Future Brown Water Cruiser: 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit

[q240z]

I got another box full of stuff back from the chrome shop. The coolest thing in the box was a nautical themed ashtray that was on the boat when we found it. It's been a long time since I smoked, but this thing's so cool I decided to have it repaired and rechromed. It turned out pretty nice. I also got back the last of the chromed bronze stanchion bases and door hardware. That's it for the chrome work...my wallet can't take anymore!

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Still More Chrome!

Cheers,
Q

Before


After

[q240z]

I took advantage of the great weather and got back to polishing stainless. The bow rub rail was challenging because of the v-shape and because the scratches there were pretty bad. The anchor rode was a combination braided nylon with 6' of chain at the anchor. That anchor chain ripped up the stainless pretty good, but it all sanded and polished out.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Polishing the Bow Rub Rail

Cheers,
Q

Before


After

[q240z]

This is definitely the season of stainless. But I shifted from rub rail and stanchion polishing back to engine room stuff. I tacked the exhaust risers together a few months ago, then went to work on the CAD programs I use to try and make electronic files that could be used to cut the showerhead parts on a water or laser jet. That was a real pain, but I eventually got them done. Then I found a fab shop in North Carolina that cut the parts for a very good price...they fit perfectly. I still need to fab the raw water inlets, but the basic parts are ready to be welded.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Exhaust Showerhead Parts

Cheers,
Q

The Plan


The Parts


The Showerhead On the Exhaust Riser

[q240z]

I installed the mahogany moldings for the v-berth head cabinets. With that done, the bathroom is just about ready for the final primer application followed by paint. Now if only the painter would show up...

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing V-berth Head Moldings

Cheers,
Q

[q240z]

My painter is still not feeling well. He's got some kind of infection the doctors have been chasing for a while, plus Type 2 diabetes just got him. So I switched gears and did the final fit of the exhaust parts. I also bought a Zeny plasma cutter for a scorching good deal -- $230 -- but then learned that the same unit is on ebay for $188 delivered. It's definitely hobbyist-grade, but it worked like a champ. Now I'm just waiting on two more mandrel bent stainless tubes for the exhaust showerhead raw water inlets, and I'll finally weld them all together.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Final Exhaust Riser Fit-up

Cheers,
Q

[q240z]

I'm still waiting for the last pieces of stainless tubing for the exhaust risers, so I shifted gears topside and started installing the bow safety rail. This is a big deal because my insurance company won't let me splash the boat and go without a safety rail installed. I also want to drill all of the holes in the mahogany toe rail and seal the wood with epoxy before we do the final coats of MS1 clear coat. It was harder than I thought getting the bow pieces fitted, but with that done it should be much easier getting the mahogany safety rails on both sides installed this weekend.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Dry Fitting the Stainless Bow Safety Rail

Cheers
Q

[q240z]

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!

[Warby12]

Gotta say, with those rails on, starting to get an idea of how good this going to look,

[q240z]

Thanks, Warby!
Unfortunately, I'm only dry fitting now so I'll have to remove them once I get all the holes drilled. But...it's coming along!

[q240z]

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

[q240z]

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

[q240z]

Bad news--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?

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

[q240z]

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

[q240z]

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

[q240z]

I'm still waiting for some of the exhaust riser insulation components to show up, so I switched gears and made the battery cutoff/combiner switch panel. My painter is still recovering from his brother's untimely death, and he hasn't been to the boat to finish the V-berth. Winter is coming early this year, so I don't think the paint will get done until spring 2017. I'll keep plugging away on mission-critical stuff over the winter so when warm weather comes again, my painter can get in and get 'er done [hopefully] quickly.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Making the Battery Switch Mount

Cheers
Q