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: Transom Threshold Moldings

The aft deck is coming along very nicely, albeit slowly.

I’ve also been busy working on our 1968 Chris Craft Commander 42, getting it ready to put on the market as part of the big transition from a two-Chris Craft family to just one. One of the big success stories there was to bypass the OEM starboard engine oil cooler, which was a big cast iron thing that bolted up to the oil pan, and install an aftermarket one. The OEM one was restricting water flow and, I suspect, not doing a very good job actually cooling the oil. The aftermarket one actually came on the Super SeaMaster twin turbo and intercooled 534ci monsters that were in this Roamer when we got it. With the new cooler installed, the difference in water flow out the exhaust and temperature stability even when running on plane is pretty amazing.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about since we got the Commander, and finally started working on recently, was bringing the old Kohler 6.5kv genset back to life. It didn’t run when we bought the boat, and by the looks of things it hadn’t run in decades–the hour meter only shows 290 on the clock. One of the two previous owners had removed the carburetor, linkage, water pump drive belt and pulleys, and other bits, but none of those parts came with the boat. I’ve been slowly accumulating the parts necessary to put it back together, though not exactly to original condition. The carburetor, for example, is a side draft unit from a later model Kohler; I believe the original was an up-draft version.

But I also wanted to convert it from open, raw water cooling to a closed cooling system with a heat exchanger and antifreeze. I understand open cooling systems on trailer boats, where they get drained at the end of the day once they’re back on the trailer. But I can’t fathom why anybody would want that in a boat that stays in the water all the time, especially if it’s salt or brackish. Anyway, I’m just waiting on a few small parts, then I’ll be ready to fire it up.

Back to the Roamer. While I was working on the transom mahogany panels, I also made the moldings for the transom threshold/step-through.

The transom step-through threshold could look better

Note that, in the picture above, the wood and white painted aluminum aren’t the same height. The wood sits below or to the side of the painted, 3/16″ thick aluminum. So to make a pretty molding that covers that joint/step, the underside of  the molding will have to have a 3/16″ step to it as well. Keep that in mind as you read the rest.

Repurposing 50-year old OEM mahogany

I’m going to use this mahogany board that was originally one of the aft stateroom facia panels that Chris Craft painted white. I think my full-width, varnished mahogany ones look a lot better than the white originals did. I ran this one through the Dewalt thickness planer a few times to get rid of the white paint, but the serial number still remained.

Let the cutting begin!

Good initial fit

Route the ends to match the fillets on the transom

Nice!

Next, I marked off the curve of the plywood panel and cut off the excess.

ShopSmith bandsaw trims the curved edge to match the mahogany plywood

Oops

I had used my little Bosch router to remove excess material from the bottom side of this molding, where it will overlap the 3/16″ aluminum threshold. The next step was to round the top edge of the molding. But there was too little material left below for the guide roller to ride on. When the roller slipped past the edge (two inches from being finished!!!) the little Bosch very quickly turned this complex, nearly finished mahogany molding into scrap.

Deep breath…

Take-home lesson: leave the board thick while rounding an edge with a router bit that relies on a bearing guide, then remove the material from the underside.

So I made another molding…

Nice!

Great fit!

Bottom molding is done

Starboard molding is rough fitted

Little curved cuts on the bottom match the bottom molding

Port side molding is last

Nice!

Since these moldings are in a ‘rough service’ area, I decided to treat them as replaceable maintenance items. So instead of epoxying them permanently in place, I’ll use traditional screws, bungs, and caulk.

These are very complex pieces of mahogany

Done!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Varnishing and Installing More Aft Deck Mahogany

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Starboard Aft Deck Mahogany

You’d think that being unemployed with the country shut down from all of this coronavirus hysteria would give me lots of time to get this Roamer project done. But you’d be wrong. It turns out that applying for jobs and keeping up on the unemployment claims (the missus’ employer furloughed everybody) takes a surprising amount of time. Ironic silver lining: she makes more on unemployment than she did working thanks to the multi-trillion dollar bill the government decided to put on our great-grandkids future credit cards. Also, responding to affidavits and other things associated with my Civil Rights and wrongful termination complaints is more than a full-time job. So, unfortunately, I haven’t been getting much boat project stuff done recently. But I do still have a bunch of things done that I haven’t documented yet. I just wrapped up my review of the Office of Civil Rights investigator’s report, which is due on Wednesday, so I thought I’d take a break and post some pictures to the blog.

1/4″ board leftover from the toe rail

This particular board has a huge difference in color from right side to left. Fortunately, the left side is just wide enough for the aft deck window surrounds.

Marked off and ready to cut

Two boards fit great!

That looks so much better than the spray foam insulation.

3rd board is fitted

That’s a tight joint

The upper board looks good from a distance

Up close, there are checks and internal cracks

That’ll telegraph through the varnish

That’ll cause problems with the varnish, too

Solution: saturate the cracked areas with slow cure epoxy

I’ll use one more leftover toe rail board for the other upper panel

Lookin’ good

Problem: the bracket sticks out past the framing below

There’s an angle bracket welded to the exterior panel of the aft deck enclosure, and that’s screwed to the fiberglass hardtop above. The problem is, the angle bracket is 1-1/4″ on each leg and the framing is 1″, so the bracket is sticking out too far by 1/4″ or so. That booboo from eight years ago is coming back to bite me in the rear now.

I think a rabbet might be the solution

Fortunately, this board is a 1/4 heavy

I removed 3/16″ with a freehand rabbet, which just clears the bracket.

That’s looking good

Need to knock a bit more off the right side bevel cut

Nice!

Tight joints

Here’s a scrap piece of the window molding

I cut those way back in 2012. It’ll be nice to finally get them installed, hopefully later this year.

Looking good!

The aft deck mahogany pieces are ready for varnish at this point, but first I want to do something about the bottom of the walls, where it transitions from mahogany plywood to either the teak decking or aluminum, where the original toe rail back here used to be. Boxing the whole thing in ought to do the trick.

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

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Final Fitting, Finishing, and Assembling the Salon Entry Folding Hatch

On the Roamer, the salon entry folding hatch turned out very nicely. When last I posted, the hatch panel and solid mahogany pieces were all cut and fitted to the opening in the dashboard.

The folding salon hatch is looking good

The main hatch hinge needs something solid and flat to attach to

That might do the trick

Mark off the excess

My Eureka-Zone track saw is great for making angled cuts on plywood or solid stock

Perfect!

Install a couple of screws to hold the hinge to the mahogany

Next, I clamped the hinge to the hatch panel and installed some screws

Looks good!

Nice!

Next, I cut a slot in the leading edge of the hatch panel closest to the salon door

I’ll use an epoxied spline joint to attach the panel to the solid mahogany piece there.

Looks good!

I cut a corresponding slot in the mahogany…

…then sliced off a piece of 1/4″ plywood for the spline

Test fitting is done

Next I applied four coats of varnish to all the pieces.

It turned out pretty good!

This is just friction-fitted together, but it looks good

Another instance when I surprised myself with how well something turned out!

Next, I glued everything together with wood flour-thickened epoxy

Glued and clamped

Next day, it’s ready to be unclamped

I applied two more coats of varnish once all of the epoxy work was done.

Installing the center hinges

Chris Craft used chromed bronze screws everywhere. I get close to the same appearance with 316 stainless after a few seconds on a buffer pad.

Ta-Dahhhh!

Remember, this is what I started with:

The gap between the closed door and the hatch is 0.01″

That’s a wrap for the salon hatch for now.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Deck Mahogany Plywood Install II

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fitting the Salon Entry Folding Hatch

I’m still buried with that personal crisis that got dropped on me, but I’m managing to get stuff done on the boat, too.

The salon entry hatch panels need solid mahogany around the edges

Because the dashboard isn’t level but the Tricel hatch panels are, I’m going to make some solid mahogany pieces to even out and fill the gaps between the flat panels and the dashboard. I’ll also need to make a mahogany piece to fill between the hatch panel and the salon door. And I’ll slice off some thin mahogany to use as a veneer on the panel edges where the hinges attach.

I wonder how the grain looks in this heavy piece of mahogany?

I have two of these 2″ thick slabs of mahogany that Chris Craft used to strengthen the cabin sides around the helm area. I don’t need them because I changed the aft deck side entry so it will have sliding doors.

That’s interesting grain; just need to lop off the end

This piece will be on the leading edge of the hatch where it closes against the door

Cut the mahogany to match the angle of the dashboard opening

I like this grain

Nice fit side-to-side

I should maybe trim that leading edge back a bit

The top of the salon door isn’t flat. It’s angled up from left to right, so I need to cut the bottom of this mahogany piece at an angle to match the door. The leading edge of the salon door is also at a different angle than the square hatches, so I’ll need to cut that at an angle, too. Those would be a difficult cuts on a table saw.

Fortunately, angled cuts are a breeze with my EurekaZone track saw

Twp angled cuts, done!

Nice!

The mahogany is 1/4″ proud of the dashboard and bulkhead

Eventually, I’ll make moldings to cover the joint between the dashboard and bulkhead. They’ll be 1/4″ thick and should just match this mahogany piece.

Rounding the top edge looks better

That’s a wrap for the leading edge. Next I made the hatch sides.

Thicknessing pretty mahogany

The sides will be cut at an angle to match the dashboard opening

That’s pretty wood

Cut to length plus a bit for wiggle room when I do the final fit

Trim off a bit of the hatch panel to make room for the new sides

Not bad on the left side, but I need to trim off more from both sides so the right-side mahogany piece fits

Slicing off thin veneer pieces for the panel edges near the hinges

The plan is coming together

Shrink wrap plastic on a flat board helps when epoxying flat hatches to angled mahogany pieces

Epoxy doesn’t stick to the plastic.

Gluing and clamping all the pieces together

You can never have too many clamps

I’m a big fan of these Harbor Freight F clamps in various sizes.

Next day, sand the epoxied joints smooth

Then remove the excess veneer with a router

That’s looking good!

Sand it smooth and the forward hatch is pretty much done

I don’t know if it shows up well in these pictures, but the edges extend beyond the plane of the hatch panels. When the hatch is closed, the portion that sticks out will interlock with the groove that goes around the hatch opening on the dashboard.

The aft hatch is next

The glued edge looks good

Clamping the hinge-edge veneer in place

Next day, remove the excess veneer with a router

Looking good!

Hinges installed…time for a test fit

Those veneers look really good, and the sides fit into the perimeter groove perfectly!

If I didn’t tell you the dashboard opening was twisted, could you see it?

The almost final touch

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Final Fitting, Finishing, and Assembling the Salon Entry Folding Hatch

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: Helm Station Radio Box III

The helm radio box is coming together nicely. I just need to wrap up the cooling fan installation, and we’re close to being ready for the headliner guy to come back.

I’ll put the cooling fan here, on the starboard side of the box

The intake will be on the opposite end.

Perfect clearance

The fan has a super low amp draw

This 12v-12v converter will power the fan and its controller

The temperature-sensing fan controller is rated for 12-12.5vdc, so I’m using this converter to keep battery voltage (which can go as high as 14.4) in the safe zone.

Straight battery voltage is 13.41

Converter controlled voltage is 12.29

It works!

I pointed my heat gun at the temp sensor for a few seconds, then the LED on the fan controller came on. Yea!

Electric/electronic part is done

Now I need to make the intake and exhaust grills. In retrospect, I should have done this before I made the mahogany box all pretty.

Drill 1/4″ pilot holes, then start routing slots

This is nerve-wracking

Getting closer

Two more to go

Done! Now, repeat on the other side

Pilot holes are drilled

Nice!

Next I finished sanding the varnish with 240 grit Mirka Abranet, and laid on the last coat of Spar varnish.

That’s one fine looking set of intake/exhaust grills

The front looks good, too

The fan is installed

This worked out pretty slick. This mahogany was part of a big pile of moldings I bought years ago. The little plywood end piece (fan enclosure? duct?) on the far side of the fan is a friction fit where it slides under the mounting board cleat. Then I push down on the lower end of the fan frame, and it ‘clicks’ into place on the half-round part of the molding. It takes a healthy amount of force to pull it free, so I’ll just use 3m 4200 to seal it to the wood…no fasteners required.

When the radios are all installed, there should be good air flow past the heat sinks

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Deck Headliner Track Prep

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Helm Station Mahogany III

With the helm bulkhead refreshed with a new sheet of mahogany, I got busy on the cabinet on the starboard side of the helm.

1/2″ ribbon-stripe mahogany ply is rough cut for the helm side cabinet faces

Gotta tighten up that gap at the top of the port-side helm cabinet panel a bit

I broke the panels down with 90° cuts a month or so ago when I was racing against rain from a hurricane to get the plywood inside the tent. But the decks aren’t 90° to the bulkhead. They’re angled, so any water that comes in will flow aft and off the boat.

Gotta love the EurekaZone track saw for making angled plywood cuts

That’s better

Before I glued the veneer panel on the helm bulkhead, I was fitting the side cabinet panels

That’s better

That’s better…time for varnish

Second coat

That one-part urethane Spar Varnish is driving me nuts. It gums up the Mirka Abranet 240 grit almost immediately.

MasterMind plunge saw is a great tool for cutting cabinet door openings

Finish the corner cuts with the Makita jigsaw

The jigsaw blades have a bigger kerf than the little plunge saw.

That’s looking pretty good

Time to make a cabinet box frame

That nasty looking piece of cracked, half-painted 1″ thick mahogany must have come from the OEM forward head enclosure. I saved it because I knew it’d come in handy one day.

Today’s that day.

Chopping up 1/4″ ribbon-stripe mahogany plywood into cabinet box parts

No screws this time

I’m framing out the cabinet box with mahogany solid stock wetted out with US Composites epoxy followed by epoxy thickened with wood flour and cabosil

Next day, it’s all coming together

Next, I’ll varnish the cabinet box panel faces, epoxy the backing cleats to each panel, fit and finish the back panels, then this cabinet’s ready to install.

“Progress”

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Helm Station Mahogany IV

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Helm Station Mahogany II

The mahogany plywood and solid mahogany are flying into place on the aft deck. One thing that’s been incredibly discouraging to see every single time I go through the aft deck is the mahogany plywood at the dashboard. It’s full of holes from old equipment that won’t be going back on the boat, and there’s no way to bring the face veneer back to a presentable state. But veneers can be tricky, so when I bought the additional stack of Lloyd’s BS1088-rated mahogany ply recently, I included in the order a bunch of 1/8″ ribbon stripe ply for this and other places that need veneer. The odd thing is, this water-proof, boil-proof mahogany marine plywood is ~$66 per 4′ x’8′ sheet. Ribbon stripe mahogany veneer is roughly double that. I’m not smart enough to understand how that works out, but I’m going with the 3mm (1/8″) mahogany plywood for my panel veneer work going forward.

It’s a bit depressing, isn’t it?

Keep in mind, this is what we started with way back in the day

Teak quarter-round isn’t bad

The problem is the big hole they cut in the bulkhead panel for the old autopilot system. The teak quarter-round is basically junk.

That’s some old varnish

Quarter-round is gone

After I cleaned up the joint between the teak deck and mahogany bulkhead, I took some measurements and transferred them to the veneer panel.

Time to dry-fit the veneer plywood

Not bad for the first fitting

Knock the top off so it matches the dashboard height

That EurekaZone track saw is awesome for this kind of stuff. Once the height was right, I used my Makita jigsaw to cut the hole for the steering pump and the relief for the helm dashboard.

That’s more like it

Engine Room CO2 fire extinguisher manual trigger is in the way

First I went to the engine room and disconnected the trigger cable from the release valve. Then I pulled the trigger free.

If you ever wondered how to take these apart…

It’s an elegant piece of hardware

Fire extinguisher cable pull tech, circa 1969

That’s original 1969 varnished mahogany right there

There are some who question horizontal grain orientation of mahogany wall plywood, but I figure if it was good enough for Chris Craft back when it was the #1 powerhouse boat manufacturer on the planet it’s good enough for me.

With all of the hardware out of the way and the bulkhead veneer final fitted, it’s tempting to bust out the varnish, but first I’ve got some wiring stuff to attend to. Once that Whisper Wall headliner gets installed, it’s going to be very complicated running wires up to the helm. Better get that out of the way first.

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

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Helm Station Mahogany II

The aft deck beautification project is coming along well. The covering boards above the windshield turned out nicely, and so did the mahogany plywood panels. Next I got to work on more mahogany boards for the port and starboard sides of the helm.

Good thing I kept this old plywood

I’ve mentioned before that I always struggle with whether I should keep wooden scraps or toss them. This raggedy old panel has been sitting under the boat since we did the demolition so many years ago. It was one of the side panels on the aft deck. While the end is rotten, there’s solid marine plywood in there that will work great as a spacer.

Very solid 50-year old mahogany plywood

The spacer will be the mounting surface for the pretty mahogany

The spacer won’t be visible at all once the solid mahogany pieces are installed.

The bottom edge of this little triangular area will be visible, so it’ll be made of solid mahogany

It’s not elegant, but I don’t know how else to do it. The shape of the aft deck walls here is very different than the original. In retrospect, I should have had the guys fiberglass and paint that area so it was flush with the other fiberglass there. Too late for that…

Solid mahogany filler piece is done

Solid mahogany scraps are coming in handy here

I saved the 5/16″ thick scraps from when we resawed the toerail boards years ago. They’ve been sitting under the boat since 2013. I knew they’d come in handy someday.

See where I’m going with this?

Lots of ugly needs to be covered here

Similar challenges on the starboard side

Time to make some side covering boards

Before

After

Now do you see where I’m going with this?

Not bad, eh?

The upper window tracks on all of the Chris Crafts I’ve owned are generally hidden behind mahogany valence panels that are permanently attached. By permanently, I mean they’re screwed in place, bungs cover the screw holes, and then the whole board gets varnished or painted. That looks great until you have to replace a window or even just remove them every few years so you can scrub out the tracks to make the windows slide easier. Removing the bungs destroys them and generally messes up the varnish job. And when you’re backing the screws out, about 50% of the time the screw head will ding the edge of the hole and rip a chunk of wood out.

So what I decided to do here is permanently glue and screw these boards to the hardtop. They’ll be pretty and structural. Then, I’ll have another board that hides the window track, with screws on the backside going into the board above it. If I need to do something with the windows, I’ll just remove the screws, remove the board, and have easy access to the tracks.

Like this

Does that make sense?

Ugliness covered! On to the next!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Helm Station Mahogany II