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: 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: Aft Stateroom Porthole Surround Panels IV

The pile of African mahogany panels I’ll use for porthole surround panels continues to grow while my painter and I try to coordinate schedules. It’s at the point that I think it might make more sense for me to build a sort of spray booth outside of the tent to expedite things. In the meantime, I continued cutting and fitting new panels to connect the port side of the transom cabinetry to the  starboard side.

The overhead panel on the left needs to be cut square

The sawsall I used to cut out the cabinets back when the refit began didn’t cut square. The wood is solid and it’s already the right width, so I’ll just remove it and square it up.

48 year-old marine plywoood, meet my EZ-One tracksaw

Good lookin’ plywood

They don’t make it like that anymore…

Nicely squared panel

Original fascia panel was unfortunately painted white

The fascia panel over the porthole opening is original Chris Craft-grade mahogany, but it was unfortunately painted white from the factory. I’ll run it through a surface planer eventually and see if the wood looks good enough to clear coat. If it doesn’t clean up, I’ll probably just cut new pieces. I’ve got plenty of long mahogany stock, so I may just cut one piece to go all the way across the transom.

Transom vent chute

There are polished stainless vent covers that go on the outside of the boat, but inside the boat the 1/4″ pressboard panel that Chris Craft used to enclose the vent chute had rotted away. I’ll use 1/4″ marine plywoood for the chute and coat everything with epoxy to seal it up.

Port side vent chute is rough fitted

Next, I marked the line for the chute panel, which takes a bit of a curve, along the backside of the new porthole panel.

Next, install cleats for the vent chute

I reused cleats we saved when we dismantled the boat.

Port side is done

…now on to the port

Back into the plywood stack

Tracing the old vertical pattern piece

Nice fit

Mini cleats secure the panel to the framing

Port transom vent chute is rough fitted

Attach cleats to the marked line

Pretty much done

Port transom vent chute is ready for coating

Squaring up and fastening the starboard vertical transom panel set the foundation for all of the other panels that I’ll make for the aft stateroom cabinetry. With the corresponding port side panel now locked in place, I can cut and fit the port side transom porthole surround panels.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Porthole Surround Panels V