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

nuhobby

Great work as always!

I've been meaning to ask what the Instrumentation looks like on the final boat plan.

Recently I picked up a used German watch; it's a company that has a long history of providing Nautical instruments... Muhle Glashutte. Normally they're pretty expensive, but a used one in an unpopular size was a good catch for me (small 34mm case, which I 'fattened' by putting it on a wide leather cuff):

Chris

roamer46

Thanks! Nice watch!

You can see the rechromed and rebuilt gauges at https://1969chriscraftroamer46.com/tag/original-gauges/

roamer46

I finally got around to varnishing and installing that mahogany veneer on the helm station bulkhead. It sure does look purdy compared to what we started with.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Helm Station Mahogany III

Cheers,

Q

As-found

Cleaned up and ready to get purdy

Finally! Purdy! (though it'll look better once the clamps come off)

roamer46

I started building the helm side cabinets recently, before I installed the bulkhead veneer. They're looking pretty good, too!

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Helm Station Mahogany III

Cheers

Q

roamer46

The mahogany plywood panels were starting to pile up, so I did some varnishing and installed a few. The aft deck looks sooo much better with them installed.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Deck Mahogany Plywood Install I

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

You know how on big projects, you slave away forever doing the prep work, and everything looks pretty ugly the whole time, and then BAM! It all comes together in a flash and looks great?

The helm station mahogany kinda went like that.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Helm Station Mahogany IV

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

I need to wrap up all of the electrical stuff in the ceiling of the aft deck before the headliner installer can come in and work his magic. So I've been getting the helm station radio box I made fitted and attaching electronic bits to make sure it will work as intended.

"Progress"

But I had to laugh as I pulled the brand-spankin'-new JVC stereo out of the box. I bought this thing in...must have been 2014...and at the time it was a good little modern car stereo. Fast forward to 2019 when I finally opened the box and...drumroll please...it's got a CD player!

Put differently, I've been so slow on this refit that my brand new electronics are obsolete by the time I finally get around to installing them! LOL

Then again, I've got a 1946 Zenith AM/FM console at home with a Cobra Head 6 platter auto-changer that'll spin everything from 78s to LPs. Obsolete tech is sorta my thing. But still, it made me laugh.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Helm Station Radio Box II

Cheers,

Q

BuckeyeDennis

That’s a sweet-looking radio box, Q. And I have to commend you on the thermostatically controlled fan — that’s an important detail that few would even think of, much less implement.

Ditto for coating the electronics. I’ve designed several electronic devices for vehicular and/or military environments, using either a commercial spray-on conformal coating or a thermally-conductive epoxy potting compound (depending on shock & vibration requirements). Those work like a charm, but I’ve never tried coating with plain epoxy.

I’m curious — what’s the headroom beneath that box? Too low, it’s a head-banger for tall people. Too high, and shorter folks would have trouble reaching it.

roamer46

Thanks, BuckeyeDennis!

The radio box is directly above the helm gauges, so you'd have to be a freakishly tall hunchback to knock your head on it. The aft deck has a 6' 8" ceiling, so the radios are at ~6' 6". The missus is 5' nothin', but she can reach them with a bit of a stretch.

BuckeyeDennis

roamer46 wroteThanks, BuckeyeDennis!

The radio box is directly above the helm gauges, so you'd have to be a freakishly tall hunchback to knock your head on it. The aft deck has a 6' 8" ceiling, so the radios are at ~6' 6". The missus is 5' nothin', but she can reach them with a bit of a stretch.

My son is 6'8", but he has only a touch of scoliosis, LOL! :D

Now what's freaky, he went on a study-abroad trip to Ireland last summer, with a group of about 20 college business students -- both boys and girls. In that small group, there were two other boys about his height!

roamer46

That's what happens when ya feed 'em too much! lol

I pulled the radio box down for the last time and installed the exhaust fan. That was a bit nerve wracking, since I had to cut slots in the pretty mahogany box. In retrospect, I should have done that before I even assembled the box. Fortunately, everything turned out OK. In other good news, the temp-sensing fan controller works! I aimed a heat gun up toward the sensor and after a few seconds it came on!

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Helm Station Radio Box III

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

I'm getting very close to being done with the headliner installation prep. I installed mounting panels for a couple of speakers and glued and screwed mahogany cleats all around the perimeter, so the Whisper Wall headliner tracks have something solid to attach to. One more weekend, and I'll be ready for the headliner installer.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Deck Headliner Track Prep

Cheers,

Q

The headliner installer wrapped up the salon install, too.

stew

I have been following your progress with great interest for a few years now. Because I am not a boat owner myself, most of that time I could never tell what I was looking at. Now that it seems like you are getting closer to the finish line I am enjoying your travels a lot more because your pictures are showing more of what a finished boat will look like. Thanks for taking us along!

roamer46

Thanks stew! I'm glad to hear it's finally starting to make sense! It didn't make sense to me for a long while either! lol

The Whisper Wall headliner installer came and put all of the tracks in place. That's the last step before the headliner starts going up. Booyah.

Progress.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Deck Headliner Track Prep II

Cheers

Q

roamer46

Installing the first headliner panel ended up being a real chore. But the Whisper Wall panel at the windshield is finally installed! It looks great!

In a stroke of good fortune, I was straightening up the aft stateroom when I came upon an unmarked box that contained six IMTRA Ventura LEDs! These are the lights I used in the heads, but I'd forgotten that I had leftovers. So I got busy on the aft deck putting in mounting panels and wiring.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Deck Headliner Install Begins

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

Good news! The aft deck headliner is installed!

Bad news! Last week, I lost the memory card that had all of the boat refit pix on it.

Good news! Just after I posted the latest article on the headliner, the goddess of the seas rewarded me by having the memory card appear literally right at my feet under my computer desk!

Anyway, the aft deck looks totally transformed with the ceiling frames and insulation hidden behind the Whisper Wall headliner!

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Wrapping Up The Aft Deck Headliner Installation

Cheers,

Q

JPG

Beware placing all thy eggs in one basket! :D

roamer46

No doubt!

I wrapped up the last step for the aft deck headliner--installing the OEM light fixtures, upgraded with 10w 12v LED corn bulbs.

I'd been experimenting with them for a while and discovered that even though they run much cooler than 60w incandescent bulbs, if there's no vent at the top of the fixture they're in, they cook themselves dead pretty quickly. So, I drilled some vent holes in the reflector behind the bulb, polished everything with Collinite 810 Chrome Wax, and installed them. It's really nice coming up the ladder now and seeing that major part of the project done.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the OEM lights On The Aft Deck

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

It's starting to look more and more like a boat instead of a doomed project with every passing weekend!

While I was working on the solid mahogany pieces I installed on the aft deck a while back, I was also cutting plywood panels to use as cabinets near the helm. I got the starboard side installed over the holiday, and it looks good! All of the interior panels are friction fit, with just a few screws to lock them in. If I ever need to get behind the panel to access the wiring there, it takes about 2 minutes to remove the interior cabinet panels. Eventually I'll install a shelf to cover the countersunk screw heads and finish the door. But that can come later.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Helm Station Side Cabinets

Cheers,

Q

roamer46

Before I could install the port helm side cabinet, I had to install a complicated little piece of mahogany veneer to the skinny bulkhead panel to the left of the salon door.

"Progress"

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Applying Mahogany Veneer to the Port Side Helm Bulkhead

Cheers,

Q

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