Boat Repair, Restoration, Building
Tomorrow I’ll depart my humble shop here in Ravenel, South Carolina to head for the Antique Boat Auction in Clayton, NY. I’m taking the 1949 Chris Craft 17 ft. Deluxe Runabout I’ve restored to the auction. It’s listing number 36957. Check it out here. Continue reading “1949 Chris Craft 17 ft. Deluxe Runabout Going to Auction”
Finally! Sea trials are here!
Click here to see a short video of the sea trial.
Eventually, a boat ends up in the water. There are lots of things to check when that happens. Does it float? Does it float level? Does it float anywhere near the design waterline? Does the engine run? Does it steer properly? etc. etc. Continue reading “Sea trials of the 1949 Chris Craft Deluxe Runabout”
Chrome and highly polished stainless steel are beautiful things on a Chris Craft. They really make the boat pop. Don’t cheap-out on your re-chroming. There aren’t a lot of chrome shops left in the U.S. It’s a nasty, dirty process that takes a craftsman’s eye and touch to do right. It’s expensive, but if you want it to last, you’ve got to pay for it.
Stainless is a little easier. It’s not terribly expensive yet, and often it’s easier to replace than to try to refurbish. But if it’s not deformed, a buffing wheel and a little elbow grease can go a long way to making some old stainless look better. Continue reading “Adding the Shiny Parts”
Connecting the exhaust pipe to the exhaust elbow can be problematic for a couple of reasons: it gets hot and it gets wet. Oh yeah, and it needs to be air tight so you don’t end up leaking exhaust into the boat. Continue reading “Connecting the Exhaust Pipe”
The final step in the upholstery phase is to install the crashpad. Crashpad is the 1/2 round closed cell foam rubber padding applied to the edge of the cockpit. It is best left for after the varnish work and deck seams are complete. So now’s the time. Continue reading “Installing the Crashpad”
After the varnish is laid on, but before the final coat, it’s time to caulk the deck seams. Most of them (2 out of 3) are false seams–only there for show. But every third one is live. It is essential to get a good seal with the seam caulking to prevent leaks and rot. Continue reading “Caulking the Deck Seams”
Staining is just preparation for varnishing. We talked about staining recently here. Now it’s time for a bit of strategizing. We’re anticipating about 6 coats of conventional varnish (Interlux Schooner 96) and then about 8-10 coats of AwlWood MA Gloss over that. When you’re talking about that many coats, spraying is the way to go. Continue reading “Varnishing the 1949 Chris Craft 17 ft Deluxe Runabout”
With all the interior work finished, it’s time to focus on the pretty part. It’s time to finish stripping the hull, repair holes and dings, and stain the hull. All this precedes the varnishing phase. I use the most aggressive chemical stripper I can find (Jasco brand) and let it do the work for me. I slap it on liberally and let it sit there awhile and eat away the old varnish. You can actually hear and see it doing this if you watch closely. Continue reading “Staining the boat”
It was finally time to put the engine back in to this boat. Check out the post on rebuilding it and running it. Also, Chris Craft didn’t install oil filters on these engines. Can you believe it? Well we did, and here’s our discussion of it. Continue reading “Installing the K Engine”
Although most classic boats were built without them, I would not consider restoring one without adding an ignition protected blower to the engine compartment. For a gasoline-powered boat, this is a necessary piece of safety equipment that can keep you from accidentally blowing up your boat. Originally you were advised to open the engine compartment hatch and let it air out for about 5 minutes prior to starting the engine. This might sound like it would work, but when you consider that gasoline vapors are heavier than air, it stands to reason they will just lay in the bottom of the bilge waiting for a stray spark to ignite them.
This blower will have an intake hose that pulls air from the bilge below the engine, and blows it out one of the vent ports on the afterdeck of the boat. Ignition protected bilge blowers are required equipment on any gasoline powered inboard craft built today. It’s not hard to add one. Why wouldn’t you?