1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing Throttle Cables & Accusync Engine Synchronizer

In preparation for (hopefully) splashing the boat in October, I’ve got the fuel system and the Fischer Panda genset installation almost done. The cable-drive tachometers are hooked up. Next, I decided to tackle the throttle cables.

Installing the new cables is pretty straightforward. I went with Seastar Xtreme CCX633. But this installation is complicated by the fact that I’m installing an Accusync twin engine synchronizer.

I bought this Accusync back in 2005 and planned to use it on the 1967 Chris Craft Constellation 52 we had at the time. But that boat was old school Detroit Diesel-powered, and it didn’t have any senders that would send a signal to the Accusync. I never used it, and it sat fallow on a shelf in my garage until just recently.

NOS Accusync, ready to install

It’s new old stock, but apparently it’s so old that, in the interim, the company decided to stop making engine synchronizers for the pleasure boat market.

It’s a time capsule!!!

How about that for a testament to how technology has changed since 2005: this high tech piece of equipment came with a state-of-the-art VHS video cassette to show you how to install it!

I haven’t had a VHS player in ages… Fortunately, the installation manual does a pretty good job of explaining what needs to happen.

The cable & wire chase in the salon is the best spot for the Accusync

I used a 17′ Seastar cable for the starboard engine, which goes from the helm controls directly to the  injector pump. That makes the starboard engine the “master.” For the port side, which is the “slave,” it will be controlled by the “master” via the Accusync. I attached a 48″ Seastar cable from the helm station to the unit. You can see it hanging just below the salon counter in the pic above.

Also, for potential critics of messy wiring, keep in mind that what you see in the chase consists of the control cables and boat wiring, extension cords that bring 120v inside the boat (since my electrical system isn’t ready to be powered up yet), and a mess of alarm motion sensor, scream alarm, LED floodlight, and streaming video camera wiring that I installed after the rat bastard thieves cleaned the boat out a few years back. When the alarm wiring and extension cords go away, the chase will be shipshape and presentable.

That’s not very shipshape

I decided to use expanded PVC as a backing board for the Accusync, and I’ll position it so  there’s easy access to the wires and cables behind it, while providing clearance for the stereo on the front side.

A handy piece of expanded PVC I’ve had laying around since 2006 will do the trick

I’ve mentioned many times before that I struggle with whether or not to keep scraps of varying sizes. Thus far, I have to say that my choices to keep scraps have paid off in both convenience and financially. This nasty, epoxy stained half-sheet of PVC has been sitting in one of my sheds, completely out of the way. And when I needed it, it was ready to go and I didn’t have to pay $250 for a new sheet, which is what they’re going for these days.

That’ll do…and I’m keeping the scrap!

Rounding the edges on both sides will help avoid cuts and abrasions when fishing wires through the cable chase

Not bad

We can lose a little material here and there

So far so good

In the engine room, my Cummins 6-CTAs came with electric tachometer senders!

The tach senders on the bellhousings aren’t standard issue, they’re an added option, and these engines also came with cable-drive tachometers that I hooked up to the OEM cable-drive tachs. That’s great news for me, since (if I understand the diagrams correctly) the Cummins senders output an RPM signal that the Accusync will use to synchronize the master and slave engine RPMs.

PVC backing board is trimmed and edges are radiused

I installed a 12vdc fuse block to power the Accusync, stereo, and amplifier

“Slave” throttle control cable is attached to the Accusync

Close to a wrap

Helm station controls at idle position

That’s an idle screw stop, right? RIGHT?!?!?

I was working strictly off of intuition, since I’ve never had a Cummins-powered boat before, and on my 427 Ford-powered Commander 42 the screw that adjusted the throttle position was only for the idle. But it turns out that what I thought was the idle stop on the injection pump is actually the WOT stop. Props to Tony Athens over at Seaboard Marine for setting me straight.

That would have made an interesting start-up if I hadn’t double-checked my work!

Morse helm controls can either ‘push’ the cables or ‘pull’ them

I had them set up to ‘push,’ just like my gas-powered Commander. Turns out they’re supposed to ‘pull’ with Cummins engines.

Throttle cables installed improperly, so helm idle position = WOT

Throttle cables installed properly, so helm idle position = idle

Confirm that WOT = WOT

Idle = idle

That’s a wrap for the throttle cable installation. The Accusync isn’t wired yet, but unlike the throttle cables that’s not absolutely necessary to splash and drive the boat.

If any readers have an Accusync, I have questions about the wiring. It’s not entirely clear which terminals send juice to the Cummins senders and which terminals receive the signal. Here’s the Accusync schematic:

It looks like “7) Signal Return” is common to both magnetic pickup senders, so that must supply the juice, but the term “signal return” doesn’t intuitively sound right: having both signals ‘return’ to the same terminal would negate the point of an engine sychronizer. If any readers have any insight on this, please let me know in the comments.

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

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Re-skinning Tent Model XXX (for the last time?)

With the damage finally repaired from the big 2018 Nor’easter, I spent four days spread over a couple of weekends transforming and reskinning Tent Model XXX. The transforming part involves adjusting the height of the roof line, which had to be raised so the crew could fix gouges and re-paint the nonskid and Awlcraft 2000 shiny paint on the hard top. A lower roof line makes for a smaller structure that doesn’t catch wind quite as much. It’s our sincere hope that this is the last time I ever have to reskin this tent…time will tell. And for a little retrospective, check out the history of tent building over the course of this project.

Step One: roll out the top skin

Shrink wrap is heavy stuff. That 149′ roll weighs 210 pounds and it’s slippery as an eel. The boat’s 46 feet LOA, but the tent’s closer to 52. And the top skin has to go all the way from the front to the deck level at the stern. Previously I’ve lifted the skin up to the back end of the hard top straight off the roll, then tossed the leading edge over each frame while pulling more up from ground level. That reduces waste, but it’s a lot of work for an aging geezer. So this time, I’m cutting the top skin off the roll and schlepping the whole thing up the ladder. It’ll sit on the aft deck until I”m ready to spread it out from the top.

Next, start cutting off the starboard wall skin

She sure looks better from outside the tent.

…and then hang the new wall skin

You wouldn’t know it from the pictures, but it was scorching hot that day. The humidity in the Mid-Atlantic is bad enough during summer, but I was racing against the shadow of the tent as it grew smaller and smaller. Around 1:30pm, the sun is dead overhead and there’s no getting away from it. Fortunately, I’d finished hanging the starboard skin by then.

Next, the port side

Off comes the plastic

Signs of the Nor-easter’s power show up in broken scaffold framing

That piece of 3/4″ marine plywood wasn’t directly load bearing. I used it as a cross brace for the scaffolding to keep it square, so all it would normally ever be subject to is push-pull forces. But once the Nor’easter ripped off the big overhead vent, it left a gaping hole in the roof that the wind came through, providing lift to the structure enough to move the nose of the tent over 8″ or so. Something had to give, and that ‘something’ was the cross braces.

Another plywood cross brace snapped clean

The port wall skin is off

I don’t know if you can see it in the pic above, but the front of the tent was moved  over about 8″ from the storm. The uprights are all square to the ground, then they take a lean around the front salon window. To fix the scaffolding would require major disassembly and rebuilding of Tent Model XXX, so I’m going to gamble a bit and leave it as-is. The scaffolding is still solid and the exterior paint work is basically done. I just need it to hang on for another year or two.

Starting to hang the new skin

Bright and early the next morning

Today is Top Skin Day!

Top skin cut off, with frames up high

The top skin plastic was loaded with nonskid overspray. It’s very abrasive stuff, so I had to be very careful when pulling the plastic off the top.

Frames adjusted down

The boat looks pretty good from this angle!

That toe rail looks great in the sun!

Ready to drape the top skin

Clamps hold the plastic in place in a few spots

Next day, the top skin gets attached to the sides

First, use the propane heat gun to attach the panels, then cover the joint with preservation tape

I can only do about four feet of joint at a time. So I climb the ladder, work the heat gun, tape the joint, climb down, move the ladder, and repeat…and repeat…and repeat.

Next, a batten gets screwed into the board backing each joint

A few years ago, I figured out that I could extend the life of the tent skin by about 2x by using battens on each joint. That approach really helps keep the joint together, even if the tape and welded joint lose their bond.

Last step: shrink the side wall plastic

I was getting seriously sick of climbing that ladder.

Next, I did the back panel and port side

There’s nothing quite like working a propane heat gun on a 90° day.

Gotta hurry up…the sun’s going down

I really, really hate that ladder.

End of the day, the top is joined to the sides

My buddy’s outboard is in the way, so I can’t shrink the front

My buddy is doing a complete refit on a 25′ center console, and he was concerned about somebody stealing his outboard. So he put it near the tent, where the passive infrared alarm sensors keep a watchful eye out. Unfortunately, it’s in the way now that I’m reskinning the tent.

Next day, I shrunk the top a bit theninstalled the vent

When the big Nor’easter came along, it ripped the vent fan assembly off the roof, which left a big, gaping hole in the top plastic. So even though I like the idea of a roof vent to get rid of summer heat that basically turns the tent into a land-locked hot air balloon, I’m not cutting any more holes in the roof. Instead, I relocated the vent assembly to the side of the tent. To do that, I had to attach some 2×4 framing to the PVC pipes.

That’s ugly, but it works very well

Rain clouds were coming as I finished the battens

The starboard side is looking good

The little porch roof makes a big difference on rainy days…and that’s a wrap

Without the little porch roof in place, water runs down the tent skin and inside through the door opening. It makes a big difference having that in place.

It took several hours to fold up and dispose of the old shrink wrap and get the area back in order. The marina owner has been very understanding through all of this, and I do my best to keep things neat.

As I was driving away it started raining and was pouring buckets by the time I got home. I have to say, I was beat. It’s hard work reskinning the tent. But until the boat is weatherproof, it’s essential to keep it covered. The V-berth is weatherproof, since I installed the deck hatch. I’ve got the four salon bilge vents done, which makes the salon weatherproof. There are four more bilge vents in the aft stateroom that need to get done, and I have to install the swim platform. Once that’s done and I figure out what to do about the porthole seals, it will be weatherproof…after I have the aft deck canvas done.

There’s still a ways to go. But I believe I can get it all done before this tent needs reskinning again. Let’s hope this is the last time.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Back Into The Starboard Salon Cabinetry

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Repairing the Damage from the Big 2018 Nor’easter

This is the third time the project has been hit by disaster (fourth if I include the paperwork SNAFU). There was the bastard thieves who grabbed all of my portable tools, materials, and original Chris Craft parts in 2014. Then there was the boat next door that blew up, damaging the tent and my paint in 2015. There were some lesser disasters, too, but the next big one was that Nor’easter in March 2018 that whooped Tent Model XXX and damaged my brand new Awlgrip paint. After a time consuming and irritating claim process, we finally settled this week. The repairs have been ongoing for a while, but I wanted to wait to write about it until the work was basically done. After long four months, we’re almost there.

Step 1: wash the boat

A lot of dirt blew in through the gaping hole in the top during the storm, so washing the boat was the first thing I did.

That’s cleaning up rather nicely

I do like that Matterhorn white Awlcraft with the tinted windows

Next, the top skin was split so the roof could be raised

There was damage to the shiny paint as well as the nonskid on the cabin top and the hard top. I don’t want to re-skin the whole tent just yet, because once the nonskid gets sprayed the whole interior surface of the plastic skin will be covered with very coarse overspray. So instead I had the roof over the hardtop raised so there would be plenty of room for the guys to do the work.

The top skin over the hardtop is gone

That’s only the third time the sun has hit this paint directly.

Sunlight in the salon!

The tent frames over the hardtop need to be raised

Up go the frames

The new top skin got draped and battened by late afternoon

Next day, the new shrink wrap top got tensioned

Ventilator and filter box got set up

Then a lot of very expensive materials started showing up

Three cases of 3M 233+ tape, and and a bunch of Mirka Abranet  in various grits

With all of the prep work done and materials on-site, the repairs could finally begin

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fixing the Nor’easter Damage

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Refurbing the Original Electric Panel

I’m still working on waterproofing the starboard side of the salon, which has involved remaking a bilge vent duct and fiberglassing the main engine room air inlet duct panel. To gain access there, I removed the original electrical panel and did some repairs to it. Next I sealed it up with white-tinted epoxy.

Back side of the electric panel has been sealed with epoxy

Mahogany sticks were epoxied into the hinge screw holes

Two of the six hinge screws had stripped out the plywood, in part because the two pieces of plywood weren’t epoxied together and the screws were right at the joint between the two panels. I epoxied the two panels together and put mahogany sticks into the screw holes, so the screws will have something solid to thread into.

Back side

With the back side sealed up (but ugly), I mixed up some US Composites 150 series thick epoxy resin and tinted it with their white colorant. I used this approach for the bed foundation in the V-berth, too. The epoxy is a tough coating that works great in places where it’s not exposed to direct sunlight. And the colorant allows me to end up with a shiny coating and sealant in one step…no primer, no additional sanding.

Not bad!

NOS ammeters look great!

The date on the label for these new/old stock Simpson ammeters says 10/62. A 1967 Chris Craft Constellation I used to own had an ammeter just like this in addition to the Simpson voltmeter, and I wanted them on the Roamer, too. I found them on ebay for a good price, and they’re a perfect match to the original voltmeter.

Nice!

The genset hour meter cleaned up well, too.

Bilge pump switches look nice all polished and waxed

Not bad!

I have to box up the meters and switches, flip the panel over, and apply a coat of the 150 series epoxy tinted brown on the backside.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Refurbing the Original Electric Panel II

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Starboard Engine Room Main Vent Panel

The good news is, repairs have begun on the damage to my Awlgrip paint job from the big Nor’easter a few months back. The bad news is, the insurance company’s surveyor has gone nuts and thinks the job can be done for less than half of what the estimate came to. The estimator blew up when I told him the surveyor thinks it can be done for 40% of the estimated labor hours. I pointed out to the surveyor that the estimate was consistent with my records for the amount of labor it took to prep and paint before. I wrote back to contest the surveyor’s position but haven’t heard back from him or the insurance company yet. Until this gets sorted out, I won’t be blogging as regularly as usual. There are only so many hours in a day. This is so frustrating! I hate this freakin’ boat!

[takes deep breath]

That said, I installed the starboard engine room main vent panel after extending the lower edge on it and fiberglassing the side that faces the weather. This panel is one of many things I have to install before the boat will be weatherproof and can come out of the tent.

Exterior ‘gill’ vents let a lot of cold air in during winter

Vent covers will keep out the cold

I recycled the original 3/4″ marine plywood galley bulkhead panel to make the vent covers. We removed the bulkhead during the demolition phase when we first started the project, and the bits I saved have come in very handy over the years. All I have to do is epoxy seal the edges, and the vent cover panel will be ready to keep out winter for decades to come.

Sikaflex 291 LOT seals the ER vent panel attachment points

Sliding the panel in place

More Sikaflex seals the joint to the salon cabinet floor

Done!

The upper panel will be removable (or maybe hinged) so the vent covers can be installed/removed as necessary.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Refurbing the Original Electric Panel

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Starboard Salon Bilge Vent Duct

I’m happy with the way the starboard salon bilge vent duct is turning out. A fiberglass duct is a far better approach than the pressboard and painted mahogany that Chris Craft used. It only took another weekend to wrap that up. But I’d rather spend time now to do it right than to have to fix water damage in the future.

The panels are dry-fitted

Next, I need mahogany cleats for the insulated ceiling panel to butt up against.

The ceiling cleats will be perpendicular to the cabinet wall

Fitting upright panels over the engine room main vent

The ceiling panel

Not a bad fit

Good and tight

Disassemble everything, then seal the faces with epoxy

Next day, cleats get glued and screwed in place

I wet out the surfaces then apply a bead of epoxy thickened with wood flour as the glue.

Insulated wall panel is installed

I’m using Sikaflex 291 LOT to seal the duct face panel.

Lots of sealant all the way up to the vent hole

The face panel comes up from the engine room

The panel is too long to be slid in from the salon. But there’s plenty of room coming up from the ER.

Lookin’ good!

Fully sealed and waterproof vent duct

Upright panels over the main ER vent are installed and ready for more ceiling cleats

That’s one more bilge duct that’s wrapped up. There’s one more in the salon, and four in the aft stateroom. I’ve just got to keep knocking them out one-by-one.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Starboard Engine Room Main Vent panel

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Starboard Salon Bilge Vent Duct

I keep hearing from the mobile paint and fiberglass repair guy that the estimate for repairs for the big Nor’easter damage is almost done. But…alas…I’ve still not received it. So I continue working on weatherproofing the bilge and engine room vents on the starboard side of the salon.

Chris Craft’s approach to bilge vents

What we have here is two 3/4″ solid mahogany boards on either side, with 1/8″ fiberboard for the face and back. I don’t know where this one came from, but I removed it a decade ago  because it was failing when we began this project. For some reason, Chris Craft put a piece of 3/4″ plywood over the top of part of the fiberboard on this particular bilge vent. It’s all sealed up with what looks like grey primer and held together with rubbery sealant and some bronze staples. I’m sure it worked fine for ten years or so, but it’s got its problems.

Fiberboard really stuck in some spots

When I pulled the fiberboard off the mahogany, you can tell the rubbery sealant really stuck on the spots where it left some fiberboard behind. But you can also see where the rubbery sealant didn’t stick to the mahogany at all.

Bronze staples are still holding fast 50 years later

The side of the fiberboard that faced the weather

Again, you can see where the sealant really stuck, and where it didn’t stick at all.

Now let’s look at that starboard salon forward bilge vent

I left the forward vent duct in place because it looked like it was in serviceable shape. Turns out it wasn’t in quite as good shape as I first thought.

Moldy white paint on the outside

But up at the top, just behind the longitudinal deck frame, you can see daylight through the pressboard

I’m glad I took off the face panel

Lots of gaps at the top

So, in addition to the hole in the salon-facing pressboard face panel, you can see that the back panel isn’t even touching the mahogany side board. The gray primer/sealant is also gone from the mahogany in spots. And at the toe rail, the rubber sealant is only there for appearance’s sake, apparently. There’s no actual contact between the rubber sealant and the pressboard.

I considered removing the duct and rebuilding it, but the mahogany sides are very firmly attached to the underside of the deck. So I decided to fiberglass what’s there instead.

First, rough up the surface and remove anything that isn’t well adhered

I also confirmed that I can use sticks up against the hull to press the back panel into full contact with the mahogany sides.

Ready for epoxy and fiberglass

Wetted out glass cloth and epoxy thickened with cabosil

I spread a bunch of epoxy out on a piece of scrap shrink wrap plastic, then laid on a sheet of lightweight fiberglass cloth to soak it up. While the ‘glass was still soaking, I wetted out the duct with epoxy

Epoxy thickened with fumed silica to the consistency of whipped cream

Thickened epoxy fills every gap and corner

Longtime readers will know what came next, after I jammed sticks in to force the back panel into contact with the side panels.

Fillets!

I do love my fillets. They look nice and also give a radius to the corners, which makes it easier for the fiberglass cloth to have full contact, and water won’t find any nooks or crannies to hang out in and cause havoc.

Next, I laid on the fiberglass cloth

Next day, the epoxy is cured

The duct needs a face panel

I’m using 1/4″ Douglas fir marine plywood for all of the duct face panels I’m making. I cover them with a layer of fiberglass on the weather-facing side to ensure they’re watertight.

I need to install an insulated panel to the left of the duct, too

Framing out the backing cleats

Next day, the epoxy on the panels is cured

Excess fiberglass trimmed off nicely

Duct panel marked off for screw holes

Countersunk screw holes every 6″

The insulated panel needed a bit of trimming to fit

 

Just about ready for installation

Dry fit is done

These panels are behind the electric panel, so I’m not terribly concerned about appearance.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Starboard Salon Bilge Vent Duct

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Starboard Engine Room Vent Panel

To get the boat waterproof, I need to do some work on the ducts between the mahogany toe rail and the engine room. I did that on the port side of the salon already. I started on the starboard side by cleaning out the space and then waterproofing the main ER vent panel.

The starboard main ER vent

Chris Craft used pressboard panels to enclose the main air intake vents to the engine room. Not surprisingly, water comes in through the gill vents on the outside of the hull, and water does bad things to pressboard. I decided to use 1/4″ marine-grade Douglas fir plywood instead of pressboard, and put a heavy coat of epoxy on it before screwing the panels in place. As with the port side, I want to extend the lower edge of the panel further down than Chris Craft did so it goes fully below the salon subfloor and framing. If any water gets in, it’ll run all the way down below the salon floor and drop into the bilge.

The OE flexible hose for the ER vent fan is a bit…worn

The vent fan itself still works fine, but the housing has some broken tabs

Inside the cabinet, looking forward

Inside the cabinet, looking aft

The ER vent panels are out

Ready for fiberglass

The small 3/4″ thick plywood panel in the pic above will be used in winter to block off the exterior gill vent and keep cold air out.

Wetted out with epoxy and covered with lightweight fiberglass cloth

Trimming off the excess fiberglass

If you look closely at the face of the plywood, you can see cracks in the veneer. Those cracks had telegraphed through the heavy coat of epoxy I put on a few years ago. This time around, I used US Composite’s 635 epoxy, which is less viscous than the 150 series stuff I used the first time. It wicks in much better, and no cracks telegraphed through the fiberglass layer.

New extension panels installed and topped with fiberglass

Next day, the excess fiberglass got trimmed

Upper panel gets a layer of fiberglass

I’ll leave the ER vent panels to cure for a while and get busy on the other bilge vents on the starboard side.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Starboard Salon Bilge Vent Duct

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Removing the Original Electric Panel

With the OEM salon and galley cabinet interiors tricked out with mahogany veneers, I’m getting back to sealing up exterior holes to make the boat waterproof. I finished that on the port side of the salon already. To access the starboard side hull in the salon, I have to pull the original electrical panel out of the way. Chris Craft put hinges on the panel, so it’s easy enough to see the hull. But I need to get up close and personal with it, so the panel has to come out. That’ll also give me a chance to clean up the panel and get it ready for another half-century of use.

The electric panel resides behind double doors in the salon cabinetry

The cabinets are already refinished and ready for installation. I keep them at home so they won’t get damaged in the construction zone.

OEM Simpson volt meter doesn’t look bad, though the needle needs to be zeroed

After popping the meter out of the case, things look very good

All back together. Now to see if it functions

Booyah

Though this boat didn’t come with ammeters, my old Constellation 52 had one and I liked it. I bought some NOS Simpson units I want to install when I put this all back together.

The power selector switch appears to be in good shape

The panel is out

I thought this was 3/4″ plywood, but it turns out it’s two sheets of 1/2″

The hour meter for the genset was difficult to remove

You can see white powder on the aluminum housing for the hour meter. It’s bare aluminum, and the hole in the panel wasn’t sealed. So moisture that condensed on the metal wicked in and corroded the aluminum where it contacted the wood. Enough aluminum oxide built up to fill the gap and make it extremely difficult to remove the meter.

White aluminum oxide is incorporated in the plywood fibers

I used a holesaw to clear out the aluminum oxide, then scraped it off of the meter housing. I’ll coat the housing with clear enamel to protect the aluminum from now on. With the white powder gone, the meter fits in the hole a lot easier…but it’s still ugly.

Rough looking hour meter

Pretty hour meter

Gotta love Collinite metal polish.

Nasty bilge pump switch and panel

That wax is good stuff!

Pretty bilge pump switches and panel

Disassembling the electric panel

Separating the two halves

There was no glue holding the two panels together, and there was a surprising amount of movement between the two panels.

After sanding, the panels are ready to be glued and screwed back together

Fully saturated with epoxy and clamped flat

I plan on re-using the main AC and DC breaker panels, but I’m getting rid of the small breaker panel that was connected to the port engine battery. All 12v house loads will go through the starboard battery bank. The battery for the port engine will only be used for starting and running that engine. That will clear up some space on the electric panel, so I’ll relocate the AC power source selector switch and add those NOS ammeters in line with the OE voltmeter. But that will come a bit later.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Starboard Engine Room Vent Panel

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Last Varnished Mahogany Panels in the Forward Salon Cabinet

I decided a while back to shift from closing up bilge vent ducts and start using up the remaining 1/8″ mahogany plywood. There was one 4′ x 8′ sheet and a bunch of big cut-offs, and I was getting sick of moving them around to get to other stuff. Fortunately, there was just enough of that plywood to veneer the OEM cabinets in the galley and salon. I finished the galley cabinet interior first, then wrapped up the aft salon cabinet (which I think turned out really nicely). Next I wrapped up the forward salon cabinet.

The salon forward cabinet before the veneers

The same cabinet interior with a mahogany floor and back panel

Chris craft didn’t make a closed cabinet box here, so you can see the hull from inside the cabinet. Since I’m trying to create an insulated envelope in the living spaces, I need to make an interior wall panel for that cabinet and then insulate the backside using R3 Buffalo Batt before installing it.

New outer cabinet wall

Framing out the new wall attachment points

Because there is a vent fan in this space, the wall I’m making will need to be removable just in case the fan needs service sometime in the future.

Test fit looks OK

Upper panel fits tightly to the wiring without pinching

As you can see, I didn’t bother with veneering the parts of the cabinet that aren’t visible unless your head is inside of it. I don’t feel it’s necessary to buy another sheet of mahogany just to make practically invisible parts of this cabinet pretty.

Backside of the panels got insulated

I also saturated the panel edges with epoxy to fully seal them. There’s little chance of water ever getting in to this panel, but I want to be consistent throughout the refit so I don’t get surprised with a panel failure sometime down the road.

Cleats and the panels are ready to install

As with everywhere else, I’m using epoxy to glue and then screw the cleats in place. Once it cures, they’re much more rigidly attached than when you only use screws.

Test fit the mahogany veneer panels on the newly installed wall

After wetting out the plywood with epoxy and then applying a bit of wood flour-thickened epoxy, I used a bunch of sticks and plywood scraps to press the panels in place.

Pressing the inner and outer mahogany veneers in place while the epoxy cures

Next day, the sticks come out

Last up: the shelf

Nice!

The hole you see at the top of the mahogany panel in the cabinet is the opening for the 1968 Edison brand toaster that was on the boat when we started this whole thing. I sent the toaster off for rechroming a few years back, and it’s a real thing of beauty. I look forward to the day when I install it.

Anyway, that’s a wrap for the OEM cabinet interiors. I only have to make fiddles to cover the leading edges of the plywood shelves and install the doors, which are already sprayed in ICA base and top coat clear urethane. Next, I’m going to start on the starboard side of the salon.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Removing the Original Electric Panel