1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The V-berth Door

I’ve got a huge backlog of articles to write about stuff that’s been finished for a while. So I’m going to try and clear out as many as I can while we’re in this cold snap and it’s just too cold to do much of anything else. First up: the door to the v-berth.

But first, a quick refresher on what I started with.

The original V-berth door was in the middle of the galley bulkhead

After a lot of effort, with the exception of the flooring and some cabinet doors, the v-berth is done. But back in 2019, before the headliner got installed, I made the sliding door to the room out of a Tricel panel, mahogany veneer faces and edgebanding, some scrap 8/4 mahogany, and a heavy duty drawer slide.

First, cut the Tricel panel to fit the height of the door opening

Then cut it length-wise to fit the width

Test fit viewed from the salon

The view from the V-berth

For the edges of the door, I use a Harbor Freight multi-tool to remove 1/2″ or so of the Tricel honeycomb. Then I cut mahogany strips that just fit between the two Tricel face panels where the honeycomb used to be. After wetting out the mahogany and the panel with epoxy, and slathering on epoxy thickened with wood flour, I pushed the mahogany into the gaps and lightly clamped the panel faces until just a bit of epoxy glue squeezed out. That gave the door a solid wood edge all the way around the perimeter. Come back the next day, trim the edges flat, and the door was ready for mahogany veneers and edge-banding.

And just like that…the veneers are done!

Door handles get fitted before I varnished the door

After sanding with 240 grit Mirka Abranet, I moved the doors (I did the head door at the same time) to the aft deck for varnish.

Three coats of ICA base coat turned out very nice

While the varnish cured, I turned a piece of scrap mahogany into a pretty stick that the drawer slide and door will attach to. This is an unconventional approach for sliding door hardware, but the drawer slide worked out really well.

I cut this leftover 8/4 mahogany scrap from the toe rail to length

Next, I jointed the stick on my MiniMax FSB35

Under the rough exterior, there was some pretty mahogany just waiting to come out.

Nice!

Marking off the width needed for the drawer slide

The slide is half of a Sugatsune 26″ stainless steel full-extension side mount drawer set with ball bearings and a soft-close feature, the latter of which turned out to be far cooler than I imagined for a sliding door.

The slide is dry fitted and the mahogany is drilled for screws and cut to the curve of the forward deck overhead

Looks good!

I drilled up through the mahogany into the aluminum deck frame overhead, then tapped those holes for 8-32 machine screws. This turned out pretty slick. You can only see the drawer slide if you’re looking directly up at it from the doorway.

Next, I attached the slide to the door, then separated the slide halves

After attaching the main slide body to the mahogany piece, I slid the slide halves back together

At this point, the door, slide, and mahogany piece were a single assembly.

Ready to lift the assembly up into the overhead pocket and install the screws

Nice!

My v-berth has a sliding door!

With the dry fitting all done, I pulled the whole thing down, took it apart, and varnished the mahogany piece.

The grain is so pretty, it’s a shame only the bottom will be visible

Three coats later, it’s ready for final installation

That turned out pretty slick

OEM Chris Craft sliding door hardware chromed up real nice

I’m glad I kept the old hardware

Boom…done

The door keeps almost all dust from the salon workshop out of the v-berth. And that soft-close feature is so cool. On a drawer, that feature pulls the drawer closed and keeps it that way. It also keeps the drawers from being slammed shut. But in this application, you slide the door open, and in the last four inches or so, the slider takes over. It not only pulls it open that last bit (and preventing slamming), it holds the door open without needing a latch.

V-berth head door looks good, too

Gotta love the rechromed original hardware

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Doors

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Varnishing the Aft Deck Mahogany

AHOY!!!

I apologize for the three-month hiatus on posting. As I mentioned several posts back, trying to get re-employed and dealing with a wrongful termination complaint is extremely time-consuming. The level of federal corruption I’m encountering through all of this is truly stunning. There are people who’ve been imprisoned for violating one of the same laws my managers did when firing me…but the federal overseers on these things thus far don’t seem interested in referring them for official investigations. It’s almost like this law only gets enforced when it’s applied to political targets and ‘little people.’ I should write a book…

Long-time readers will know that I’ve had my share of setbacks on this refit, but this has by far been the biggest gut-punch. It’s difficult keeping up enthusiasm and investing time on this blog given my current status. Thank you for sticking around while I try to get my life back in order.

When last I posted, I had built a giant Aft Deck Mahogany Floor Box to cover the transition from the port aft deck walls to the deck itself. The next step was to make the starboard side, then varnish the boxes and other wall panels using ICA two-part catalyzed urethane base coat.

The port floor box

Port & starboard aft deck floor boxes are ready for varnish

ICA base coat is really smelly stuff, so when I use it I prefer to varnish lots of stuff at the same time. Since I already cut and fitted a bunch of beautiful mahogany solid stock to surround the aft deck windows, I decided to get it all varnished in one go.

After sanding with 220 grit Mirka Abranet, I fired up the compressor and blew off all the dust, then wiped everything down with a lintless cloth soaked in alcohol. Next, I mixed up a batch of ICA base coat clear and rolled and tipped three coats on the boxes and the mahogany window surround pieces.

Lots of mahogany parts, sanded and ready for ICA

First coat on the floor boxes really makes the grain POP!

First coat looks good!

By the time I put the first coat on all the pieces, the big mahogany boxes were tack-free, so I applied another coat, and then repeated the process for a third coat.

Three hot coats of ICA base applied using the roll & tip process

First round of three coats applied…time to go home

Next day, the ICA is cured and ready for sanding with 220 Mirka

Ready for the next three coats

That’s some beautiful mahogany

Three coats later

NICE!

And three final coats on the aft deck floor boxes

By the way, if you haven’t used Mirka Abranet sandpaper, I highly recommend it. It’s tough as nails, and with a good vacuum the dust collection is better than any paper-backed sandpaper I’ve ever used. Very little dust goes airborne or is left behind on the sanded surface. I find it works best with two-part catalyzed urethanes or very well-cured one-part finishes. With one-part spar varnish, it takes weeks or more for the finish to be cured hard enough not to gum up the paper.

Anyway, that’s a wrap for now on varnishing the aft deck mahogany. Apologies, again, for the long delay in posting.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Wiring the Aft Deck Floor Boxes

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Deck Mahogany Floor Boxes

The aft deck is coming together very nicely as more and more spray foam insulation gets covered by beautiful mahogany. I always knew I’d use mahogany plywood for the major wall panels, but for something like the last eight years, I’ve been pondering what to do about the transition from the walls to the original teak deck. Mahogany quarter round would work in places where the plywood panels directly contact the teak deck. But toward the aft end of the deck, the plywood comes down to contact painted aluminum where the original mahogany toe rail used to be. There’s a 3-1/2″ gap of white painted aluminum before the teak deck begins. There are also holes drilled in the teak deck, where Chris Craft ran the original wiring for the windshield wipers and searchlight. Patching a hole would look goofy, and I don’t want to start replacing teak deck boards.

So…what I decided to do was use the leftover 5/8″ thick mahogany boards resawn from the aft stateroom fascia panels and make a couple of box structures. In addition to hiding holes in teak and unattractive panel transitions, I’ll also be able to use the boxes as wire chases to get 120v outlets to the aft deck.

Clearing space for a long mahogany box

The box will zig then zag here

And it’ll cover this unattractive painted aluminum here, at the aft end of the deck

There’s still tape stuck to the teak from the big paint job back in 2013. That stuff was a bear to remove!

5/8″ mahogany boards…meet Mr. Tablesaw

Time to lay out the box

Box panel one

The zig and zag joints got marked off

A few cuts on the miter saw, and the box wall started coming together

Once the walls were cut, I made the box tops

This is going to look good!

Unfortunately, the camera battery died after this shot, so I don’t have any pictures of the final fit-up or when I glued the boards together.

After final fitment and glue up, I rounded the box tops’ outside corner and cut holes for the electrical boxes

Electrical outlet box is cut

That’s a good looking zig zag box!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Varnishing the Aft Deck Mahogany

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Salon Entry Door

Well, the personal disaster continues apace and the Roamer project is commensurately throttled down. But I am still getting stuff done as time permits. I thought installing the salon entry doors would be a breeze, but an old nemesis of this project has reared its ugly head again.

I’ve written before about problems I’ve discovered on the port side of the cabin top–the broken salon fiberglass under the helm window, the mahogany safety rail in that area that was clearly not original, the stainless stanchion pipes that had obviously been replaced. My theory is that when they were doing the repower to the twin turbo Super Seamasters back in 1972, they dropped one of the original engines on the port side helm windshield as they were lifting it out through the salon ceiling hatch, which broke the salon roof and the mahogany safety rail, and bent some of the stainless stanchions as the engine assembly tumbled off the cabin top. Whatever it was, the incident also caused some of the salon ceiling frames to get knocked out of alignment, which I wrote about when we were installing the Whisper Wall headliner tracks in the salon.

The problem is, everything is connected. We made the cabin top look nice (it’s literally bullet-proof, by the way) , and the headliner covers the ceiling frames that got knocked out of alignment. But those frames still support the dashboard and are connected to the bulkhead, which are what the salon folding hatch and entry door attach to. The doors and hatch panels are straight, but the dashboard and salon bulkhead aren’t.

Everything is so complicated these days…

OEM door frame is stained and coated with ICA base coat clear

Back-side of the door frame gets sanded with 36 grit

Attachment point on the bulkhead also gets the 36 grit treatment

Wetted out with epoxy, then coated with wood flour-thickened epoxy

More wood flour-thickened epoxy on the bulkhead

I’ll stain the bungs then hit them with ICA base coat later, before topcoating

OEM door is stained and coated with ICA base coat then ICA satin topcoat

Need to knock some ICA off where the hinges mount

Ready for hinges!

I’ve got a salon door!

First time since 2008

Now for the trouble…

Door-to-frame gap grows from bottom to top

With the hinges attached to the original screw holes, the door is aligned with the hinge-side bulkhead. But on the door knob side, the gap between the door and the frame grows from 1/16″ at the bottom of the door opening to 3/8″ at the top. Which means the bulkhead on this side leans forward. Which would be consistent with the messed up salon ceiling frames in this area, where they dropped as much as 1/2″ from the original position as a result of something really heavy falling on the cabin top/dashboard.

New mahogany hatch panel gaps show the dashboard down ~3/8″

See how the right-side corner of the hatch panel touches the mahogany it’s supposed to rest on but there’s a gap on the left? Then from the left corner, the gap gets smaller as it goes toward the other, off-camera corner. That pattern repeats on the aft hatch panel here, too. What’s causing that is that the entire dashboard/cabin top structure is low here. But on the opposite side of the dashboard hatch opening, there’s no gap. That side–the side the camera was on–isn’t low. So the hatch opening isn’t on the same plane all the way around. But the hatch panels are flat.

There’s no easy fix here. The entire dashboard/cabin top structure is low just outboard of center on the port side because something heavy dropped on it. I can’t make twisted hatch panels to match the dashboard. Adding mahogany to flatten out the pieces the hatches close up against could make that part on the same plane, but then the hatches would stand proud of the dashboard on that side while they’d be flush on the outboard side. The proper fix would have been to cut off the fiberglass and plywood dashboard back when we were making the cabin top bullet-proof, disassemble the frames, and rebuild everything where it was when it left the factory. It’s too late for that now. So…what I’m going to do is average out the gaps. I’ll attach the door hinges in different spots so the gap is consistent all the way around. On the hatch panels, I’m just going to have to live with them not being consistently flush with the dashboard from side to side. Once everything is assembled and done, nobody’ll notice. Anybody that does…I’ll kick ’em off the boat! LOL

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fitting the Salon Entry Folding Hatch

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Top Coating the V-berth II

So…the painter came out, sanded, taped off, and resprayed the V-berth again because of the overspray problem I wrote about last week.

And…he botched it again. Nicely flowed out in some places, but dry as a popcorn fart in others. Not as bad as the first time, but still not good.

So he sanded, taped off, and resprayed the whole thing again, this time taping it off in sections. One of the good things about the ICA topcoat is that you can tape it off about 10 minutes after you spray, so long as you don’t use super sticky tape. Third time’s a charm.

Sanded with Mirka Abranet 320 grit

Almost ready for the final, final, FINAL topcoat

Once everything was cleaned up and taped off, I turned on the exhaust fan and left the painter to his craft.

Next day, my mood approaching the V-berth was somewhere between dread and trepidation

That’s more like it

It’s a small room, but spraying in sections solved the overspray problem

Peeling back layers of plastic and tape

The big reveal

Sorry for the dusty lens in the pic above. The V-berth does look good. And it’s got enough coats of varnish on it that I suspect I’ll never have to do it again!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Salon Entry Folding Door

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Top Coating the V-berth

Lots of stuff has been going on with the boat. One of the reasons I moved it to Deale, MD back in 2009 was because the marina was much closer to the Boatamalan painter. Now that I have to pack up and go by April, I need to get the painter moving on spraying the ICA top coat in the interior. Since the V-berth is the closest to being done, that’s where we started.

An ugly panel joint needs covering

Lotsa push sticks clamping a strip of mahogany over the joint

When the epoxy cured, the painter went nuts with the sander

Heavy coats of ICA base coat the new wood

That’s eight coats of ICA base in total.

I had to get the mahogany door jambs made before we spray the top coat

This will be a slider door here. The mahogany stick I’m working with here will have a slot cut out of it for the door edge to slide into.

Fit. Cut. Fit. Cut. Route. Fit. Miter cut. Fit. Repeat.

The doorjamb pieces and last mahogany panel trim piece is glued and clamped in place

Wait for the epoxy to cure, then bust out the sanders again

We can’t apply epoxy once the top coat goes on. Everything is fair game when working with base coat, but all of the woodwork has to be done before the top coat goes on.

Next day, lots of sanding

Mirka Abranet is great stuff. Very durable sandpaper

Time to clean up and get ready to spray

Notice the 12″ fume extractor exhaust hose coming in through the hatch opening? Normally, these fume extractors are set up to push air through the hose. That puffs the hose up, maximizing its diameter and the amount of air that can go through it with the least resistance. But there was no way I was going to put the big fan motor housing anywhere near the beautiful Awlgrip paintjob. So, I reversed the fan and put it outside. It sucks fumes from this space, narrowing the hose down to ~10″ along its length before the fumes go through the fan and get pushed into the filter box outside. Even with it reversed, it moves plenty of air out of the space. This is important, since you don’t want the spray filling up the space so the painter can’t see.

ICA top coat and catalyst

It’s spray time! ICA is smelly stuff, so once the exhaust fan is running, I packed up and went home. Next day, I came back to see how it looked.

Um…Houston…we have a problem

The white stuff you see in the pic above is overspray. You can’t see it with the naked eye, but the camera flash catches it very well. What I experienced in real life was seeing this absolutely gorgeous clear coated satin mahogany. But then I put my hand on it and it felt like 120 grit sandpaper. The last place the painter sprayed is as smooth as glass. Everywhere else is oversprayed.

The painter blamed it on the complex, tight spaces. He said the exhaust fan worked great. But he’d finish spraying the bulkhead, then move on to the closet walls. Then climb up on the bed and do the curved walls. Then climb down to finish off the desk-like structure at the entrance to the room. But the sprayed ICA was kicking off just enough before he could finish a lap that the overspray from the last area wasn’t melting in with the ICA sprayed initially. It’s a gorgeous nasty mess.

So…we needed to sand again, tape everything off again, buy more ICA, and spray…again.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Top Coating the V-berth II

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Aft Stateroom Transom Panel

With the V-berth moldings and transom mahogany panel varnished, next I installed the transom panel.

Cutting an access panel in the back wall

The transom navigation light connections shouldn’t need maintenance, but I’d rather have an access hatch built-in than having to make one later on after it’s all assembled. This little Master Mind 3″ plunge saw is great for these kinds of tasks.

Next, I cut Buffalo Batt non-woven fabric insulation to fit

I’m using Buffalo Batt on the backside of all panels that face the hull. It provides R3 insulation value, and even without AC on the boat it makes a HUGE difference in how quickly the interior heats up in summer. With a blanket over the salon entryway and all of the windows closed, by noon it’s 20°F cooler inside compared to the aft deck. Eventually the heat works its way inside, but the difference the insulated panels make has allowed me to put in longer days during this scorching hot summer.

Epoxy the backside of the panel, lay on the insulation, and press it into place

Next day, put moldings on the transom light access hatch

That’s a lot of clamps for a tiny little hatch

That turned out nice!

The moldings don’t just cover the plywood edge, they also cover the joint, sealing it up to keep heated or cooled air on the inside and outside air where it belongs.

Time to glue things up using US Composites epoxy resin and 2:1 hardener

Behind the dryer box, you can see the back panel is installed

Looks good!

Once this base coat gets sanded and the whole area gets sprayed with the top coat, it’ll look even better,

Transom light access hatch

Ready for the ceiling panel

First, apply epoxy to the contact surfaces

Push sticks, clamps, and backing blocks hold the ceiling panel in place

I use shrink wrap tape as the backing blocks when clamping things in place. That way, if I miss any epoxy residue, it will contact the plastic tape instead of wood. Since epoxy doesn’t stick to that type of plastic, the blocks pop right off when the push sticks and clamps are removed, even if there was sticky epoxy.

That’s a wrap for today

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Aft Stateroom Transom Panel

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Varnishing the Aft Stateroom Entryway

I’ve got a lot of mahogany bits that need varnishing. That ICA polyurethane is stinky stuff, so I want to do a lot in one fell swoop.

Sanded and ready for ICA

First three coats turned out great!

Compared to the “before” version, it’s quite an improvement

The beam looks good, too

First coats on the aft stateroom head sliding door box look nice

V-berth moldings, hatch trim rings, and aft stateroom entryway mahogany bits look great when varnished

Nice!

Next day, sand and repeat

Sand with 220 grit Mirka Abranet

then apply three more coats of ICA

Looking very good

The next day, I installed the varnished mahogany door jamb.

Wetted out with US Composites 635 epoxy, then add dollops of wood flour-thickened epoxy

I applied epoxy to the bulkhead with a slight curve in it

And clamped the new door jamb in place

Leave it clamped in place and go home

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Headliner Installation II

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Mahogany Trim Ring for the V-berth Hatch

The aft hatch opening and trim ring turned out very nicely, if I do say so myself. The headliner installer said he’d crack out the V-berth version. And because he’s a professional, it should look a lot better than mine.

Anybody willing to bet? If mine’s better, you hit the tip jar, maybe??? 😉

Pine corner pieces are a cheap way to test a theory

I arrived at the tent and found strange looking pieces of pine–resurrected 2×4 unless I’m wrong–in the V-berth.

OK…I get where he’s going with this

I like the approach, but was it necessary?

He added that little radiused bit of mahogany in the lower corners, but I’m not sure if it was actually necessary.

Wonder how much those cost me…

Either way, the corner pieces fit nicely

Keep in mind that the headliner will cover all of the plywood you see on the ceiling, and the trim ring will cover everything from the headliner up to the aluminum hatch.

OK…looks good….theory tested and passed

But I still don’t think he needed to put those little radiused blocks of mahogany in there.

Next time I show up, there’s a trim ring fitted!

Hey! That’s pretty slick!

But…why did he use the blandest mahogany board in the pile, I wonder?

I’ve got a stack of mahogany I’m working with here. Some is gorgeous, like what got used on the toe rail and the aft stateroom fascia panels. But there are a few 8/4 sticks in the pile that are just sort of orange cellulose. Yes, they’re mahogany, but they have little character. As long as I’ve got pretty stuff in the pile, I use it…especially when it’s going to be in a highly visible place.

Well…the professional chose a stick of orange cellulose to make most of the trim ring. Yes….most, but not all. That’ll become more obvious shortly.

Final touch ups

Also, note the difference in grain character of the far-side compared to the other three sides of the trim ring. And the left lower corner piece compared to the others.

OK…ready for sanding and coating

Why octagonal?

I’m stumped as to why he went with an irregular octagon trim ring. The 8/4 boards are plenty thick enough to have used a radius on the outside here. It’s a mystery.

It looks like he used a grinder

I wonder why he didn’t use the ShopSmith jointer on the straight sections? It’s just on the other side of the boat from the table saw.

Sanded with 80 grit Abranet, the machine marks cleaned up well

ShopSmith drum sander should work nicely on the inside corners

Those are some…generous…glue joints

In fact, all of his glue joints are generous.

The glue is epoxy thickened with mahogany wood flour, so it’s strong and not a bad color. But still…my joints aren’t that ‘generous’ most of the time.

Sanded with Mirka 240…ready for clear coat

Clear coated, the ‘orange cellulose’ really pops out

Meanwhile, the mahogany with character kind of sticks out

I’m not saying it’s bad. It’s just not how I might have done it.

Test fitted after the first three coats of ICA polyurethane

OK, it’s not bad when it’s in place. And I do like having mahogany go all the way up to the aluminum hatch, which is painted in Awlcraft 2000 Matterhorn White. But I’m still not sure what inspired the irregular octagon idea.

OK…so it doesn’t suck…but orange cellulose mahogany doesn’t hold a candle to the pretty stuff

Sanded down for the next three coats

Base coats are almost done

For comparison’s sake, here’s the aft stateroom hatch trim ring:

Mahogany porn, or what?!?!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Entryway Door Jamb

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Mahogany Veneer on the Aft Stateroom Hatch Hole

The Whisper Wall headliner installer didn’t show up last weekend, but there’s plenty of other stuff for me to do to get the headliner installed. Like cranking out that beautiful mahogany aft stateroom hatch trim ring. But I can’t leave the hatch hole in nasty OEM white paint. And repainting it doesn’t seem right either. So…I figure I’ll use some mahogany veneer to make it pretty.

I’ve got two boxes of veneer in stock–one is rotary cut and pretty red, the other is quartersawn (ribbon stripe) and more brown. I think the rotary cut red will do the trick.

I had a couple of scrap ribbonstripe veneers that might have done it

The wood back in the aft stateroom has red hues. In the V-berth, it’s brown ribbonstripe. I also don’t want two seams in the veneer, since that doubles the chances of seam failure. This is a hatch, after all, and on nice days it’ll be open, and summer squalls can pop up quickly and get things wet. The fewer seams, the better.

4′ x 8′ rotary cut red mahogany veneer has been sitting in a closet for years

I’ll use contact cement in this application, not epoxy

The OEM paint is in surprisingly good condition…just needed a good sanding

Water never got in here and neither did much sunlight. So the OEM paint isn’t checked or otherwise distressed.

Veneer backing soaks up contact cement

Two coats of contact cement on the hatch hole

Et voila!

This was scary. If you’re doing it right, contact cement locks in tight on contact. Because I’m putting veneer on the inside of a tube, it had to be lined up just so at the beginning and maintained all the way around. If I was off a fraction of an inch in alignment at the start, it’d be a mile off four feet later. I got lucky! In retrospect, I should have cut the panel an inch or so wider. There would have been more waste, but I wouldn’t have had to be so precise with the alignment.

I used a razor knife to trim the excess veneer from the tube top and bottom, then slid the new trim ring up to see how it looks.

That’s going to look fabulous with the headliner installed

The veneer is trimmed and sanded with 240 grit Mirka Abranet

Time to break out that stinky ICA base coat clear varnish.

Three coats later…this turned out super nice!

The ICA added so much material to the inside diameter that the trim ring no longer fits easily. No problem, I’ll sand the OD of the trim ring down a bit when I do the final install, after the headliner is installed.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Mahogany Trim Ring for the V-berth Hatch