1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing More Varnished Mahogany Panels in the Aft Salon Cabinet

The OEM galley cabinet interior is done. The forward salon cabinet interior is almost done. So I installed a half dozen mahogany veneer panels in the salon aft cabinet to wrap that one up.

Lotsa mahogany panels to install

The 1/8″ mahogany plywood is down to just a few small scraps. The plywood stack in the salon is getting smaller every week. When it’s gone, the Roamer interior should be done. Boooyah.

Wetting out panels with epoxy

Installing the panels in the cabinet

Truth be told, I pretty much ran out of 1/8″ mahogany plywood. So I had to use three leftover scraps to make the last interior panel inside the lower aft cabinet. I was able to match the grain pretty well, and the seams turned out just fine. If anybody ever notices this, I’m going to either give them a beer (if they’re friendly about it) or toss ’em off the boat for being too picky. 🙂

Last panels are clamped in place

After pressing the veneers in place, I wiped the joints down with alcohol to remove the epoxy that squeezed out. Then I used F-clamps and plywood scraps to keep pressure on the panels while the epoxy cures. To the right of the cabinet is the helm service chase, where all of the wiring, cables, and hydraulic lines run. There are cover panels that go over the open space you can see in the pic, and like everything else they were painted white.

You can see part of the white helm chase panels in this “before” pic

Not exactly pretty, eh?

Clamping mahogany veneers to the helm service chase cover panels

Cutting out the stereo hole

Looking good!

There was also a narrow strip of white paint just inside the cabinet, too

Clamp the last veneers in place then go home and let the epoxy cure

Next day, the clamps came off and I installed the service chase panels

The stereo panel went in nicely.

The cabinet will look even better with the doors reinstalled…someday.

And finally, the upper chase panel is installed

I need to install a fiddle to cover the leading edge of the plywood shelf, then install the doors. Other than those little details, the aft salon cabinet is a wrap.

I cover finished areas in corrugated paper for protection

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

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing Varnished Mahogany Panels in the Galley Cabinet

I’m on a roll with these cabinet interiors. There was a bit of a learning curve on the salon aft cabinet, but the salon forward one was a relative breeze. The galley cabinet is the most complex, though. There are lots of pieces and they only fit in the one spot each one was fitted to…nothing on this boat’s square!

The ugly galley cabinet

I roughed up the interior with a grinder and corner sander

Wetting out all the panels with epoxy

Just a couple of panels left

Varnished panels warp

I’ve learned that thin mahogany plywood warps when you put varnish on only one side. Even perfectly flat panels get a wow to them if you varnish one side. It’s not bad with urethane-based varnish, like the Minwax Spar Varnish I’m using here. They get a real banana in them when I used water-based Minwax urethane (which I’ll never do again). So once the panels and cabinet interiors were nicely wetted out with epoxy, I troweled on just a bit of wood flour-thickened epoxy as glue, pushed the panels into position, wiped up the joints with alcohol, then clamped everything in place.

Maximum clampage

Next day, F-clamps for the leading edge of the next panel

The 1/8″ plywood scraps also make good push sticks for places where conventional clamps don’t work. They’ve got just the right amount of spring.

More clamps for the last of the galley cabinet interior panels

With everything clamped in place, I headed home and came back the next day.

Clamps off!

Good lookin’ cabinet!

All I need to finish these panels are two solid mahogany fiddles to cover the leading edge of the shelves. That’s a super low priority that I’ll deal with after the boat splashes … someday.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing More Varnished Mahogany Panels in the Aft Salon Cabinet

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

The salon aft cabinet looks a lot better with mahogany veneer panels installed in the interior. The forward salon cabinet turned out pretty good, too.

The forward cabinet is under the galley counter

First I roughed it up with a grinder

That mahogany plywood inside is very pretty. Too bad Chris Craft slathered white paint on it.

3/4″ Douglas fir marine plywood is wetted out with epoxy, then topped with wood flour-thickened epoxy

The interior of these cabinets are framed out with 1″x1″ mahogany cleats that are also painted white. I’m using the Doug fir plywood to raise the floor of the cabinet so the mahogany plywood veneer will cover the cleats.

Wetting out the mahogany plywood with US Composites 635 epoxy

Next, I applied epoxy to the cabinet interior

Every stick serves a purpose

After installing all of the panels and pressing them into place, I wiped down the joints to remove any epoxy that squeezed out. Then I used plywood scraps as springy braces to keep pressure on the panels. It looks like a Rube Goldberg contraption, but every single stick serves a purpose.

Next day…good lookin’ cabinet!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing Varnished Mahogany Panels in the Galley Cabinet

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

I’ve been varnishing lots of 1/8″ mahogany plywood panels for the OEM cabinet interiors with Minwax Urethane Clear Gloss. They turned out pretty nice, and now it’s time to start installing them.

That’s a lot of varnished plywood pieces

Good thing I marked them on the back-side so I’d know where each one goes and its orientation. 😉

Next, I took a grinder to the OEM paint

That 50-year old paint was ugly, but it was also thick and still very well adhered to the plywood below. So instead of stripping it entirely, I roughed it up with 36 grit on a sanding pad, using a small disk on a grinder and then a multitool to get into the corners. Once it was all roughed up, I mixed up some US Composites blush-free epoxy and wetted out the cabinet interior and back of the mahogany panel. I’m using epoxy for this veneer work because it’s been my experience that contact cement just doesn’t do as good a job. The edges and corners of veneers attached using contact cement inevitably peel up years down the road. I want this bond to be permanent.

Once I’d wetted everything out, I mixed some wood flour into the epoxy and troweled on a bit more to act as the glue. Then I put all the pieces in place. After pressing the panels home, I went through with a squeegee to scrape off excess glue that squeezed out. Then I wiped down all of the joints with alcohol to remove any trace of epoxy residue.

Panels are in and clamped in place

Every stick is part of an essential clamp or pad to protect the varnish. I find that 1/8″ mahogany scraps are very useful for clamping interior pieces like these. They’re flexible, and can be bent into position then act like a spring to keep gentle pressure on the varnished panels.

The key at this point is to stop messing with it and just go home

Touching any of the pieces or even vibrations from walking around can cause the clamps to fail and fall. When one goes, it takes out all of them in the area. It’s best to just go home, let the epoxy cure, and come back the next day.

Et voila!

That turned out pretty good! Remember, this is what it looked like before:

I still have to make the fiddle for the leading edge of the shelf, and I need to cut a couple more panels to finish out this cabinet. But I think this was worth the effort.

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

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Making the Ugly Galley Cabinet Pretty

I’m still working on getting estimates for the damage to the boat from the big Nor’easter that ripped through the area. In the meantime, I had a big pile of relatively fragile 1/8″ mahogany plywood in a full 4×8 sheet and also a lot of large scraps that I wanted to get out of the way. I used it to veneer the bulkhead between the galley and V-berth and also for the insulated ceiling on the underside of the port deck. I’ll use the rest to make the OEM cabinet interiors in the salon and galley pretty. The white paint Chris Craft used didn’t look very good when it was new, and it looks pretty shabby almost 50 years later. The missus and I prefer to see pretty wood on the inside of cabinets, so that’ll be a great spot to use up the leftovers. The aft salon cabinet looks much better with the veneer panels cut and fitted. I did the galley cabinet interior next.

The big pile of 1/8″ mahogany plywood scraps

The ugly galley cabinet

Removing the fiddles took more time than I expected

The fiddles were screwed to the plywood shelf, puttied over, and the cabinet was painted a very long time ago. Unfortunately, two of the screws are back behind the cabinet face panel. Getting them out without breaking anything was a bit of a challenge.

One down, one to go

The plywood pile gets smaller

One box down…

None of the angles in here are 90°, which makes no sense because the cabinet is basically rectangular. Chris Craft was a production boat maker (the largest in the world at the time), but still…you’d think they could have cut the panels square. Getting nice, tight panel joints is much more challenging when nothing is square.

Middle box is done…on to the bottom

The bottom of the bottom box is framed out with ugly cleats

Filling it in with scrap Douglas fir plywood will make for a nice, flat bottom

The pile of 1/8″ mahogany gets smaller by the day!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Making the Ugly Salon Forward Cabinet Pretty

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Salon Aft Cabinet

My main plan for 2018 is to keep working on weather-proofing the boat, which means rebuilding the toe rail-to-bilge vent ducts. Until those are done, any water that ends up going down the vent holes in the toe rail will end up landing on interior wood that isn’t intended for water exposure. I finished up the salon port side ducts and associated nearby plywood panels in March. But then I realized that I’m moving a lot of 1/8″ mahogany plywood around, and the big pile of useful scraps are getting in the way. I’m going to get this stuff out of the way by using it to make the OEM cabinet interiors pretty.

The OEM salon cabinets are really ugly on the inside

I’ve had a Chris Craft Constellation 52 (a 1967 wooden boat), a 1968 Commander 42 (FRP hull), and this 1969 Roamer, and every one of them had really ugly cabinet interiors. Even if the cabinets are made of mahogany plywood, Chris Craft painted them white on the inside and the paint just doesn’t weather well. The missus has made it clear that she wants pretty cabinet interiors, so this is a good place to put the last of the 1/8″ plywood to good use.

Cleared of tools and materials

The pile of 1/8″ mahogany plywood scraps

My EZ-One track saw makes panel cutting super easy

The really big benefit of the track saw over a table saw is that the panel doesn’t move, the saw does. So breaking down panels in limited spaces like mine is easy, even when ripping full-length 8-foot panels. Another huge benefit–especially when working on an old boat where nothing is cut square–is that it’s no more difficult to cut a panel at a 91° angle (or whatever) than any other. You simply mark the near and far side of the panel where you want the cut, drop the track bridge, align the track to the marks, fire up the dust collector, and make the cut.

Pulling the last full 1/8th” mahogany sheet from the stack

Marking off the cut lines

Breaking down the panel one cut at a time

The upper back panel is done

That looks better!

MUCH BETTER!

I need to relocate tools that are in the lower cabinet, and then cut those panels. I’ll take them back to the house and  varnish them with Minwax Quick Dry Urethane before top coating with Minwax Urethane Spar Varnish

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Making the Ugly Galley Cabinet Pretty

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Assembling the Port Salon Cabinet Box

It was a long, cold winter, which was slowing down my progress by not getting warm enough for the epoxy to kick. But then it was 80°F in early March, and I thought winter was finally over. Then it snowed a couple of weeks ago, dumping a bunch of wet, heavy snow that hung around for days. There were a couple of warm days last week, but then over the weekend there were flurries of snow yet again! This is nuts!

Storm-damaged Tent Model XXX held up to the recent snow

Inside the salon, I was working on varnishing and assembling the port side cabinet box.

All the cabinet box panels are cut and fitted

I took all of the panels back to my house and varnished them using Minwax Quick Dry Urethane as the base and Urethane Spar Varnish as the top coat. The Quick Dry seems to soak in better, so I think it’ll make a better sealer, while the Spar Varnish is more viscous and builds up thicker in fewer coats. Once it’s fully cured, it’s a very tough product.

Varnished panels are being glued and screwed together

After wetting out the rabbets and panel edges with epoxy, I add wood flour to the epoxy until it’s the consistency of ketchup, then apply a bit to the joint and clamp it all together. If there’s any squeeze out, I wipe it up with small rags soaked in alcohol.

Nice fit

Need more clamps

I keep buying more clamps, and yet I find I still need more. It’s the craziest thing.

Opposite view

A week later, the epoxy had finally kicked

That’s a good looking cabinet box

Not bad!

Final install will have to wait until the AC ducting is in

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Salon Aft Cabinet

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Cutting and fitting the Port Salon Cabinet

With the ceiling panels insulated and installed under the port side deck, next I got to work on the salon cabinet.

The ceiling panels under the deck are done

Dry fit the salon cabinet face panel

When we started on this refit, I was surprised to see that Chris Craft hadn’t finished the cabinet interiors with mahogany. Instead, when you opened the cabinet doors you could see the hull and douglas fir plywood floors, which they painted white. The missus doesn’t like that look (and, frankly, neither do I), so I’ll build a mahogany box to fit on the backside of the cabinet face panel, so when the doors are open we’ll see pretty wood.

Breaking down a 1/2″ sheet of mahogany plywood

The stack of plywood in the salon is getting smaller with each passing month. When it’s gone, the interior should be pretty much done.

The EZ-One tracksaw table makes quick work of breaking down the panel, and the cuts are super straight

Side panel is ready to dry fit

Good fit (though the pic is out of focus)

I considered running the panel all the way to the ceiling panel above, but I need to leave a gap for the air conditioning duct.

Fitting a 1″ x 1″ mahogany cleat for the cabinet bottom

Note the original white paint on the salon floor. That’s what you’d see when you opened the doors. I think my approach will be better.

More securely attaching the face panel

With the panel securely attached to the framing, it follows the slight curve of the deck.

The bottom panel edge needs a bit of a curve to match

Nice!

That looks better

It was around this point that I realized that I made a mistake when ordering the plywood. Way back when I was dealing with the paperwork snafu and making the interior concept drawings, I used the CAD program Sketchup to estimate how many sheets of plywood I’d need. I copied the panels from the drawings and pasted them onto 4’x8′ rectangles, then counted the number of rectangles (adding a bit for waste) and ordered the plywood. While I was focused on minimizing the number of sheets of plywood I’d have to buy, I didn’t even think about grain orientation. In the pic above, you can see that the grain runs from the front of the panel to the back. But for all of the other panels, the grain runs parallel to the floor. It occurred to me at this point that it would look more pleasing to the eye if the grain for the bottom panel ran along the longest dimension. But…I’ve only got so much plywood. And for a cabinet interior, I’m not sure that it’s worth the investment to buy more expensive sheets of mahogany ply to make sure the grain is all oriented properly.

I’m going to write this off to me being an amateur and never having done cabinet work before. Once the boat’s done, I’ll probably never notice…probably.

1/8″ mahogany ply for the top cabinet panel

A slot in a strip of 1/2″ plywood will stiffen up the top panel

Like that

Fitting the aft cabinet wall panel

I took the other panels home and applied a coat of Minwax urethane varnish overnight.

The wall panel is coming together

Looks good!

Fuzzy pic, but a nice, tight fit

Cutting the back panel

I’m down to the last sheet of 1/8″ mahogany plywood

Ready to dry-fit the back panel

Before

After

I took all these plywood pieces home and brushed on a few coats of urethane varnish. For cabinet interiors, it’s not worth setting up the spray booth and applying base and top coats of ICA clear, which I’ve used on all of the visible mahogany wall panels.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Assembling the Port Salon Cabinet Box.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Insulating and Installing the Port Salon Panels

I wrapped up the varnish on the ceiling panels that go under the port side deck, then insulated the backside and installed them all.

I’m working in the port aft corner of the salon

The last ceiling panel is varnished, drilled, and ready for insulation

The backside gets wetted out with epoxy

Since I had epoxy mixed up, I glued and screwed all of the mahogany backing cleats in place.

Buffalo Batt insulation gets pressed in place

The forward ceiling panel also got insulated

And the middle panel, too

Next day…they’re ready to install

Next day, the forward panel is glued and screwed in place

The insulated envelope

The hull and deck are covered in spray foam insulation rated at R7. Then there’s the air gap, with the backside of each wooden panel insulated with Buffalo Batt, which provides an additional R3 insulation. The boat should be cozy in summer or winter with all of this insulation. I hope it’s worth the extra effort.

The middle panel was next

One more to go

The last panel goes here

The contact areas got wetted out with epoxy, then topped with wood flour-thickened epoxy

Boom

And that’s a wrap

With the insulation envelope done on the port side of the galley and salon, I can get to work on the salon cabinetry there.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Cutting and fitting the Port Salon Cabinet

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fitting Still More Port Salon Panels

I cut more 1/8″ mahogany plywood for the under-deck ceiling panels on the port side, then took them home and put on a couple coats of Minwax urethane varnish. It’s not as tough a product as the ICA two-part catalyzed clear I’ve been using for all of the major interior paneling, but for closet interiors and other places that will never see direct sunlight it’s fine.

First, measure the gap every six inches

Marked off and ready to cut

Nice fit!

 

Plenty of space for Buffalo Batt Insulation

Two coats of Minwax later…

Time to test fit

Not bad!

Needs a batten to join the panels

Like that!

Pay no heed to the grain orientation

I’m using up the 1/8″ plywood scraps here, and I don’t care about grain orientation since the only people who will see these panels are the owner when it comes time to winterize the boat and put the ER vent panels in place, then recommissioning in the spring. They’ll be hidden behind a built-in settee.

Another batten to join the panels

The last outboard mahogany cleat is fitted

And the last panel is cut

I’ll varnish that panel then remove all of them, seal and insulate the backsides before I do the final glue-and-screw installation.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Insulating and Installing the Port Salon Panels