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Using a Shop Smith Mark V on a Chris Craft Roamer refit

roamer46

Thanks guys!

Dennis did, indeed, nail it, and I mentioned in the article the possibility of applying the high temp epoxy resin I got over it. The challenge of doing multiple thin coats to avoid sagging is the amount of time it takes for this stuff to get cured far enough to not sag but without the amine blush forming on the surface. I'm pretty sure I'd be looking at a 24 hour application broken up into 12 coats every 2 hours. And since I heard from another commenter elsewhere that the Inferno Wrap works and looks great even 10 years after he first applied it, I'm just going to use stainless wire or straps to secure the wrap and leave it soft.

In other news, the weather broke for a couple of days that just happened to coincide with free time in my painter's schedule. So we got busy, finished the fairing on the V-berth head, and then sprayed the Awlgrip 545 primer. It turned out really nice. Now we're waiting for another break in the weather that matches my painter's timetable to get the paint done. We're slowly gettin' 'er done.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Priming the V-berth Head

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

Man...things have been nuts in the Mid-Atlantic region. I got the heck out of dodge and got some of my rub rails installed. The boatyard in winter is an island of sanity in a sea of absurdity.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing More Stainless Rub Rails

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

In other news, we finally got a break in the cold weather at the same time as my painter's schedule opened up. That V-berth head I started on back in March 2013 is sanded and ready for paint. Booyah.

Roamer 46 Refit: Final Sanding the V-berth Head

Cheers,

Q

BuckeyeDennis

Hey Q, I almost broke down and asked you what a black "guide coat" might be. But realizing that my man-card could be revoked if that turned out to be a really dumb question, I Googled it instead. And learned something. :cool: Thanks for the lesson!

roamer46

BuckeyeDennis's man card status: Verified. lol

Yup, it's just cheap paint of a contrasting color sprayed very lightly over the primer. Stop sanding when there's no more guide coat left. Pro tip I've heard but never tried: food coloring diluted with alcohol and sprayed with a spray gun makes a super cheap guide coat that won't gum up sandpaper like cheap rattlecan paint can.

That said...drumroll please...We got a break in the winter weather. It was warm enough over the weekend to spray the Throne Room. I gotta say, it looks goooooood.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Painting the Throne Room (AKA the V-berth Head)

Cheers,

Q

skou

OK, any one else laugh out loud at this?

*Boatamalan: Noun. Joking portmanteau referring to my

painter’s Central American origin (boat + Guatamalan).

In fact, the Boatamalan is from Honduras, but Boatduras

doesn’t roll off the tongue like Boatamalan does.

Q, I laugh every time I see it.

KEEP posting it!

Oh, LOVE your posts!

steve

roamer46

Thanks, Steve! I'm not sure if today's snowflakes share my sense of humor, but I'm glad some people still do!

One of my favorite things on projects involving paint is taking off the plastic and tape for the big reveal. The Throne Room looks freakin' awesome. I also got both risers fully insulated with ceramic blankets and Inferno Wrap. They're ready to install.

Booyah

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Finishing the Exhaust Riser Insulation

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

I got the exhaust risers installed over the weekend. That's a major item to cross off the honey-do list. Booyah.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Exhaust Risers

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

After a bit of a rant about stupid EPA regulations that make kerosene jerry can spouts spill more fuel than old-style straight tube spouts, I got busy stripping paint from the forward bulkhead. Then I cut a beautiful African mahogany panel that I'll eventually bond to the bulkhead.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The V-berth Bulkhead

Cheers,

Q

Stupid EPA Jerry can spout busted the 5th time I used it.

BuckeyeDennis

roamer46 wroteAfter a bit of a rant about stupid EPA regulations that make kerosene jerry can spouts spill more fuel than old-style straight tube spouts, I got busy stripping paint from the forward bulkhead. Then I cut a beautiful African mahogany panel that I'll eventually bond to the bulkhead.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The V-berth Bulkhead

Cheers,

Q

Stupid EPA Jerry can spout busted the 5th time I used it.

Q, I'm looking forward to seeing the V-berth refit. The throne-room looks really sharp, and your exhaust riser work contributed to my decision to buy a welder and learn how to weld. But it's your woodwork that really "floats my boat". :)

Now before you stroke out over crappy jerry cans, pause for a minute to consider that clueless bureaucrats in Washington may just be God's way of giving Darwinian forces a fresh foothold. (Yes, I realize that one sentence is chock-full of references to multiple conficting philosophies, and may require db5 (our resident shrink) to confer with multiple colleagues in order to offer me any help at all. :D )

But my actual point is really simple. Buy yourself one or two of these, and then report back. I bought the 5-gal version last fall to go with my new backup generator, and it's by far the best gas can I've ever owned. Come spring, my old pre-regulation cans will be heading for the dump, and I'll own a couple more of these. I bought mine at a local Ace, and saved on shipping. They also come in blue, for kerosene.

skou

OK, since you went there!

Back in the early '80s, I was in the Army Reserves.

Yes, that unit had a few women, and a couple of

them rather attractive.

Cut to the chase. Wendy, a REAL attractive E5,

was walking around, looking for the filler tube,

for the old-style 5 gallon fuel cans that we used.

She was using the same name the rest of us

used. (Had something to do with a donkey,

if you catch my drift.)

"Wendy, I've got one, but you're NOT putting

Mogas through it!"

steve

roamer46

HA! Steve, that'd get you a sexual harassment charge these days...the olden days were so much better.

Dennis, thank you so much for the compliments! What kind of welder did you get? And on that gas can you recommended, that's the best EPA-compliant nozzle I've seen. I could see how it's an improvement over the giant funnel I've been using to direct pour, since it would help avoid the occasional overpour. I may pick one up.

That said, my article for today isn't especially exciting but it really did a good job keeping dust out of the bilge when we were prepping and painting the Throne Room. I put little filler panels between the plywood floor panels and the hull to fill the gaps. Chris Craft only did that in the salon, to keep engine room smells and sounds out of the living spaces. But I hate cleaning the bilge, so the more dust and other stuff that I can keep out of the bilge, the better.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer Refit: Sealing Up the V-berth Floor

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

My painter has been too busy to spray the mahogany v-berth bulkhead panel, so I rearranged the aft stateroom and its en suite head and started cutting the mahogany panels that surround all of the portholes back there. It's looking pretty good!

1969 Chris Craft Roamer Refit: Aft Head Mahogany Wall Panels

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

I got busy cutting more porthole surround panels over the weekend. This is a crucial step, since I can't install the portholes until these panels are cut, clear coated, insulated and sealed on the backside, then finally installed. One great thing about getting back into the woodworking side of things is that the stack of plywood in the salon is shrinking, which kind of works like a progress-o-meter. When the stack's gone, the job should almost be done.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Porthole Surround Panels II

Cheers

Q

Don't forget what's hiding under the ugly, dust-covered cardboard:

roamer46

The transom porthole surround panels have been on my mind for a while, since they're the foundation for all of the cabinetry in the aft stateroom. My concept drawings didn't go into detail on the transom because at the time I didn't know where the fuel fills would be. Chris Craft left the fuel fill pipes exposed, but I want to box mine in. So I just kinda worked with the plan in my head and started cutting panels. I have to say, it didn't turn out too bad.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Porthole Surround Panels III

Cheers,

Q

BuckeyeDennis

Ya know Q, I'm starting to believe that you might actually splash this year. :)

roamer46

Thanks, BuckeyeDennis! Truth told though, I'm getting less and less optimistic as time goes on, but I haven't given up yet.

I did more woodwork on the transom and made panels that connect the bilge to the vent openings on the outside of the boat. Both of the main vertical panels are done and ready for clear coating with ICA. I'll leave them installed until I have all of the African mahogany plywood panels that connect to them are cut and dry-fitted.

Progress...

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Porthole Surround Panels IV

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

I got the starboard side transom porthole surround panels cut and dry-fitted. I also made a cool little cabinet box that goes under those panels and takes advantage of an otherwise not very usable space.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Porthole Surround Panels V

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

I haven't posted for a while because I got knocked down by the nastiest cold I've ever had. Start to finish it took more than two weeks to get over. I'm back at it now, and spent a long weekend making a portable/folding spray booth. The booth my painter has been using at work is backed up with jobs, and there isn't any sign of that changing in the near future. So making a booth on-site was the only practical solution. Since the boat is in Maryland, which has a "rain tax" that gets applied to structures, pavement, concrete pads, etc...basically, anything that interferes with the flow of rain into the ground. So the booth can't be a permanent or semi-permanent installation. It's essential to be able to set it up quickly on a Saturday morning and take it down by Sunday evening. It looks like it'll work well.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Making an Origami Spray Booth

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

We finally gave the spray booth a test drive. It worked great! And it folds up and out of the way in ~25 minutes. Now I've got a bunch of mahogany panels base coated and ready for installation. This should be fun.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Spraying Mahogany Panels in the Origami Spray Booth

Cheers,

Q

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