1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Completing the Bow Seat Window Installation

With two out of three mahogany panels installed for the galley/bow seat windows, next I wrapped up installing the center window and the port panel and window.

Center and starboard bow seat windows are installed

The boat’s filthy!

Once the outside is waterproof, I plan to wash the whole thing. Gotta get the windows in first.

Glue and clamp the port panel in place

2×4 pushes the edge tight to the side mahogany panel

Next day, off come the clamps and in goes the window for a test fit

Nice fit at the corner [pats self on back 🙂 ]

I’m a weekend warrior woodworker, so making these panels fit–with all of the angles and bevels–was a huge challenge. Fortunately, it turned out pretty good. After the way things have gone with most of the highly paid professionals on this refit, it feels good when a rookie like me does a better job than the pros.

Blow off the dust and get ready to install the window

Taped off and ready to install

Alcohol cleans the sealing surfaces, Sikaflex 291 LOT is the sealant, and I used some leftover Awlgrip T0170 Surface Cleaner to clean up any caulk residue that remains after I pull the tape.

Center opening window is a very cool feature.

Motion Windows design is outstanding. I really like the center opening windows, and the fact that there are no exterior fasteners or holes to let in water. It’s too bad they consistently oversize the windows so they don’t fit in the window openings, and Motion’s unprofessional response to my complaint about oversizing should serve as a warning to anybody planning to purchase from them.

Et voila! Done!

It’s great to finally have the bow seat windows and interior mahogany panels installed, especially with winter coming. And this winter looks like it’s going to be a whopper. Temps in the Mid-Atlantic region have been very warm in December, just like they were in 2003 when we first moved to the area. If the pattern holds, I expect that around the second week of January temps will drop below freezing and stay there for a month, though it hopefully won’t be as brutally cold as it was last year. We’ve had a few mornings that dropped below freezing, and I can already tell there’s a huge benefit from the spray foam insulation I installed earlier this year. So the cold won’t be an issue; the bigger concern is snow.

The boat explosion next door in July 2015 shredded my tent shrink wrap film and broke some of the tent frames in addition to blowing out a window and damaging my brand new Awlgrip paint. Tent Model X has been awesome–a vast improvement over Tent Models I through XI–and it was tough enough to survive Hurricane Sandy unscathed. But there’s no way post-explosion Tent Model X  can hold up to the roof loads of a snow storm, and I’ve got to re-make the scaffolding so the paint damage can be fixed. Which means I’m back in the tent-making business…

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Tent Model XXX

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Spraying “the Shiny” in the Aft Head

It’s been a long road getting to this point, but we finally have shiny Awlgrip sprayed in the aft head. The first step was installing the aft head walls. Then I had to install overhead wall panels in preparation for the spray foam insulation. To make a “unit bath,” with no seams between the wall panels, bulkheads, or ceiling, we fiberglassed and faired the walls. I also had to make moldings and the solid mahogany door pocket. The overhead light wiring had to get done next, then we fiberglassed in the ceiling panels. Fillets, sanding, priming with Awlquik, sanding, and final priming with Awlgrip 545 came next. And that brings us to today, when we spray the eggshell Awlgrip paint.

Awlgrip 545 primer is final sanded with 320 grit

Good lookin’ fillets…ready for the shiny

Shiny!

Very nice fillets, if I do say so myself

Great reflection

The cleats that meet in this corner will support the jet bathtub

A jet bath was one of the missus’ “must have” requirements for the boat. The tub is up against the far wall, next to the hull. I’ll work on installing it and start on the cabinetry over the 2015~16 winter.

Big 12″ fume extractor sucked the overspray out

The plastic is all removed in the pic above, but the whole aft stateroom was taped off, turning the head into its own spray booth. With the big fume extractor running, there was no overspray anywhere. The 20′ hose went up the aft stateroom hatch hole and connected to a big filter box. You can smell the thinner outside the filter box, but no particulates come through.

The corners turned out nicely, too

Door opening moldings were epoxied in prior to primer and paint

By installing the prefinished moldings before priming and painting, we’re able to fully seal the joint between the wall panel and molding. Using this approach, water simply cannot affect that joint.

That’s a wrap for the aft head paint, which is great news. But my next article is not so great news. Or, more precisely, it’s a follow-up on some expensive parts I bought, the problems I discovered, and the manufacturer’s pathetic product support.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Do NOT buy Globe Drivesavers

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Prepping the Aft Head for Paint

The aft head ceiling panels are installed, so the next step involves sanding everything down, final fairing, and priming.

After sanding the fillets, we sprayed Awlquik

Fillets look good!

Rattle can black guide coat helps make the fillets uniform

Next, we sprayed Awlgrip 545 primer

Fillets look better at each step!

Ready for final sanding

We’ll let the 545 cure overnight, then hit it with 320 grit before taping everything off and spraying the eggshell Awlgrip shiny.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Spraying “the Shiny” in the Aft Head

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: Sparkly Shiny Helm Windshield Frame

It’s nice when I make actual progress on this boat. Since the windshield frame extrusions and a bunch of other stuff were stolen by bastard thieves back in May 2014, a lot of what I’ve been doing has been playing catch-up, trying to get back to where I was before the burglars cleaned me out. Before the theft, I had spent a bunch of time, money, and effort getting the original windshield back into good condition.  I’d made the last of the new connector pieces and machined and welded together a new opening center windshield, since the original had been removed by a previous owner and replaced with a sheet of acrylic plastic. All I had to do was reassemble the windshield frame and install it…but then half of the extrusions were stolen. So I had to rebuild the tent into a spray booth (again) and do some fiberglass and fairing work all around the hardtop, since the thieves took my drip rails, too. I eventually got a new windshield frame welded together, though the fit wasn’t quite as good as it needed to be. So that necessitated breaking open my brand new Awlgrip paint job to modify the hardtop and cabin top to fit the new windshield frame. All of this effort wasn’t really making progress, it was just getting me back to where I was the day before the thieves ripped me off.

Well…I’ve now gotten past that point (on the windshield frame, at least). In the whirl of activity to get the windshield primed and painted, I forgot to snap pix along the way. But the frame got a couple coats of Awlgrip Max Cor CF aluminum primer. We sanded that and gave it a couple coats of Awl Grip 545 primer, then final sanded that with 320 grit and basically turned the aft deck into  a spray booth. The new windshield frame is all sparkly and shiny!

et voila! Shiny!

Check out that reflection!

The paint is surprisingly dirt and blemish-free

What looks like hazy nastiness in the pic above is actually the reflection of the plastic walls of the “spray booth,” perfectly reflected in the mirror-like finish of the paint. My Boatamalan painter has got serious skills when it comes to laying down Awlgrip.

Sparkly black metallic Awl Grip

The metallic black is subtle inside the tent…I wonder what it’ll look like out in the sun?

Shiny on the interior side, too

Spray booth disassembled in 3 minutes flat

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

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: Aft Stateroom Head Walls

I installed the aft stateroom bulkhead and main walls back in March and April, which was one of many big things that must happen if we’re going to splash the Roamer in the fall of 2015. The windshield saga may put a hitch in that plan, but I’m going full steam ahead on other things while I work on a resolution for the windshield problems.

After getting the aft stateroom walls installed, my Boatamalan painter asked why I don’t make the aft head into a giant shower: basically, fiberglass and fair the walls and ceiling, then bond the ceiling to the overhead frames and fillet the corners. Then, prime and paint with Awlgrip. You end up with a monolithic room with no cracks or seams for water vapor to hide in and support mold. They do this on the showers in the multimillion dollar sportfishermen that the Boatamalan makes at Weaver Boatworks (his day job), though their showers are much smaller than my aft head. I figure what’s good enough for a multimillion dollar Weaver boat ought to be OK for a Chris Craft Roamer refit.

Expensive little pile of materials

1810 biaxial fiberglass, a roll of Floor Guard (the blue corrugated plastic), four rolls of masking film, a bucket of wood flour, a gallon or two of epoxy resin, hardner, and some fancy-schmancy filler…$1800. A small price to pay for a bathroom that’ll make the missus happy. By the time we add in the Awlquik, 545 primer, and Awlgrip top coat (in an off-white eggshell color), reducer, and catalyst, materials for the aft head total $2500.

This AlexSeal product is the only fairing compound to use in showers

The Boatamalan says other fillers–even Awlfair–can end up having problems years down the road in a shower application. The Alexseal product, while eye-poppingly expensive, is worth every penny since we’ll never have to do it again.

Roamer bathroom w/jet bath > Weaver multimillion dollar boat w/shower 🙂

The challenge is, we have to fiberglass, fair, prime, and paint in a small boat bathroom (relative to your average house bathroom) while the jet bathtub is in the space. Taping off the tub with Floor Guard and setting it up on end out of the way, the Boatamalan hit the bulkhead and walls with the sander. In retrospect, if we’d thought of this approach earlier, we should not have beautifully finished the interior walls of the head with ICA base coat clear. It all got turned to some very expensive dust in preparation for fiberglassing the walls.

Sanded with 36 grit and ready for epoxy and 1810 biaxial fabric

First layer of 1810 fabric applied at the top

Second band of 1810 applied down to the floor

Looks like a good place for fillets

I’m a big fan of fillets.

Skim coat of fairing compound

Once the epoxy was tacky, we hot-coated it with home-made fairing compound using the same epoxy and a 70/30 mix of microballoons and cabosil to a stiff, whipped cream consistency. We did this when fairing the exterior as well, since it puts a layer of fairing compound between the sand paper and the glass fibers in the FRP matrix when the fairing process begins. The strength of FRP is in the fibers, so not breaking them makes for a stronger finished product.

Bulkhead wall coated in fiberglass, epoxy, and fairing compound

That’s a wrap for Step One in the aft stateroom bathroom. I’ve described before the complex order of operations for this refit, where seemingly unrelated and even trivial stuff has to get done before a bigger thing can get done. The order of operations as of right this second is:

Sand walls
Apply Alexseal fairing compound (wait to cure)
Make ceiling panels (1/4″ marine ply, FRP & fair inside surface)
Insulate ceiling between frames (spray foam)
Sand Alexseal fairing compound smooth on walls
Install wiring for overhead lights
Epoxy back-side of ceiling panels and install (glue and screw to overhead frames, fiberglass joints, and fair)
Sand joints and make fillets
Sand & apply Awlquik
Sand Awlquik and apply 545 primer
Final sand 545 and spray Awlgrip topcoat in eggshell white

Since I’ll be spraying insulation to get the bathroom ready, I might as well do the rest of the boat, too. I’d like to have all of this done by July 1, when I plan to start on mechanical and get the engines finally installed. Busy, busy, busy…I need to quit my day  job! 🙂

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Head Walls II

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

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Bow Hatch…or not.

The short-term plan is to keep working toward splashing the boat this fall and bringing it around to my home port. I could get a lot of things done in the two hours I waste every time I commute to and from the Roamer. Though the propellers and shafts are installed, as are the rudders, it was too cold over the winter to even think about handling the engines and finishing up their installation. Instead, I’ve been focusing on getting major structural work done, like installing the aft stateroom walls. I’m also working on sealing up the exterior, which will include installing the bow hatch and windlass on the foredeck. I need to install the portholes in the V-berth and aft stateroom. But before I can install the windows, I have to install the interior wall panels around all of the porthole openings, since the panels fill a 1/4″ gap between the portholes when they’re fully installed and the window opening. And before I install those interior panels, I need to get spray foam insulation on the hull and underside of the decks. I’ll put polyester nonwoven fabric insulation on the back-side of every wooden interior panel that faces the hull to keep conditioned air on the inside of the boat. Somewhere along the way, I’ll install the engine beds, reposition the engines with the gantry, and get the engines hooked up.

But first, I need to get the boat weatherproof and that means the bow hatch has to get installed.

The 2×4 post that supports the “backbone” of the Tent Model X has to be relocated.

I never removed the stainless flashing around the hatch opening because I figured I’d get to it when I installed the hatch. The portion of the plywood I could see behind the headliner looked solid, so taking it apart just wasn’t a priority. Turns out it should have been.

Corrosion on the flashing…first sign of trouble

When I was removing the aluminum trim along the bottom of the stainless flashing, I could see that the aluminum was corroded but assumed that was just from condensation and exposure to dissimilar metal over the years. The rust on the stainless in the same areas had me a bit more concerned…and rightly so.

Houston, we have a problem.

My guess is that the sealant gave up a long time ago. Water wicked down the screws that fastened the hatch to the deck and destroyed the plywood below.

Completely rotten on one side, and solid on the other

You can easily tell where the screws leaked and where they didn’t. The problem now is that, in addition to the screws that fastened the hatch to the deck, there are screws around the perimeter of the opening that secure the plywood to the underside of the deck. When we faired the foredeck we went right over the top of those screws, which are now safely entombed in fairing compound, Awlquik, 545, and that beautiful Awlcraft Matterhorn white. If I jostle any of those screws, it could pop the fairing compound and paint loose, and that would be very bad. Time to prep for surgery.

First, I pulled down the rotten wood by the handful

Makita die grinder and a cutoff wheel ought to do the trick on the screws

Compromised plywood successfully removed

It turns out that Chris Craft used silicon bronze screws to fasten the plywood to the aluminum deck. That’s a recipe for a corrosion disaster that I won’t be repeating.

Another rotten corner, but with solid wood on either side

Completely solid plywood here

Bitumastic coating slightly compromised around certain screw holes

Bitumastic coating not compromised where the plywood was solid

So, clearly the screws and bedding compound were the weak link in the OE hatch install. I think I’ve got a better approach for the refit.

The hatch fits the cutout

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Wrapping Up the Bow Hatch Installation