind that we finished the Awlgrip paint job in 2013, and it’s only been exposed to sunlight when I’ve replaced the tent skin. It’s been really disheartening to see the “new” paint so badly beaten. But the repairs turned out well, and we took advantage of the opportunity to put the last topcoat on the mahogany toe rail….something about making lemonaid when life gives you lemons.

First, the guys sanded and taped off the windshield frame

The broken PVC pipes had abraded through the clear coat

Prepped and ready to spray the following morning

It was extremely hot when all of this was going on, so  hot that spraying any time after 10am was simply not possible. So the crew would do all of the prep work, then show up the next morning, wipe down, tack off, suit up, and spray.

Problem: humidity causes the tape to loosen up overnight

The last thing we need is to have black metallic paint find its way past the tape.

And keep in mind from the last article that the insurance company’s estimate from Osprey Marine called for only using five rolls of tape for the whole repair!

Windshield is done, next up is the cabin top

Two gouges

Taped off and ready to spray

Nonskid is done

Nonskid is nasty stuff. It goes EVERYWHERE when you spray. Once it was done, the crew pulled all the plastic and retaped the boat for shiny Awlcraft 2000 Matterhorn White.

While they’re at it…

The mahogany toe rail had been sprayed before, but the plan was to do it one more time before splashing the boat. Since the boat is completely covered, and the cabin top is sufficiently far away from the toe rail that one sheet of plastic film can cover it easily, we sanded and sprayed the toe rail first. This wasn’t part of the storm damage, but when an opportunity presents itself…

That turned out nicely

After taping off the toe rail, they sprayed the cabin top

Done!

Off comes the plastic (hopefully, for the last time!)

Nice!

That toe rail is like a mirror

10 coats of DuPont MS1 topped by 3 coats of Awlcraft 2000 clear

So that’s a wrap for the Nor’easter damage repair and clear coat on the toe rail. Now I’ve got to transform Tent Model XXX back to the more compact version. There’s nonskid overspray all over the interior surface of the shrink wrap skin, so I need to be very careful as I peel it off.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Re-skinning Tent Model XXX (for the last time?)

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fixing the Nor’easter Damage

There are two areas on the aft deck hardtop that took the brunt of the damage from the tent frames that were broken by the big Nor’easter in March 2018, one at the back and the other at the front. But there was also damage on the sides of the hardtop, and the nonskid got badly gouged. With the tent altered to permit repairs to proceed, the team got on with the work.

The rear edge of the hardtop was abraded deep into the fiberglass

The front edge of the hardtop was beat up by a 3″ deck screw sticking up from a broken tent frame frame

Imagine a wind-powered needle scaler beating on the paint for a full day, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of the damage. The point of the screw went deep into the fiberglass matrix.

Fiberglass repair on the back edge

Fiberglass repair and fairing at the front of the hardtop

Fairing the back edge

Fiberglass and fairing on the side

While the guys were busy fixing the storm damage, I’d been thinking about a problem I’d been staring at for a few years, trying to come up with a way to fix it.

One of the hardtop frames had separated from the under side of the hardtop fiberglass

Zooming in, you can see where the bond between the mahogany frame and fiberglass had failed

Zooming in more, you can see where gravity won the battle of the bond

I don’t know what the bonding agent is, but it doesn’t seem to be as hard as thickened epoxy. The hardtop is a clamshell, with a top and bottom that are bonded around the perimeter and to each frame. The bonding material stuck well to the fiberglass and to the mahogany frame, but it failed in the middle some time decades ago.

The lower half of the hardtop clam shell isn’t in contact with the frame

I stuck the camera up into the space between the upper and lower halves of the hardtop clam shell. It almost looks like the bottom side wasn’t even bonded to the frame. If so, that’s pretty sloppy manufacturing by Chris Craft back in the day.

It’s pretty clear there’s no bonding agent between the wooden frame and the lower fiberglass panel

Same problem on the starboard side

The bond held in the middle five feet or so of the frame, but it failed on both sides for 18~24 inches.

My Harbor Freight multi-tool worked well to clean out the bonding agent

Next, I shaped some mahogany to fill the gap

Ditto for the starboard side

Then I wetted out the filler pieces, saturated the hardtop frame and fiberglass with epoxy, then mixed in wood flour and cabosil

That turned out pretty good

Hopefully, locking it in place here will stop any further sagging

I managed to fix this problem without messing up the paint in the area, but the Nor’easter repairs gave me an opportunity with less risk since the guys have to spray this whole area anyway. While I was doing that, the guys moved on to sanding and repairing the nonskid.

60 grit, then 80, then 120…nonskid is some hard stuff

Side gouges are faired and primed with Awlquik

The back edge is ready for Awlgrip 545 primer

Taped off and ready for shiny Awlcraft Matterhorn white on the hardtop

The back edge turned out nice!

Like the storm damaged never happened!

Gouges and scrapes? What gouges and scrapes???

Next, tape off the new Awlcraft and spray the nonskid

Nice!

Start to finish, it took fourteen days to repair the hardtop. With these repairs done, the guys moved on to the windshield and cabin top repairs.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fixing the Nor’easter Damage II

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Repairing the Damage from the Big 2018 Nor’easter

This is the third time the project has been hit by disaster (fourth if I include the paperwork SNAFU). There was the bastard thieves who grabbed all of my portable tools, materials, and original Chris Craft parts in 2014. Then there was the boat next door that blew up, damaging the tent and my paint in 2015. There were some lesser disasters, too, but the next big one was that Nor’easter in March 2018 that whooped Tent Model XXX and damaged my brand new Awlgrip paint. After a time consuming and irritating claim process, we finally settled this week. The repairs have been ongoing for a while, but I wanted to wait to write about it until the work was basically done. After long four months, we’re almost there.

Step 1: wash the boat

A lot of dirt blew in through the gaping hole in the top during the storm, so washing the boat was the first thing I did.

That’s cleaning up rather nicely

I do like that Matterhorn white Awlcraft with the tinted windows

Next, the top skin was split so the roof could be raised

There was damage to the shiny paint as well as the nonskid on the cabin top and the hard top. I don’t want to re-skin the whole tent just yet, because once the nonskid gets sprayed the whole interior surface of the plastic skin will be covered with very coarse overspray. So instead I had the roof over the hardtop raised so there would be plenty of room for the guys to do the work.

The top skin over the hardtop is gone

That’s only the third time the sun has hit this paint directly.

Sunlight in the salon!

The tent frames over the hardtop need to be raised

Up go the frames

The new top skin got draped and battened by late afternoon

Next day, the new shrink wrap top got tensioned

Ventilator and filter box got set up

Then a lot of very expensive materials started showing up

Three cases of 3M 233+ tape, and and a bunch of Mirka Abranet  in various grits

With all of the prep work done and materials on-site, the repairs could finally begin

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fixing the Nor’easter Damage

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Shiny Matterhorn White on the Hard Top (again)

I’ve finally caught up completely to where I was in May 2014 when the bastard thieves took everything they could carry out of the tent. The hard top was already painted, but since they stole the aluminum drip rails I had to break open the paint to fiberglass the edge where the drip rail would have mounted. The burglars also grabbed half of the aluminum helm windshield frame extrusions, and the new frame I had made required me to break open the paint on the cabin top and add some fairing compound to get the fit just right. We painted the windshield frame a week ago, and over this last weekend we painted the hard top and cabin top (again) with Matterhorn white Awlcraft 2000. I’ve gotten a lot of other things done over the last year in addition to recovering from the theft loss–the aft stateroom walls are in, the spray foam insulation is done, the galley bulkhead is in, and I made a gantry and installed the starboard engine–but with the paint work done I can finally put the theft behind me; from now on it’s all progress toward the goal of launching in 2016.

Taping off the hard top after sanding the Awlgrip 545 primer with 320 grit

Fillets and fiberglass might even look better than the original aluminum drip rail

Fume extraction system

The 12″ axial fume extractor fan hose goes down to a filter box. At 2000cfm, the fan pulls in pretty much all of the fumes and overspray, and no particulates come through the filters. It’s a pretty slick system, and works especially well in confined spaces.

Cover Guard diamond plate plastic floor covering for dust-free walking space

Windshield area is ready for paint

New windshield frame paint is protected

Windshield frame bolt holes get taped from the salon side

Painting in progress. Exhaust fans, on…no overspray coming out

Shiny!

My Boatamalan* painter calls Awlgrip topcoats “the shiny.” The guy has serious skills when it comes to laying this stuff out glossy and flat.

* Boatamalan: portmanteau indicating highly skilled boat workers of Central American origin. They’re actually from Honduras, but Boatamalan rolls off the tongue better.

Good lookin’ fillets!

Foam roll tape is super expensive for what you get, but it makes an invisible blend

Check out that reflection!

The major paint work is now a wrap. I sent the windshield frame patterns to Motion Windows, and the new helm station windshield windows should be done within six weeks. We’re letting the paint cure for a few weeks before installing the windshield, so I’m shifting gears and heading back down to continue on the aft stateroom head ceiling.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Moldings for the Aft Stateroom Head

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Helm Station Windshield III

With the paint around the helm windshield ground back and new fiberglass installed to fit the new windshield frame to this old boat, next I made the patterns for the new windows and we wrapped up the bodywork on the hardtop.

Center helm windshield pattern for new Motion Windows

Motion Windows did a good job making the bow seat windows, and they say they’ll be able to produce a 2-pane center windshield with a fixed lower and hinged upper, like the original but better. That center opening windshield lets the breeze in and really makes the helm and aft deck pleasant when it’s warm outside. I was glad to hear they’ll be able to make it.

Center opening windshield typical of late ’60s Chris Craft cruisers

I’m shipping the patterns off to Motion today, which means the windows should be ready to install before November. It’ll be nice to have glass back in the boat. With the patterns made, next we removed the frame and got busy with the final bodywork.

The hardtop is shaped to the windshield and sprayed with Awlquik

Lower windshield landing changed shape just a bit

Carbide circular saw blade shaped the new fiberglass

Ah, yes…there’s nothing quite like being surrounded by fiberglass dust again. I hope we never have to do this again.

Several layers of new ‘glass fill the old gaps

The biggest gap filled with the most ‘glass

Oh, and here’s some free advice about fiberglass and marital bliss: Even fully suited up, it’s inevitable that some ‘glass dust will find a bare spot of skin. Fortunately, loofa sponges are great for scrubbing itchy glass fibers out of your skin after all the nasty FRP work is done.  But–and this is critical–DO NOT USE the missus’ loofa that’s always sitting there in the shower at home no matter how itchy you are. You’d think she wouldn’t mind, but apparently some of the glass fibers can end up taking up residence in the loofa and…um…surprising the loofa owner the next time she uses it.

Let me tell you, whoever came up with the phrase hell hath no fury like a woman scorned clearly never experienced the fury of a woman whose loofa has been tainted with FRP dust. Lesson learned…perfectly justified bruises heal. 😉

 

Black guide coat helps ensure consistent sanding

Primed and sanded hardtop

The hardtop fillets are turning out nice, and are a good alternative to the OEM aluminum drip rails that were stolen by the bastard thieves back in May 2014.

Guide coat sanding on the hardtop

Awlgrip primer over shiny Awlgrip paint on the underside of the hard top at the transom

We’ve got to finish sanding the primer and prep for paint. But first, the windshield frame needs to be primed and painted since it will be much easier and a more efficient use of materials to tape off the freshly painted windshield to paint the hardtop than it would be if we put “the shiny” (as my Boatamalan painter calls it) on the hardtop first.

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Sparkly Shiny Helm Windshield Frame

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Helm Station Windshield Frame

When I last wrote about that bloody windshield frame, things were not going well. While it looked great outside, the frame fit very poorly to the boat. If this was a typical Chesapeake crabber’s boat, a 3/8″ gap between the windshield frame and the hard top might not be a problem–just fill ‘er in with urethane sealant. But since this isn’t a work boat, I wanted (and paid for) a frame that fits. When the fabricator declared he’d do no more work on the frame, I had to call in my Boatamalan* painter to fix the southern Maryland fabricator’s handiwork.

* Boatamalan = joking portmanteau referring to the Central American origin of the fairing crew and painter (boat + Guatamalan). In fact, the Boatamalans are mostly from Honduras, but Boatduran doesn’t roll off the tongue like Boatamalan does. 🙂

Here’s what we’re dealing with:

3/16″ irregular gap at the port side bottom

Starboard upper corner was waaaay off

One of three high spots contacting the hard top

Zero contact at the port-side inner upright

Brand new Awlgrip got dinged up

The paint getting scratched really added insult to injury, since tape is cheap and I put a whole case of it out for the fabricator to use when the tape needed replacing. Instead of spending five minutes replacing tape, he let it get worn out and then got sloppy installing the frame (over and over again because it didn’t fit right because he welded it together off the boat). Sheesh

More dinged up paint on the port side

Swiss Cheese from all the holes the fabricator drilled…and note the scratched paint

More Swiss cheese…too many holes!

Also in the pic above, note the chip in the brand new Awlgrip paint that would be visible above the windshield frame. The fabricator’s proposed solution: “Cover it with urethane sealant.”

Sheesh…whatever happened to “American quality?”

We’ll see if Boatamalan skills and an amateur American boat refitter can put some quality back into the job. 😉

The repair process begins with blue mold release tape and a grinder to knock down high spots

Same on the starboard side

Blue mold release tape on the frame

Blue mold release tape covering the top and bottom contact areas of the frame

Heavyweight fiberglass will fill the gaps

Wetting out the fiberglass fabric

Epoxy fairing compound tops the frame to fill in any imperfections, followed by wetted out ‘glass

The fairing compound is the same homemade stuff we used when we faired the cabintop. It’s epoxy thickened with a 70/30 mix of 3M glass bubbles and cabosil.

Top the first layer with more fairing compound and another layer of ‘glass

Areas with big gaps get a 3rd layer

Top the layers of fiberglass with another layer of fairing compound

Fairing compound on the lower frame landing will fill the gaps there

Ready to slide up in place and fasten

 

Nice fit at the top starboard corner

Good fit along the bottom

Looking good at the uprights

On the inside, no more high spots

Huge gaps? What huge gaps?

Good contact all the way across the top

100% contact all the way across the top and bottom should eliminate pressure points that are prone to cracking

With the sticky epoxy dripping everywhere, we slowly backed away from the helm station and let everything cure. Time will tell if the plan works… 😉

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Helm Station Windshield III

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fillets On The Hard Top

Breaking open the Awlgrip paint job was tough, but it was the best way to resolve the problem caused by thieves stealing my drip rails (and a lot of other stuff) back in May 2014. With the paint ground back on the joint between the top and bottom halves of the hard top, and new fiberglass and fairing compound laid over the joint, next we sanded the fairing compound and used fillets to smooth the edge.

First, sand down the fairing compound

The great thing about hot-coating home made epoxy fairing compound over fresh fiberglass is that you don’t have to get itchy twice. Sanding the fairing compound is much easier than grinding on fresh fiberglass (thereby weakening it) and applying fairing compound over that.

Gotta love fillets

Awlfair is a great product for fillet work. And on this project, we’ve done lots of fillets.

Later that day, after the Awlfair kicked, we sanded the fillets smooth

Next day, we taped off the boat and sprayed Awlquik

Bad lighting, good fillet

Without a drip rail, rain will tend to drip from all over the hard top, but I’m OK with that. One thing I’ve noticed is that boats with drip rails tend to get very nasty drip lines at the spot where all the rain drips off. This may not be a problem with boats outside of urban areas, but mine will definitely be an urban boat, and all of the dust that settles on the boat and gets washed off by rain will be evenly distributed now that I don’t have a drip rail.

That’s my theory, and I’m stickin’ with it. Gotta see a bright side in this whole theft thing somehow… 🙂

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Helm Station Windshield Frame

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Aft Deck Hard Top (again)

Back in May 2014, my boat project suffered an enormous setback when bastard thieves broke in and cleaned out my tools, all of the materials they could carry, and a bunch of brand new and classic Chris Craft parts. Included in the  Chris Craft parts they grabbed were aluminum extrusions for the windshield and the drip rail that goes around the aft deck hard top. I assume they grabbed them for scrap value, along with a bunch of chromed bronze pieces. At the time, aluminum was getting $0.78/lbs at the scrap yard, so the bastard thieves ended up with $50 worth of aluminum for their trouble. After months of searching, I was able to find the original foundry that extruded these parts for Chris Craft. The good news was that they still had the dies. The bad news was that they only do runs of 600 pounds at a cost of $16,000 each, and there were a half dozen different extrusions total that were stolen. 6 x $16,000 = oy vey.

So I spent  a lot of time trying to figure out how to replace items that were economically irreplaceable. I came up with a plan for the windshield and a fabricator who said he could do it. Unfortunately, that didn’t end up as well as I’d hoped (though I haven’t given up hope on that just yet). On the drip rail, after trying to come up with alternatives in wood, PVC, and other materials, I finally decided to go with what I know works and will give the best long-term bang for the buck: fiberglass, fillets, and AwlCraft 2000 Matterhorn white.

$16,000 extrusion made of unobtainium

One thing the drip rail did was clamp together the top and bottom halves of the hard top. The edge between the two is relatively unfinished, so without a cap on it it’s pretty ugly.

First tape off the whole boat, then grind off the brand new Awlgrip paint.

Grinding off that brand new paint was maybe the most difficult thing I’ve done on this project. I mean, except for one day when I converted the tent, this paint job has never seen the sun. It was perfect…no bugs, no runs, nice flow…my Boatamalan painter really did a nice job.

In the pic above, you can see the remains of some of the silicon-bronze screws Chris Craft used to attach the drip rail to the two halves of the hard top, holding it all together. Many of the screws broke off when we removed the drip rail in preparation for the paint job back in 2013. The remains of the bronze screws will soon get entombed in epoxy, so I’m not concerned about removing them.

Joint prep looks good

The joint is covered with epoxy thickened with wood flour

After wetting out the surface with straight epoxy, the epoxy thickened with wood flour fills screw holes and other imperfections in the original hard top, giving the fiberglass layer that’s coming next a smooth surface to adhere to.

Wood flour

The under-side of the hard top joint is ready for the fiberglass layer

Wetted out fiberglass gets applied over the joint

It was difficult getting the ‘glass to lay down on the top because of the relatively sharp turn it has to take from the bottom to the top of the joint. But we kept pushing it down in contact with the epoxy on the hard top until it started to cure. Once it was good and tacky, the fiberglass layer stayed put. Then, before it cured too far, we hot-coated it with fairing compound made of epoxy thickened with 3M glass bubbles and cabosil in a 70/30 ratio.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fillets On The Hard Top

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Transforming the Tent (once again)

Back in May 2014, some lousy bastards came on my boat in the middle of the night and cleaned me out. They took practically every tool I owned. They grabbed all of the materials on the boat, including gallons of epoxy, cases of tape and sandpaper, leftover Awlgrip products from the paint job. And they took all of the parts that weren’t bolted down, including new stainless strainers, shaft couplers, the stuffing boxes, and other parts I needed to complete the installation of my Cummins engines. The also took OE Chris Craft parts that haven’t been made in many decades, like all of the chromed bronze pieces on the exterior and various aluminum extrusions. My guess is that the metal went to the recyclers, since bronze was worth ~$2.70/lbs in May 2014 and aluminum was around 80 cents a pound

Fortunately, between my homeowner’s and boat insurance policies, everything was covered except for my rather large deductibles. Because there were two insurance companies involved, there were two claims, so I got stuck with deductibles for both. Still, given the magnitude of the loss, I’m very glad to have had insurance. I replaced all of the tools over the course of several months last year; my homeowner insurance provider was very quick in settling the claim. The boat insurance provider was a bit more challenging because I had trouble completing the claim. The new parts were easy enough to document and provide replacement prices for, but the OE parts were very difficult, especially the aluminum extrusions for the windshield frame and the drip rail around the hard top.

I eventually decided to have  fabricator make a new windshield frame, and he got started on that back in October 2014. He’s still not done with it though, and I’m once again getting nervous about my choice of a fabricator. The drip rail was more challenging, but we finally came up with a solution that involves breaking open the brand new Awlgrip paint on the hardtop and applying fiberglass to the unfinished seam of the hardtop perimeter.

Since we’re back to doing paint work, Tent Model X, which over years of trial and error (some of which were monstrosities) has become the best and most versatile boat shed/paint booth in the universe ;-), needs to once again be converted to a paint booth.

Dawn breaks on Tent Model X — survivor of the brutal winter of 2014-15

It ain’t pretty, but it’s perfectly functional.

Off with the old shrink wrap top

The battens (wooden strips secured with screws) at the seams and at regular intervals around the outside are  the key to a large shrink wrap tent that can take abuse.

Take off only what’s necessary and leave the rest untouched

Next, bump out the sides and raise the top frames

Bump out the sides far enough to make stable scaffolding part of the structure

Lift the new plastic up, up, UP over the top frames

Add additional lumber frames as necessary

The better the fit, the stronger the structure

Ditto for the stbd side

As the sun sets, don’t forget to add padding to every corner the plastic will contact

Some time around midnight, the new top plastic is on, battened, and shrunk

Done

Actually, not done. Before leaving for the night, I reset all of the passive infrared motion sensors and motion-activated video cameras in and around the tent (just in case the thief bastards come back), then set the alarm and went home.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Galley Bulkhead