1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Hatch Finish Panel

With the headliner installation started in the V-berth and the aft stateroom, there are some final bits and pieces that need to get done. Chris Craft originally used stainless sheet and aluminum moldings to cover the edge of the headliner where they stapled it to the plywood under the hatches. I decided to go with mahogany instead.

I forgot my camera the day before I took this shot

There was quite a bit of work that went into making that ring. I cut then jointed three pieces of mahogany, glued and clamped them, then traced and cut the circles. Next I need to make it fit the hatch hole.

That’s where it will go

The finish ring needs to stick out below the hatch opening ~3/16″. Any more than that and it won’t clear the sliding screen.

You can see where the OEM perforated headliner printed through onto the plywood

After a lot of work with a router and grinder…it fits up in the hole!

That’s going to look great, I think. But the white paint on the hatch hole…not so much. I think a nice piece of mahogany veneer will look great there.

Ready for three hot coats of ICA base clear varnish

To get it ready for varnish, I did a lot of sanding with 80 grit Abranet on my Mirka sander to get rid of the machine marks on the face. Then I hit it with 120 and 240 grit. Also, note the fancy painting jig to hold the ring in place.

That turned out pretty nice!

Mahogany porn

That joint could have been done better…

I wonder sometimes how the pros get seamless joints every time. I’m definitely hit or miss.

On the other side…Joint? What joint???

Three base coats down, three more to go

I’ve been brushing on the ICA recently. Since it’s catalyzed polyurethane, I can ‘hot coat’ without sanding after waiting ~20 minutes between coats. Depending on how hot it is in the tent, by the time I’m putting on the last coat the brush is getting pretty stiff. This stuff is definitely optimized for spray application. But since it’s only the base coat and I don’t have a spray booth on site, brushing is the best option.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Mahogany Veneer on the Aft Stateroom Hatch Hole

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: ICA Base Coat on the V-berth/Galley Bulkhead

The headliner tracks are getting installed, so I needed to get the last bare mahogany veneers on the V-berth/galley bulkhead varnished with ICA polyurethane base coat. If I’m doing the V-berth side, I might as well do the galley at the same time.

The mahogany veneer looks pretty good

It’s been protected with cardboard since I installed it back in December 2017. How time flies…

This part is mostly inside the galley cabinet

The big wall will mostly be covered by upper and lower galley cabinets

I used Mirka Abranet in 240 grit to prep the panels

The V-berth side of the bulkhead will get varnished, too

Once I’d sanded everything with 240, I blew dust out of the wood grain, vacuumed the area, wiped everything down with alcohol and a microfiber cloth, then got to mixing the ICA.

ICA 272 base coat, 1015 reducer, and 266 catalyst

This was a horrible mistake

DO NOT BUY 6001CN organic respirator filters!!!

I thought I was getting a good deal on some respirator filters advertised on ebay. They were listed as 6001, but it turns out they were the Chinese version. The 6001 filters I had on my respirator had been used and were long past their expiration date. But when I put on the respirator with the new 6001CN filters, a strange smell came through…and it was coming from the filters. I hadn’t mixed the ICA yet, and the salon didn’t have any chemical odors. These filters come from the factory smelling like chemicals. So I threw them out and used the old ones. Even though they were old, no smell came through. So…lesson learned. Only buy genuine 3m 6001 filters.

Three coats later…

I rolled and tipped it, but it was hot in the tent and I was working solo so it’s not as smooth as I’d like. But since it’s only the first base coat, that’s fine.

The V-berth looks good, too

It was hot enough in the tent that the base coat was dry to the touch within five minutes or so. With three coats laid down, I left the stinky boat and went home.

Next day, sand again with Abranet 240

Abranet is a great product. Since it’s net instead of paper, the vacuum pulls almost all of the dust through. There’s very little flying dust or residue.

Ready for three more coats

This is a very different grain than the rest of the V-berth

Sanded, vacuumed, wiped down, and ready for more ICA

6 coats total

Looks good!

That’s a wrap

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The V-berth Headliner Install Begins

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Gorgeous Aft Stateroom Fascia Boards

The aft stateroom mahogany fascia boards went to the paint shop and came back finished with eight coats of ICA base clear and two of the matte top coat. They look great.

These look great!

The unpainted surfaces are the contact points where the boards will be epoxied to the ceiling framing.

The big aft board gets glued and clamped in place

Leave it to cure overnight

Next day, the side boards get glued and clamped

First, I wet out the bare wood with US Composites 635 epoxy resin, then I top it with generous dollops of the same epoxy thickened with wood flour.

Ceiling framing wetted out and coated with wood flour-thickened epoxy

Clamps in place and ready to grab the board

Looks good!

1″ x 1″ mahogany cleats help spread the clamping force

I use shrink wrap tape on the cleats so they don’t mark the pretty boards. I find that also helps eliminate ‘print through’ that can happen if the ICA top coat isn’t fully cured.

Nice, tight joint that’s also glued

Port side is next

That’s a pretty board

Next day, off come all the clamps

These turned out really nice!

Now that the fascia boards are installed, we’re almost ready to install the Whisper Wall headliner tracks.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Last Aft Stateroom Overhead Filler Boards

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Salon Entryway Panel

Thanks to everybody who hit the tip jar! I really appreciate it!

Before we can spray the ICA top coat in the interior, I have to get the headliner installed. To install the headliner, there has to be a continuous surface all around the perimeter that the Whisper Wall headliner track can attach to. I’ve got most of the the continuous surface installed around the aft stateroom, then I shifted gears and worked on the salon headliner prep. In addition to having continuous surface to attach to, the headliner tracks also need to butt up against finished walls or fascia panels.

Problem: original salon entryway fascia board cracked in half

I considered gluing the board and reusing it, but it wasn’t salvageable

It’ll work great as a pattern, though.

A nice chunk of 4/4 mahogany pulled from the stack

First, I jointed the edge

Next, I jointed the faces

I love this MiniMax FS35 jointer. It’s got a relatively small footprint but can joint or plane boards up to 14″ wide. I wish I had it hooked to my dust collector, but the MiniMax is at home and the dust collectors are at the boat.

Back on the boat, trace the outline of the old board

 

Lop off the bottom on the EZ-One track saw table

Aft edge has an 88.5° angle

It’s a boat…nothing’s square.

Rounding the lower edges of the board

Nice!

Cutting the aft edge

Router finishes shaping the aft edge

Jigsaw worked well for the leading edge cuts

The new board looks a lot better than the original one

You can see in the above picture where a chunk of mahogany is missing from the original board. That helped nudge me into making a new one rather than gluing the old board back together.

Mark off the next cuts

Confirm the depth of cut on the track saw…need to drop it another 1/32″ or so

Start cutting away

One pass after another

Looks good!

Cleaned up with the router, then cut the next step

That’s looking pretty good!

Perfect fit on the first try!

It’s hard to see in the above picture, what with all of the protective plastic and blankets in place, but the new board is friction-fit to the salon entryway.

Nice little channel

There’s a 2-piece folding hatch for this entryway I’m making that will seal flush with the upper surface of this board.

Need to remove material and make space for the screen track

First, cut the upper and lower edges of the groove for the track

Multiple passes clear the track groove

Done!

You can see the two chunks of missing mahogany on the original board, one at the far left side (the top edge) and the other on the screen track. My new board will look great once it’s sprayed with ICA clear coat.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Salon Entryway Sliding Screen Tracks

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Spraying Mahogany Panels in the Origami Spray Booth

I’ve got a stack of mahogany plywood that needs to be sprayed with ICA base clear before I can install it on the boat. With the origami spray booth ready to go, we finally got to spray.

Goood day to spray

Mahogany plywood suspended for spraying

Fume extractor and filter box are ready to go

Devilbis Camair QC3 filter drier ensures clean, dry air from the compressor

My Boatamalan* painter was supposed to show up by 11, but he’s been very busy at work and didn’t get there until 5:30. I strung up some lights so he could spray even after dark. With the extra time, I suspended even more mahogany panels.

*Boatamalan: portmanteau indicating highly skilled boat workers of Central American origin. They’re actually from Honduras, but boat + [Guat]amalan has a nicer ring to it.

Spray water on the gravel to hold down dust…then get to spraying ICA

There’s about 150 pounds worth of plywood hanging from the roof. I noticed that as the weight and the length of time grew, the PVC pipes started sagging a bit. So I added some upright sticks to support the center and the end that meets the tent.

Fourth and final coat

Shiny!

Good lookin’ mahogany!

After moving all of the plywood back onboard the following morning, it was time to fold up the origami spray booth.

Pop off the roof, drop the wall…

Fold in the right wall…

Fold in the left wall…

Put the end wall in place…

Tie the roof in place…

And move the filter box up against the tent.

It only took about 25 minutes to button up the spray booth. Not bad for the first time. And it worked well. The base coat is nice and clean. Now I need to get those panels installed.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the New Mahogany V-berth Bulkhead Panel