Future Brown Water Cruiser: 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit

[q240z]

Happy Thanksgiving!

I got the HVAC duct installed from the aft AC closet to the salon. This is turning out pretty good! But after a discussion with my Boatamalan painter, I'm going to be shifting gears and getting electrical work done so he can paint the ICA clear top coat in the salon and V-berth.

Yes...in order to paint the top coat, I have to get the electrical done. Isn't it obvious??? lol


1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Ducting for the Aft Stateroom Air Conditioner

Cheers
Q

[q240z]

I've shifted from cabinetry to electrical (and a bit of plumbing). Either way it's progress, which is a good thing. I got my AC current transformers installed, chafe protection on the laundry room breaker panel, and the engine room wall around that panel is epoxy sealed and insulated.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Wrapping Up the AC Circuit Panels

Cheers,
Q

[q240z]

I got the battery switches installed, double-checked all of the wire ends to make sure nothing was touching where it shouldn't, connected the battery, flipped the switch...and nothing happened. No smoke. No sparks...nothing. I was very happy! Then I started flipping on the breakers. Again, nothing happened. So I went and turned on one of the OEM lights in the aft stateroom...it turned on! This is the first time in 3 decades that the 12v system has been powered up. It's a big step.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Powering Up the 12VDC Breaker Panel

Cheers,
Q

[Bleemus]

Sweet!

[q240z]

Thanks Bleemus!

I cut a bunch of small panels that the new salon lights will fit up into after the headliner is installed. This headliner goes into a track around the perimeter of the space, with additional track installed at no more than 54" intervals to secure the edges of the 56" wide headliner. None of this has to be pretty, since it'll all be hidden by headliner. But the panels do all have to be installed just at the height of the track, which is 1/2" tall.

Progress.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Salon Light Mounts

Cheers,
Q

[q240z]

I got the salon light wiring installed, but the longer I stared at the ceiling, the more I realized I'd messed up when I installed the light mounting panels. I've got to redo all of them.

Two steps forward, one step back. That said, I'm glad I caught it now rather than when the headliner guy shows up.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Wiring the New Salon Lights and...a Problem

Cheers
Q

[q240z]

It's been more than a month since I last posted an update. I finally got the LED light mount panels installed (I had to redo them twice!), but I lost the memory card that had all of the pictures of each mini-project I'd been working on. Since my blog is picture heavy, no pix = nothing to write about. I also developed a nasty case of tendonitis in both elbows, so I decided to lay off the heavy labor for a bit. I had a bunch of projects that needed to get done at my house, too, and this seems like opportunity presenting itself. And lastly, my insurance company refused to renew my policy on the boat because of the burglary loss in 2014 and the Nor'easter damage in 2018. I think I'll be able to get insured through another company after I jump through a bunch of hoops, but it strikes me as less risky to let the boat sit fallow than to continue working on it with no insurance.

So...once the tendonitis and insurance issues resolve, I'll get back to the boat project and continue posting.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Redoing the New Salon Light mounts

Cheers,
Q

[q240z]

I'm not doing much heavy lifting for now, but I was able to repurpose two old doors into a pile of 1" x 1" mahogany cleats and some really pretty six-foot boards.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Repurposing Old Doors

Cheers,
Q

Before


After

[q240z]

Big News! I set up my own domain! 1969chriscraftroamer46.com is now online.

I'd been bothered by some things at wordpress.com for a while, and recent complaints about the intrusive ads WP pushes inspired me to move to my own site. This will be my last post at the old blog.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Moving the Blog

See you on the new site!

Cheers,
Q

[q240z]

I spent a lot of time redirecting links from the old Wordpress site to the new one. 435 articles took a lot of time to get squared away. I also found some pictures that were still being hosted from my original photobucket account, so I updated all of those, too. It was actually kind of cool going through the whole thing from start to finish. There were a lot of old posts I hadn't looked at in years. While it's neat to see all of the progress since we first started, I had to laugh at how many times I used to say "I hope to splash the boat later this year" or "next spring." LOL What was I thinking???

Anyway, I realized that in my last couple of posts I was talking about installing LED light mount panels at a specific height to align them with the headliner tracks I'll be using, but I never showed what those tracks look like. Hopefully, this will make it clearer why I'm doing what I'm doing.

I also have been experimenting with different LED lights for the OEM Chris Craft light fixtures. Pro tip: 10w 12v corn bulbs off of ebay fit this style of fixture just fine, but the 12w and 15w ones are too big.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Headliner Tracks & LED Bulbs

Cheers,
Q

Whisper Wall tracks


15w bulb is too fat

[q240z]

After looking into the options for porthole gaskets, I decided to make my own using 00-50 Shore hardness silicone. While I'm waiting for the silicone kit to arrive, I made a mold.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Porthole Gaskets

Cheers,
Q

[q240z]

The silicone kit arrived. This looks like it's going to work out really well. The gasket came out of the mold easily and it fits the portholes almost perfectly. Now I just need to make 11 more, but I'll make them just a wee bit thinner than this one.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Porthole Gaskets II

Cheers,
Q

The kit


In the mold


Test fitting in the porthole

[q240z]

I'm cranking out porthole gaskets at a tortoise-like pace but also getting panels installed for the Whisper Wall headliner tracks to attach to. The tracks will run all the way around the perimeter of the aft stateroom, so I've got a lot of small panels to make out of 3/4" plywood. And none of the gaps between frames are the same, even from port to starboard on the same frames!

It's a boat! Nothing's square!

Anyway, the first panel is also the biggest one and fairly complex, too. It's the one the aft head slider door hardware will attach to, and it turned out quite nice, I think. When everything's done, it won't be visible. But it's an important structural piece.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Headliner Prep

Cheers,
Q

[q240z]

Now I'm cutting lots of little panels to go around the ceiling perimeter to give the headliner tracks something to attach to. Not very exciting stuff, but it's progress.

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

Cheers,
Q

[q240z]

I got the plywood panels for the port-side aft stateroom ceiling cut and fitted. The corner piece was the most complicated, but my little Bosch router made the job much easier. It's not especially glamorous, but it's progress. The headliner installer will hopefully start working on it next weekend!

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Headliner Prep III

Cheers,
Q

Before


After