1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Painting the Galley Window Openings

The last week has been so hot, I didn’t even bother going to the tent. When it’s 80° outside, it’s near 100 in the tent. When it’s near 100° outside…forget about it.

But before it got scorching hot, the painter came out and finished painting the galley window opening crack repair. He also fixed a small crack that I noticed at the salon entryway.

Waaaaay back when we did the fiberglass work on the helm dashboard, this corner of the salon entryway was in pretty bad shape. The guys fiberglassed over the joint between the top of the mahogany panel and the vertical surface where the crack appeared. It looked like maybe the crack telegraphed through from that joint.

It looked pretty rough in 2013

Fiberglassed and topped with fairing compound back in 2013

Fast forward to 2019, and there was a crack that needed fixing. So the painter ground the area down, v-ed out the crack, wetted it out with epoxy and filled with wood flour-thickened epoxy. Then he put a small piece of fiberglass over the area he’d ground down.

There was a small crack there

Next day…looks pretty good!

No crack!

With the crack repaired, I can finally install the mahogany fascia boards here.

I entered the salon to find two mini spray booths

No cracks!

That’s much better

Nice!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Safety Rails

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: 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: The Big 2018 Nor’easter Whooped Tent Model XXX

The title of this article pretty much says it all. As I described years ago in A Celebration (and condemnation) of Tents!, on a project like this you’ve got to build a strong structure from the get-go or waste a bunch of time, like I did, fixing shredded tarps and tents. Tent Model XXX was the result of many, many tent failures, and it held up even to direct hits from thunderstorms, hurricanes, and snow storms that dumped 20″. But the winds from the 2018 Nor-easter proved to be a bit too much. Several roof frames broke, then the broken bits slammed over and over again into my brand new Awlgrip paint that has only been directly exposed to sunlight twice since we finished that part of the project.

The first sign of trouble was the aft tent frame leaning up against the hardtop

Normally that upright frame is at least six inches from the aft edge of the hardtop. It had moved forward and the plywood gusset rubbed back and forth against the edge of the hardtop roof.

The next sign of trouble was the broken 1-1/2″ PVC pipe frames

The leaves on the deck were surprising, too.

What a mess

 

Scratches on the cabin top paint and leaves that blew in through the open top

More cabin top scratches

Chunks of shattered 2×4

Holy smokes

The shot above is from the bow seat looking forward. See how the tent center backbone support on the blanket is off-set to the port side? See how the big, front-most upright frame member is also off-set from the centerline where the two mahogany toe rail sections meet at the pointy stem of the boat? Yeah, well, I centered the forward upright when I last reskinned the tent. The Nor-easter pushed the nose of the structure about eight inches to the southeast. I believe that’s what pulled the aft frame on the starboard side forward until it came into contact with the hardtop.

More broken frames and roof punctures

Another broken frame and the scratches it caused to the paint

Abraided powder coating on the new windshield frame

There’s so much dirt and PVC debris on the glass, I can’t tell if it’s scratched or not.

Oh….man

The frame broke here, and a 3″ deck screw that secured the vent fan remained in the part that was still attached to the tent structure on the NW side. The wind pummeled that side hardest, and the PVC pipe whipped back and forth, over and over again, driving the tip of that screw into the paint like an icepick on steroids.

More than a square foot of destroyed paint

The leading edge is ripped up deep into the fiberglass

Looks like somebody took a pneumatic needle scaler to it

Tent backbone over the hardtop was broken

Top side of the hardtop is also beat up at the front

Once I finished surveying the extent of the damage, I went and got some paid helpers and set to work pulling down broken frames and cutting the ends square. With the frames out of the way, the tent top skin was flapping around pretty badly in the gusty leftovers of the Nor’easter. But that allowed me to adjust the rearmost frame and pull it off of the hardtop.

Rear frame is back where it should be

The plywood gusset got scraped away pretty well

The hardtop back edge took a beating

The hardtop is a clamshell…there’s a top and a bottom half, and they join together at this edge. The plywood gusset rubbed away 1/4″ of paint, primer, fairing compound, and fiberglass. The damage is extensive enough that, by the end of post-Nor’easter cleanup, Day One, I realized I’m going to have to make an insurance claim.

QUICK UPDATE: I have to say, Lynn at Heritage Marine Insurance (lynn@heritagemarineinsurance.com) and Chubb have treated me very well.

This is killing me. I was just talking to somebody a week ago who asked if I was splashing this year. I explained that I might if I can keep up the pace. But, I said, it’s been a few years since the last disaster hit my Roamer project–when the rat bastard thieves cleaned me out–and these things seem to happen on a cycle. I was joking but…when am I gonna learn not to tempt fate???

The following morning, I picked up a bunch of PVC pipe couplers and we got busy cutting and gluing new sections in.

Frames are patched

Aft backbone restored

4″ shrink tape patches the tears

Dr. Frankenstein would be proud

I need a whole new top skin. But with the gusts still blowing, there’s no way to do it. Patches will have to hold for a while. Since shrink wrap tape doesn’t stick long to dirty old plastic, these patches won’t last long.

Vent fan reinstalled

I found the vent fan assembly halfway across the boatyard. It was in surprisingly good shape. After patching up the shredded top skin around the opening, I reinstalled the fan.

End of post-Nor-easter cleanup, Day 2

The top skin has practically no tension, so it really gets to flapping when there are gusts. I know from experience that flapping plastic doesn’t last long. But it’s March, so it’s too windy to put a new top skin on and it will be for a while. I may try my luck re-tensioning the shrink wrap with the heat gun again. But I’ve found that debris, even dust, on used shrink wrap has a bad habit of superheating, popping holes in the plastic and even causing it to catch fire instead of shrinking. That’s the last thing I need to have happen. Also, as I’ve said before, reskinning the tent is young man’s work. I think I’m going to have to turn this over to the pros.

This is one of those times when I really, really, really regret having ever started this refit project. That said…

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: More Salon Plywood Panels

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Paint Repair

While working on the V-berth joinery, I’ve been getting up close and personal with the porthole openings there. And the more I saw, the more I didn’t like.

It turns out that when the guys sandblasted the exterior, they didn’t do a stellar job on the porthole openings. The fairing crew did a reasonable clean-up on the flat surfaces of the aft porthole openings, and I’d cleaned up all of the aft stateroom porthole edges and primed them with AwlGrip Max Cor CF before painting. But we all screwed the pooch on the ones in the V-berth, and it was starting to show.

Ancient corrosion on the edges

That discoloration on the porthole opening edge is aluminum oxide, and it’s the last thing you want to see creeping under new paint. A rotary tool with a sanding drum cleaned up the edge just fine.

More ancient corrosion

That paint just popped off.

Sanding it back to solid aluminum

The entire edge in this area was thick with corrosion, and a bubble extended 1-1/2″ under the new paint. As I was sanding it back to where there was no more corrosion, I found orange barrier coat under the Awlgrip primer, and corrosion under the orange coat. Which means that was more ancient corrosion from before the boat was sandblasted. Everybody just missed these spots.

Filler in the round porthole opening…and what appears to be a crack on the right edge

There’s supposed to be a step all the way around this opening for the porthole to fit into. But the fairing crew loaded it full of filler and never cleaned up the excess on the inside. As it is in the picture, there’s no way to install the porthole with that excess filler there. The closer I looked, the more it appeared as if there’s a crack in the paint.

Sanding it back very carefully

Still looking for the aluminum step edge, and I’m getting closer to the crack

Just a bit more and I’ll be at the thing that sure looks like a little crack

 

HELLO!

As soon as the sanding drum hit the edge of what looked like a crack, the filler popped off, confirming that it was, in fact, a crack. The corrosion here wasn’t too bad, but it definitely would have spread once the boat is put into service.

The starboard side isn’t as bad

But there was corrosion under OE orange barrier coat right at the step

Cleaned up and ready for primer

Max Cor CF coats the aluminum and seals the paint edge

Done!

Dry fitting the porthole

That looks great with the porthole dry fitted. There are a few spots where the Matterhorn white exterior paint needs to be touched up, and we’ll spray blue in these spots at the same time. I hope to have that done this fall, once the temperature drops to a more reasonable level. By then, the V-berth joinery should be done and the room will get sanded with 320 grit and sprayed with ICA top coat. Then it will be ready for the final porthole installation.

It was unfortunate that I had to dig into the paint, but it’s better to find it now than to have much bigger trouble years down the road.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Even More V-berth Cabinetry III

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Painting the Throne Room (AKA the V-berth Head)

The V-berth head is finally painted. This has been a long time coming. It started with me taking measurements of the space and then working out the interior concept in 3D with the free version of Sketchup CAD software. Then I installed the galley bulkhead, which is also one of the main walls for the head. After getting the forward head wall installed, I applied spray foam insulation. And then, in March 2016, I finally dug in and made the walls, ceiling, and built-in cabinets, as well as the dais for the toilet. Along the way, I was insulating the back side of each panel to keep things more comfortable once the refit is done. Once the plumbing and electrical was done, I fiberglassed the ceiling panels  since the entire throne room will be a big shower room. Next, I took all the bits and pieces and assembled the whole thing, including installing the throne dais. The last wall panel got done next, followed by fairing and installing the ceiling panels. Then things got really serious when we fiberglassed the throne room walls and floor.  Fairing came after that, followed by fillets and priming with Awlquik. Then I made the mahogany cabinet moldings, sanded them and had my painter spray them with ICA clear before installing them. I installed some more moldings and finished the cabinet access panel, then my painter sprayed the last coats of Awlgrip 545 primer. And then…finally…after all that…we got another break from old man winter and got the final paint prep work done. All that was left was final wipe down and spray…and we now it’s done.

ISO 6-level clean room

We wiped down the sanded surfaces with Awlprep T0008 then did three passes with tack cloths to remove every hint of dust. Then I fired up the compressor and refrigerated air drier, flipped the air supply so the dried air goes through a Devilbiss QC3 filter before it hits the paint pressure pot. We suited up, donned booties and respirators, and flipped on the fume extractor. Then my Boatamalan* painter worked his magic while I kept the hoses from touching anything.

*Boatamalan: Noun. Joking portmanteau referring to my painter’s Central American origin (boat + Guatamalan). In fact, the Boatamalan is from Honduras, but Boatduras doesn’t roll off the tongue like Boatamalan does. 🙂

No longer an ISO 6 clean room

But dang…the paint sure is pretty.

The paint was still tacky when I took these pictures, so I was doing my best not to move the plastic too much. Using the window opening to duct air out via the fume extractor worked really well. The air was drawn in via the porthole openings on the opposite side, so the overspray evacuated nicely. Visibility was surprisingly good while the painter was spraying.

Good looking throne room!

Nice fillets…and how about that reflection!

Looks even better than the concept drawings!

“The Throne Room Plan”

There were a lot of steps along the way, but getting this paint work done is a huge leap forward. It’s the last of the interior Awlgrip work. Everything else will be naturally finished mahogany sprayed with ICA clear. So now, I can convert the salon from the fiberglass and paint prep area it’s been since the spring of 2016 into a wood shop. I really look forward to cutting the mahogany wall panels for the V-berth. But first, it’s time to wrap up the exhaust system.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Finishing the Exhaust Riser Installation

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Final Sanding the V-berth Head

Old man winter must be on a Caribbean cruise or something. It hasn’t been warm per se, but it’s been quite a bit warmer than in the last few years. Good riddance to that El Niño cycle! We needed two relatively warm days in a row to get the V-berth head sanded and painted, and the weather gods have delivered. Time to knock this thing out.

Awlgrip 545 primer is ready for sanding\

We sprayed the 545 with a rattle can black guide coat, then went at it with 220 grit and 320 grit Mirka Abranet.

Makin’ dust!

Done sanding…time to clean up

Sanded and ready for masking

Shower basin fillets look good

Throne dais turned out nice

Doorway and ceiling fillets will look good painted and shiny

Ready to spray

I use 3M 233 tape with rolls of 99″ plastic masking film to seal up the space and protect everything from overspray. On the floor, I use Cover Guard Surface Protection. We also taped a layer of Cover Guard to the inside of the fume extractor duct that’s secured to the porthole opening. The inside of the duct is full of Awlquik and 545 primer overspray and also sanding dust, and we don’t want that blowing back into the throne room when the painter hits it with the spray gun.

Taped up and ready to spray

Once we’re suited up and ready to paint, we’ll use tape to secure the plastic flap at the door closed. Fresh air will come through the porthole openings on the port side. This should give us great air flow to get overspray out of the space we’re painting.

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Painting the ‘Throne Room’

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Dry Fitting the Mahogany Safety Rails

With the bow safety rail dry fitted, next I need to dry fit the mahogany safety rails that go down both sides of the boat. While putting it all together, I found more clues about the rough history of this formerly abused boat. Those clues also add more challenges to getting the boat reassembled and ready to splash.

The stainless bow safety rail is dry fitted

Nice chromed bronze rail parts

Nylon spacers to protect the chrome

I sanded down 1/4″ nylon washers to make the spacers.

The spacers have a snug fit in the hole

Next, I started to install the chromed bronze tops for the stanchions. The stanchion bases were stolen back in 2014 when the bastard thieves burglarized the tent, but the stainless upright pipes were under the boat in a bucket. The stanchion pipe tops were, I believe, original.

Original stanchion top screw holes on the underside of the safety rail

Turns out the chromed bronze stanchion tops aren’t a uniform shape

I had to go through the stanchion tops one-by-one to find the specific one that fit each of the original holes. There are 20 stanchions, with two possible orientations for each stanchion top. I spent quite a bit of time figuring out which ones go where before deciding it really doesn’t matter. The toe rail is new, and the mahogany doesn’t care where I drill holes. It had also become clear that at least some of the stanchions had been relocated before.

Each stanchion top gets the set screw hole threads cleaned before attaching

I plan to just fill the original screw holes in the old mahogany with epoxy and wood flour. You can see two old bungs on the right of the pic above, so this rail has had holes filled before. They’re not perfect, so I’m not going to try to reuse screw holes that are very likely stripped out anyway.

Another thing worth noting in the pic above is the threads on the stainless pipe. The threads aren’t full depth, and they’re not the full length that 3/4″ NPT threads should be. Strange…

More strangeness…two stanchion pipes have no threads

The chromed bronze stanchion bases have 3/4″ NPT threads at the bottom, into which the pipes thread. The bases also have two set screws to lock the pipes in position. But two of the pipes have no threads at all, and they are shorter than the rest by the length of the threads. I have no idea why Chris Craft would have done this.

Pipe tops are inconsistent

Most of the pipe tops have been ground down, but not all. It turns out there are two different styles of stanchion tops on this boat, one is sized for 3/4″ pipe and has a 1.05 opening (3/4″ pipe has a 1.050″ OD). The other is sized for 1″ tubing and has a .996 opening. The pipe with the partial threads three pix up is actually 1″ tube (not pipe), with a .995 OD. The two stanchion tops in the pic above fit snugly over the 1.050″ OD pipe. All of the other pipes have had material crudely removed (with a grinder?) from the top to resize them down so they’ll fit in the tubing stanchion tops with the .996 ID. So, either Chris Craft was randomly pulling parts off the shelf to get this boat out the door, or something funky is going on.

Either way, I’ve got to keep moving forward. Time to cut some holes.

Start each hole with the centering drill in place to keep the saw from moving around

Remove the drill and complete sawing each hole

Chisel out the wood

In the pic above, you can just see the dimple caused by the tip of the centering drill.

Remove all of the wood to make a roughly flat bottom

Repeat the process three times, then lift the safety rail into place and secure it from the tent rafters.

The forward port safety rail is dry fitted

Attaching stanchion tops to the aft port safety rail

Getting ready to lift the aft port safety rail into place

1, 2, 3…lift!

The aft-most stanchion goes just in front of the helm door opening

It’s been nine long years since these safety rails have been on the boat, and they were in pretty rough condition in late 2007 when the refit began. For a minute there, I was real happy to see the old parts sitting where Chris Craft intended (albeit hanging from the tent rafters with string). But then, I attached the stanchion pipes and…more strangeness.

What the…?

The pipes are hanging at an angle free and clear of the toe rail…not even close to lining up.

Gad…the safety rail is twisted, especially in the center

You gotta be kidding!

What was never apparent when the mahogany rails were on the concrete floor in my garage, or on the side decks, or even in the spray booth when we sanded them before coating with West System epoxy and the 207 special hardener was that this one rail had pretty bad twist. It only became apparent when I attached it to the boat and started putting the stanchions on. Coupled with the stanchions that used tubing rather than pipe, and the mixed up stanchion tops, this just adds to the mystery of how this boat came to be this way. A twisted safety rail is one more headache I didn’t need. But it’s not a headache I have to deal with right now. Either way, the stanchion bases need to be dry fitted and all of the holes drilled before I can seal all of the exposed wood with epoxy and get ready for the final sprayed coats of DuPont MS1 clearcoat. Gotta stay focused on the priority of getting the spray painting done as soon as possible.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Dry Fitting the Starboard Mahogany Safety Rail

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: “Throne Room” Fillets & Primer

It was brutally hot this last weekend, so I didn’t go to work on the Roamer. On Sunday, we took our other boat up to Three Sisters on the Potomac north of Georgetown in DC. It was a great way to spend the day. The water was perfect. The weather was great. The day ended with two nasty thunderstorms, one to the north and the other to the south, that made the sunset one of the best I’ve seen.

Oh, but we did get the fillets and Awlquik primer done in the Throne Room, too.

Pacemaker 42 & Chris Craft Commander 42, with the Washington Monument off in the distance

My 1968 Commander 42

Memorial Bridge and Roslyn, VA at sunset

The thunderstorm clouds to the north and the light from the setting sun made for a great view on the way home.

Washington Monument lit up by the setting sun

Panoramic shot looking back at Memorial Bridge (full size)

In the full size panoramic shot, you can see Arlington Cemetery on the left, then Roslyn, Georgetown dead center, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument all the way over on the right. That view was a nice treat at the end of a super relaxing day on the water.

But before all of this happened, we also got the fillets and primer done during a break between heat waves after sanding the fairing compound.

Fillets in the Throne Room

Fillets all around, including the ceiling

With no exposed hard inside corners, this wet head (bathroom = shower room) will avoid the mold and mildew problems that can happen in the corners. The fillets will also help shower spray and condensation find its way to the floor drain. Plus…I just like fillets. 🙂

Bulkhead wall

No fillet where the cabinet will go

Fillets are done

A day or two later, we came back, sanded the fillets, then sprayed Awlquik primer.

Now THAT’s a good lookin’ throne dais

Shower floor pan

The Throne Room

Ready for sanding

We’ve still got a heat wave going on, so progress will continue to be slow. I’ll probably take our Commander our a few more times before the season ends, too. But it’s good to see the Throne Room coming together. Once we get a break from the heat, we’ll sand the Awlquik, spray 545 primer, then sand to 320 grit and spray the Awlgrip Eggshell topcoat. But first, I need to make moldings for the door and cabinet openings using some of that beautiful solid mahogany I’ve got. But before I can do that, I need to set up a better woodworking shop.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Expanding the Woodworking Shop

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Building a Fume Extractor & Paint Filter Box

The scorching heat and humidity of summer has settled in to the Mid-Atlantic region, and it’s absolutely miserable in the tent. But I’ve got lots of things to cover that have been going on for the last month or two, including some work on the V-berth head. Before we could get started on the fiberglass, fairing, and primer there, I needed to do something about dust and pain overspray control.

When we painted the boat before, my Boatamalan* painter brought a beat up fume extractor fan and filter box from work. Unfortunately, the fume extractor was tired and would trip its overheat protection after about 20 minutes of use. The hose was also tired and didn’t seal well at either end. The filter box wasn’t too bad, but they used a hinged door design for changing the filters and it leaked a lot. When spraying Awlgrip 545 and topcoat, these problems caused at least one overspray incident that had to be polished out in a small spot on the aft deck enclosure. So I bought a new 12″ fume extractor with a 20′ hose and built a filter box that I believe will keep the spray on the inside.

* Boatamalan: Noun. Joking portmanteau referring to the Central American origin of the fairing and paint crew (boat + Guatemalan). In fact, the Boatamalans are from Honduras, but Boatduras doesn’t roll off the tongue like Boatamalan does.

Laugh all you like…the danged thing works!

Using scrap 1/4″ luan plywood, I built a duct that just fits inside the rectangular porthole in the V-berth head. I used cleats to secure the top and bottom plywood panels to the upright parts. To ensure no leakage, I clamped leftover shrink wrap between the cleats and plywood before screwing it together, so the entire interior is lined with plastic sheet.

Nylon strapping secures the plastic to the fan inlet

It’s not pretty, but when I hit the switch it moves a lot of air through the head.

Oh, and before putting the assembly together I also took the fan guards off and applied lots of car wax to the inside of the fan. When the sticky primer and paint spray comes through the fan, it will build up on the wax instead of directly to the fan blade and housing. This is a trick the Boatamalan taught me. Without the wax, the primer and paint spray builds up into a solid mass that can’t be removed easily. The weight of the build-up and its tendency to be out of balance is what took out the older fume extractor, and it restricts air flow through the inlet fan grill. When the inside is waxed, the build-up just pops off. Then you re-wax, reassemble, and get back to work.

Looking through the porthole & inside the duct

I taped up the porthole to protect the new (2-year old!) paint, then secured a layer of plastic over the tape for added protection. The shrinkwrap duct liner wraps around the outside of the duct opening, creating a surprisingly good seal to the plastic that’s protecting the paint. The 12″ fume extractor moves so much air that even if there is a leak, it will be sucking air from the outside into the duct.

A 5-gallon bucket is the perfect hose nipple

On the Boatamalan’s filter box, they used a sheet of flexible nylon wrapped into a cylinder to join the hose to the box. It wasn’t leak-proof at all. So I decided to use something cylindrical off-the-shelf and far cheaper than nylon sheet.  The diameter of this 5-gallon was just the right size for the 12″ hose, and the ridges they put around the top of buckets will act like the ridges on a hose nipple to keep the high volume, pressurized dust and spray inside the extractor/filter system.

The hose runs along the scaffolding

I built two sliding door vents in the tent wall so the end of the hose can be directed outside. One is close to the fume extractor and allows the hose to go all the way to the ground, where the filter box will be. We’ll use that one when spraying primer and paint. In the pic above, you can just see the second plywood sliding door on the lower right side of the pic. This is all the way at the other end of the hose and will be used without the paint filter box when we just want to keep air moving through the space. It’s hot in the tent during the summer! Air movement is good!

Duct & hose connected to fume extractor fan

The pic above reminds me of the sequence in the movie Apollo 13, where NASA cobbled together all kinds of bits and pieces to make a jury-rigged carbon filter that saved the lives of the astronauts. Maybe I have a future at NASA as a master jury-rigger! 🙂

Seriously though, the sealing strap that came with the hose isn’t bad, but for paint fumes it doesn’t seal well enough. So I used some of the exhaust hose clamps from the twin turbocharged and intercooled Super SeaMaster gas engines that were in the boat when we found it to clamp the hose to the housing. Then I taped the end of the hose to the housing, just in case.

I also wired up a switched plug so the fume extractor can be activated from inside the V-berth. I’ll leave the switch on the unit ON, so all we have to do his hit the switch inside and get to work rather than strolling around the scaffolding to turn it on and off.

Hopefully, a dust and spray-proof connection

That’s a wrap for the dust and fume extractor. All in, that took a day and a half. Then I got to work on the filter box.

Filter box with plywood sliding door

Built from 6mm luan plywood screwed together with solid wood cleats where the panels join, the bulk filter material presses against the chicken wire outside. For the sliding door frame, I used a dado to cut a 1/4″ (6.35mm) slot in scrap 2x4s that the plywood slides in. The plywood door inner face comes within 1/32 of the top panel, which makes a pretty good seal, but then I added a full-width handle across the top of the door panel that effectively seals it to the top panel when closed.

Filter box sliding door is practically leak-proof

Unlike the little hinged door on the other filter box, this one will not leak and it’s big enough for a man to get inside if necessary to easily install new filters.

Chicken wire holds the bulk filter media in place

I secured the bottom of the inner chicken wire so up to three layers of bulk filter media can be used to ensure that absolutely no overspray gets past the filters. The chicken wire is attached at the top to a 1″ x 1″ wooden dowel that latches in place to secure the filter.

5-gallon bucket “hose nipple” is glued and screwed in place

After cutting  out most of the bottom of the bucket, I cut a matching hole in the plywood filter box then applied Sikaflex and screwed the two together. Scrap 3/4″ plywood strengthens the area and a matching piece of 3/4″ ply on the inside gives the screws plenty of meat to bite into. That hose nipple isn’t going anywhere, and it’s guaranteed leak-proof. We’re ready to make dust and fumes!

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Back to the V-berth Head (AKA the Throne Room)