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roamer46 wrote:This is a big deal because my insurance company won't let me splash the boat and go without a safety rail installed.

Also doesn't the Coast Guard have a little to do with that?

Ah, yes...nothing like having private industry act as agents for the government, which oversteps its bounds by having USCG revenuers nagging private boat owners.

That said, even if the Coasties and my insurance company didn't require it, I'd still need to install these before we can do the final coats of DuPont MS1 clear on the mahogany toe rail. So, I dry fitted the port side mahogany safety rail, and along the way found some very strange things. Most of the stanchion uprights are stainless pipe, but some are stainless tube, which has a different OD and wall thickness than pipe. Most of the pipes have threaded bottoms so they can thread into the chromed bronze stanchion bases, but two of them have no threads at all. The uprights that are tubing are threaded, but because they're not pipe, the threads aren't full depth. And, to top it all off, the aft section of mahogany has a humdinger of twist in it, so the first stanchion and the last one sit firmly on the toe rail, but the stanchions in the center hang at an angle and don't come close to lining up.

It's never easy...

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Dry Fitting the Mahogany Safety Rails

Cheers
Q

The first part looked good!


Uh oh...different length pipe


Looks good!


Uh oh...lotsa twist in the mahogany is throwing off the stanchion alignment!

So, I got the starboard safety rail dry fitted and all of the stanchion center holes cut and chiseled out. Along the way, I found more evidence that this boat was badly damaged back in the 1970s. All things considered, at this point I'm thinking they may have dropped the port Ford 427 engine on the cabin top when they were repowering to the twin turbo 534ci Super Seamasters back in 1972. I may never know for sure, but this last bit of evidence sure makes me think that's the case.

Anyway, the starboard rail looks great and was much easier to fit. It's good to make progress.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Dry Fitting the Starboard Mahogany Safety Rail

Cheers,
Q

Mismatched stanchion pipes


Mismatched port safety rails


Perfectly matched starboard side rails


Dry fitted safety rail

I'm sick of drilling holes in mahogany. And I'm sick of plasticizing the holes with epoxy. Fortunately, the job's done.

booya

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Drilling and Epoxying Stanchion Screw Holes
Cheers,
Q

That's looking really nice!! I can't wait to see the final finished product!!

Ahh, this brings back memories of trying to get spar urethane down into all of the 1/4 inch thru-holes for the cane in the Slow Boat's two seats. Fun times. http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/gener ... ml#p187704

Thanks guys! Yes, algale! That's a real "fun" part of the project. The real "fun" comes later, when instead of fixing varnish that's gotten water under the surface I'll be able to be boating!

But unfortunately, there's some bad news near and dear to me--one of my Boatamalans died. He's the brother of my painter and did a lot of fiberglass and fairing work making the cabin top beautiful. He also helped fair and paint the hull. He never had health problems, but went to bed last Friday and that was all she wrote. Gone at age 29, leaving behind a wife and kid. It's really heartbreaking. Needless to say, the paintwork on the v-berth remains on hold.

But I've been spending time working on the exhaust risers. A series of boneheaded errors made this process take a lot longer than it should have, including cheaping out on a dual regulator and leaving the valve on for a week with a formerly new 80cf bottle of argon. I came back to the garage the next weekend, ready to start welding, and found the valve open and the gauge down to 500psi. Turns out the main tank connection had the tiniest of leaks, but at 1500psi over a week... is that argon or ARRRRRRRGGGGGon? LOL

That said, I finally got everything working and managed to get most of the port riser welded up. I'm a hobbyist and realize that the welds aren't pro welder quality, but I'm sure they'll be fine.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Welding the Port Exhaust Riser

Cheers,
Q

My cobbled together dual regulator and purge line


The exhaust flange to tubing weld


Stitching the showerhead plate


Almost all welded up, just as the gas ran out

29 is way too young, sad to hear.

Yes, very sad, indeed. The funeral happened over the weekend, but they still haven't gotten the report from the medical examiner. Still clueless as to what caused it.

In other news, I got the starboard riser all welded up. The Series 17 TIG torch that came with my AlphaTIG isn't that big, but it was YUGE compared to some of the spaces I had to squeeze into near the tight mandrel bent tube.

Yup...I'm blaming my equipment for my "Fido's butt" welds.

That said, the welds are well fused and everything's water tight.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Welding the Starboard Exhaust Riser

Cheers
Q



$188 Zeny Cut 50 plasma cutter has paid for itself already.




Done


And covered with Inferno Wrap

I got the port riser welded up, too. I have to do one final test fit, then weld on a bracket to attach a support arm for the showerhead. After that, I'll apply the insulation and the epoxy hardshell and the exhaust system will pretty much be done.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Welding the Port Exhaust Riser Showerhead

Cheers,
Q