1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Wrapping Up the V-berth Headliner Installation

The good news is, the aft stateroom headliner install is done. The bad news is, it’s summer in the Mid-Atlantic region, which means high temps and miserable humidity. It’s actually not bad if you’re out boating, and I’m very glad to have a 1968 Chris Craft Commander 42 knock-about boat for that sort of thing. But for doing a refit in a plastic tent, East Coast summers are the worst . When it’s 85° outside with a nice breeze, it’s 110° with no breeze inside. Want to do woodwork? Good luck with that! There’s nothing quite like dripping sweat all over raw mahogany or plywood to ensure an awesome finished product!

My solution is to show up at or around the crack of dawn and work until noon. That works OK, unless overnight temps are in the high 70s or higher, in which case it’s roasting inside once the sun comes up. So…progress is going to  drop over the next few weeks as I get through another round of the dog days of summer. With a forecast of ~100°F for the weekend, I’d much rather be on the knock-about Commander than stuck in the tent. That said, the show must go on (albeit heat-adjusted).

When last we were in the V-berth…

Two panels in, two to go.

Whisper Wall Gelato Baby Osterich looks shinier in the pic than it is in person

That’s pretty stuff

That looks much better than the Tiger Foam insulation!

Cutting holes in brand new headliner is always exciting

I have to say, I feel incredible relief when I cut the hole in the headliner and immediately find the wiring. I keep expecting the installer to have pushed the wiring so far out of reach that we have to pull the Whisper Wall to re-orient it. But thus far, on the wiring, this contractor has been performing up to my expectations.

OEM “hourglass” light switch is on

“And then there was [Kai LED] light!”

Next light goes near the head doorway

Before the last panel was installed…

…and after

That’s a wrap on the V-berth headliner install. I still have to get the guy to install the Whisper Wall around the bunk area, after which we’re about ready for the final ICA top coat spray. But because of the brutal temps in the tent, we won’t be spraying varnish until at least the fall of 2019. Which is fine, because there’s lots of other things to do before this boat splashes.

Circling back again to that thing about scorching summer heat and knock-about boats, I wanted to mention that Steve at Flagship Marine has been a big help getting a new-to-me air conditioner up and working in the V-berth of my Commander 42. He’s also the one I worked with on the new AC units I’ll be installing in the Roamer. I don’t make anything off of the referral, but if you’re looking for top quality marine AC, I encourage you to ping Steve.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Galley Crack Repair

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Wrapping Up the Aft Stateroom Headliner Installation

All but one aft stateroom headliner panel has been installed, and then I got all of the LEDs and the OEM light fixture installed. There’s just one more Whisper Wall panel to install in the ceiling, and then I can do some finishing touches to wrap it up.

The last Whisper Wall panel is almost done

The installer spritzes the panel with water, then uses tools that look like thick, rounded putty knives to push the fabric home into the track on one side. Next, he pulls it to the far side and pushes it home in that track before doing the other two sides. Then he comes back with a razor and trims the material that’s hanging free. I like this approach a lot better than the original headliner, with a solid line of staples all the way around that has to be covered with trim.

Trimming the last bit of headliner

Boom. Done.

I got busy wrapping up the hatch

Staples hold the fabric tight, then trim the excess

The installer knew there was a friction fit between the mahogany ring and the new varnished veneer. But for some reason he pulled the fabric up into the hatch tube and put a line of staples into the new veneer to hold it in place. So I had to pull all the staples before trimming the fabric.

That’s the idea

That looks pretty awesome

Reconditioned screen is ready to install

I replaced the screen and spline. When I had it all apart, I cleaned up the aluminum extrusions and applied metal wax to protect it.

You can tell where the screen tracks go by the corrosion

The V-berth hatch leaked but the aft one didn’t. White aluminum oxide powder is heaviest on four of the eight tracks, so those are for the V-berth.

It’s obvious, right?

Test fitting two screen tracks

That looks about right

Houston, we have a problem

The original metal trim ring was ~1/16″ thick. The mahogany ring is ~1/8″ heavy, so the screen frame is too high to smoothly pass it. I need to lower the tracks 1/8″ or so.

The solution: thin mahogany spacer strips with eight coats of varnish

Drill pilot holes in the mahogany strip with a Vix #3 to precisely center them

That works…and looks good, too

Getting closer

That’s better

Perfect!

All tracks installed

I thought I should show what the OEM hatch trim piece looked like. I’m sure the aluminum was nice when it was new, but even if it was shiny I think the mahogany looks a lot better.

And with that, the aft stateroom headliner installation is a wrap.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Wrapping Up the V-berth Headliner Installation

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Headliner Installation II

When I wrote about starting on the aft stateroom headliner installation, the expert had done three Whisper Wall panels. With the entryway and head sliding door box varnished, it’s time to finish up the rest of the headliner install.

When last I posted, three panels were installed

The Whisper Wall installer came and got busy.

That’s looking great!

The aft hatch opening

That’s going to look super with the mahogany trim ring installed…soon.

Looking good

Aft looking forward…more panels!

Aft head sliding door box turned out very nicely

I really like that Whisper Wall headliner

Entryway headliner panel and light switch turned out good, too

This is a 3-way switch

I’ll install the counterpart to this switch near the head of the bed, so the lights can be turned on and off from either place.

The entryway sure looks better than what I started with!

That overhead beam looks great with the headliner installed!

Next, I went to work with a razor knife and a sharp pair of scissors, cutting holes for the light fixtures.

Kai inset LED lights are ready to install

First, cut the hole and fish out the wiring

Plug in the light

Pull the springs back and slide the light home

The springs pull the light up tight to the headliner

Sweet!

The last hole was for the OEM light

10w 12vdc LED corn bulb fits perfectly in the OEM fixture

I bought these LED corn bulbs on ebay. I bought a bunch with different watt ratings. It turns out that 10w bulbs are the biggest that can fit in these fixtures. They put out as much light as a 75w incandescent, but at a fraction of the amp consumption.

Nice mix of old and new

The OEM light will give a boost to the closets. They all have portholes, so natural lighting will provide some light. The Kai LED lights I’m using elsewhere are 6 watts each. The additional 4w from the corn bulbs really light the place up.

Don’t need the 10w light? It turns off on a separate switch

Done for today!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Wrapping Up the Aft Stateroom Headliner Installation

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Aft Stateroom Headliner Install Begins

With two Whisper Wall headliner panels installed in the V-berth, the installer jumped into the aft stateroom to get more panels installed. While he’s doing that, I’m doing other, related things that I’ll be writing about soon. Even though there’s quite a ways to go on this refit, getting the headliner installed sure makes a YUGE visual impact!

I give you…the partially completed aft stateroom!

Well…that doesn’t suck

Turning to the starboard side as we enter, the view just keeps getting better.

Dang…that looks…awesome, if I do say so myself

 

The headliner looks great up against those new fascia panels

Keep in mind that Chris Craft’s approach was to paint all of the mahogany back here white.

I’m just sayin’.

Oh, and BTW, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the dedicated fans who’ve hit the tip jar. 🙂

Sa~~weeeeet!

Port-side closets look great, too

Close-up of the transverse track intersecting the perimeter track

One very cool thing about Whisper Wall is, you spritz it with water before installing, then it tightens up in the tracks as it dries. Need to get up behind it sometime later? No Problem! Just carefully work the fabric out of the track and pull it free. When you’re done, spritz it with water and drive it back in the track. When the water dries, the headliner will be tensioned like it is now. That’s a lot better than standard headliner, where you have lines of staples hidden by moldings. You can pull a standard headliner maybe once, but it’ll never look like it did when it was first installed. The staple holes are too unforgiving. And hard panels held up by velco…always look like hard panels held up by velcro. They’re not bad approaches, and I’ve used both on the other boats I’ve owned. But this Whisper Wall stuff…I’m really glad the Boatamalans* who worked for custom sportfish manufacturer Weaver Boatworks introduced me to it. Believe it or not, going with the same materials and methods used on multi-million dollar toys for rich people yields a better end result. Who knew???

*  Boatamalan: portmanteau indicating highly skilled boat workers of Central American origin. They’re actually from Honduras, but Boatamalan rolls off the tongue better. 🙂

Now…about all that wiring I did…

See how those ugly (yet perfectly positioned) plywood panels that the LED lights fit into don’t print through the headliner?

Yeah…I did that. 😉

Kai LED light ready for final installation!

I’m not using the dimmer feature that’s controlled by the white lead. When I want light, I want light.

But…trouble. I used a hole saw to cut the holes in the plywood panels that were ~1/8″ bigger than the Kai light housing. That left 1/16″ of clearance around the perimeter. But with the thick Whisper Wall material stapled up in the hole, the light wouldn’t go in!

And then there was light!

Since the fabric had already shrunk to its permanent size, I trimmed the material that went up in the hole. We’ll probably staple around the hole just to keep things stable.

No backing panel print-through

Booya!

Three Kai LEDs installed on the port side

And two more installed on the starboard side

I’m diggin’ this

6th Kai light installed at the starboard transom

If only that damned dryer wasn’t in the way…

All in due time…

Not a bad start!

Well, that’s a pretty good start to the aft stateroom headliner installation. I want to give a big shoutout to the Hatteras Owners Forum member who very generously donated a bunch of Kai LEDs that didn’t fit his boat. They look great on this old Chris Craft!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Hatch Finish Panel

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The V-berth Headliner Install Begins

This has been a long time coming.

Drum roll please…

The V-berth headliner installation has begun.

This roll of Whisper Wall Gelato Baby Osterich has been in storage for five years

It sure looks different from usual headliner

Tools of the trade

The guy cuts the headliner into roughly the right shape and size. Then he sprays the fabric with water and uses the spatulas to jam the headliner into the tracks.

V-berth Panel #1 is in!

This stuff looks great!

Nicely trimmed!

Next day, the headliner has dried and is tightly tensioned

I installed a Kai LED while another panel got installed

The headliner looks great, but take a gander at that hatch opening in the pic above. Chris Craft used stainless sheet, aluminum extrusions, and stainless nails to cover what was underneath. I’m thinking solid mahogany finished bright will look better. The headliner installer does lots of custom wood bits and pieces, and he says he can make something pretty.

Looks good!

And then, there was light!

V-berth Panel #2 is in

Looks great~!

The transition from mahogany to headliner looks great!

I like the fact that Whisper Wall tracks allow there to be a smooth transition from wall panel to headliner without fascia panels or moldings to hide a line of staples.

Very well done!

If you were wondering how this was going to turn out a couple of posts back…

It turns out like this!

Remember this ugly duckling section of track at this complex corner?

It turned into a beautiful swan!

Close-up of the track

The stainless staples the installer brought were too heavy gauge. They were causing the tracks to crack. Craftsman brand 1/2″ crown x 1/4″ leg that I had in stock solved that problem.

Before the installer puts in the headliner panel that goes around the hatch opening, he’s going to make a piece of mahogany furniture to fill the space between the headliner and the bottom of the aluminum hatch.  But for now, the headliner installer is heading into the aft stateroom to make more immediate progress.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Aft Stateroom Headliner Install Begins

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the V-berth Headliner Tracks

Things aren’t going as quickly as I’d hoped, but we’re still making fair progress in the right direction. The V-berth headliner tracks are installed now.

The Whisper Wall headliner installer knocked out the V-berth tracks in a day

Nothing’s square on a boat

Even the 90° corners aren’t 90°, which makes miter joints challenging…and there are lots of miter joints in the headliner track.

perimeter track meets transverse track

Lots of kerf cuts at the round corners

He uses cardboard as spacers where necessary

The height of the tracks where they join is apparently critical for a good look. The installer uses water resistant cardboard-like material as a spacer because it can be compressed to just the right height.

Complex joint

With the headliner tracks installed in the V-berth, next I have to apply ICA base coat varnish to the unfinished mahogany veneers on the galley bulkhead. There’s no sense in just doing them on the V-berth side, so I’ll paint the galley side at the same time.

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

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Getting the V-berth Ready for Headliner Track Installation

The aft stateroom is ready for the headliner to be installed. Now I’ve got to get the V-berth ready.

The Kai LED mounting panels have to be at just the right height

The Whisper Wall headliner tracks are 1/2″ high, so the plywood mounting panels for the lights need to be at the same height and in the same plane as the headliner fabric will be.

The LEDs in the V-berth work!

Beautiful mahogany…but no place to attach headliner tracks

Dry fitting the first mahogany track mount

Port-side mounting pieces are dry fitted

Had to “adjust” the curve of the front cleat to match the side mounts

Starboard side

It’s more challenging making the mounting pieces for the sides because of the angle  and curvature of the panels. The mounting pieces need to be cut at angles that match the wall so they’re in the same plane as the transverse mahogany cleats at the front bulkhead and the galley bulkhead. The headliner installer is really picky about that. He says if it’s off, the headliner will look goofy…can’t have that!

Push sticks hold the slider door box in place while the epoxy glue cures

Standard mahogany cleat above the head door opening

The last mounting pieces over the closet are fitted and glued and screwed in place

US Composites 635 epoxy with wood flour glues them in

Done!

The perimeter is ready for headliner track!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fitting the V-berth Hatch Screen Track

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Aft Stateroom Whisper Wall Tracks

A lot of work has gone into getting the boat to this point. The Whisper Wall headliner tracks are installed in the aft stateroom!

It may not look like much, but this is a HUGE leap forward

Looks pretty good around the new sliding door box

So THAT’s how he does the corners

The Whisper Wall installer still has to put in the transverse tracks that attach to every other ceiling frame, but the perimeter tracks are all cut where they’ll join. I’m going to get out of his way and head into the V-berth to get it prepped for the headliner track installation.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Getting the V-berth Ready for Headliner Track Installation

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Last Aft Stateroom Overhead Filler Boards

With the aft stateroom fascia panels installed, I’m getting pretty close to having the Whisper Wall installer come and put in the headliner. The last few things I have to do is 1) install the final filler panels between ceiling frames at the entryway to the stateroom; 2) make a box to hide the aft head slider door hardware, and 3) do something to make the forward bulkhead in the aft stateroom pretty.

I need to remove some insulation before I can fit filler panels

The filler panels are required between the frames so the Whisper Wall tracks will have solid attachment points all the way around the room perimeter.

Every gap between the frames has too much insulation

 

 

 

I didn’t plan to use Whisper Wall headliner when I did the spray foam insulation

After a bit of work with a putty knife, I was ready to make the filler panels

50-year old 3/4″ plywood will make great filler panels

Good ol’ Chris Craft Doug fir plywood looks perfectly solid

Getting closer

ShopSmith bandsaw is handy for cuts like this

Nice!

And another

The last filler panel, glued and screwed in place

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Making the Aft Head Sliding Door Box

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Salon Headliner Prep

The aft stateroom headliner prep is coming along nicely. I decided to jump into the salon for a change of pace and get it ready for headliner, too.

Also, I wanted to express great gratitude to those of you who hit the tip jar. I’ve been documenting this refit as a labor of love, but it feels really great to know people put tangible value on my effort. Plus, since I went from the free WordPress site that had all those irritating ads to my own ad-free domain, every donation helps cover the cost of hosting. Thanks a lot!

Whisper Wall perimeter track will work great here at the salon aft bulkhead

The trouble starts here, at the helm station chase

There’s got to be a continuous surface for the headliner track to attach to. I’ve discussed the problems I’ve discovered on the port side–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 SuperSeamasters, they dropped one of the engines on the port side helm windshield, which broke the salon roof and the mahogany safety rail, and bent some of the stainless stanchions. It also caused some of the salon ceiling frames to get way out of alignment. In the picture above, you can see how the horizontal frame doesn’t meet its counterpart in the corner…it’s higher. And like a teeter-totter, if it’s high on one end, it’s going to be low on the other.

All of the framing in this area has been pushed down

The horizontal cleat didn’t move

But the ceiling framing is 1/2″ low!

There’s no way the Whisper Wall track will work with this

I want to have a separate little hatch panel here, so I can access the wiring and cables under the helm station. But with the frames 1/2″ out of alignment with the perimeter cleat, that’s just not going to work. Plus, the frames are far enough out of alignment that they’ll ‘print through’ onto the headliner…can’t have that.

Something really heavy must have landed on this area to cause this problem

I’m not going to tear off the cabintop and start over, and the fact of the matter is that the ceiling is stable in its current orientation. So what I need to do is add material to bring the perimeter cleats to the same height as the rest of the ceiling framing.

First, I need a long, tapered cleat

This EurekaZone track saw workstation is great for making angled cuts quickly

That’s a nice fit

Nice transition between the cleat and frame

The taper will smoothly bring the track down to the original perimeter cleat

Looks pretty good

Cut a short tapered piece of mahogany for the side of the helm chase

The cleat is a bit too narrow

3/4″ okume plywood scrap will make a good filler piece

The filler piece will go here

Next, I drilled pocket screw holes with my Kreg jig

Last step: glue and screw everything in place

That’s a nice transition for the headliner track to attach to

Looks good on the other side

Wood flour-thickened epoxy is the glue

The 3/4″ plywood filler piece is glued, screwed, and clamped in place

Well, that’s one problem solved. I wish I knew for sure how this damage happened, but I’m sticking with my theory until something proves me wrong. If I’m right, can you imagine the horror on the mechanics’ faces as the engine and gear tumbled to the ground, wreaking havoc all the way down?

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Salon Entryway Panel