1938 Chris Craft

[David Japp]

I live in the UK where I am restoring a 1938 enclosed Chris-craft and I am wondering if you can help with some advice.

Firstly, we are replacing the rotten non-original fore-deck. I am fitting new beams and plan to fit a ply sub-deck with mahogany planks epoxy on to it, but should the mahogany deck planks be close-seamed, or should they have a black caulking line between them ?

secondly, we need to replace the damaged chrome “hockey stick” trim that goes around the curved inside edge of the saloon-window apertures – can you suggest someone one who can supply it

I hope you can help me and look forward to hearing from you

best
David

[Hunter25]

Having just restored my 1960 Chris I can tell you there are a lot of places you can go on line that service Chris Craft.

Typical mahogany decks on runabouts are caulked. The only time I have seen no caulk line is on double planked hulls not decks.

I also had some metal trim pieces to replace or fix. I found if it is metal, it can be fixed and rechromed and this was usually cheaper then finding a better looking or reproduction piece from the Chris Craft parts businesses.

[David Japp]

hi there
thanks for this..I agree that all runabaouts have caulked decks, but my boat is a pre-war "cruiser" ,and from the catalogues/brochures of the period that I have seen, it looks as though they are not caulked...re the window frames, alas they are in very poor condition and I doubt they can be repaired so i will in all probability have to replace them...any ideas ?
best
DJ