1957 Chris Craft Capri decking

www.antiqueboat.com for Chris Craft stain , www.theworkbench.com - retronautique@aol.com - & Harbour , which are all very good place's to get Mahogany and other types of wood used for wooden boat building along with white oak and a wide assorment of marine grade plywoods Saple, (oukim) which i prefer to use for replacement bottom's , because it come's in +and - thickness. I also suggest that you might want to get a copy of How to restore your WOODEN RUNABOUT by Don Daneburg and another book called the real runabouts vol 3 by Bob Speltz ,which can be very interesting and a helpfull guide for engine options , color combination 's of the hull for ( stain ) upholstery color's , for all Chris Craft model's and other wooden boats . I also have to say that these people can also be very helpful - www.chris-craft.org -G@@d luck with your project , i am also in the process of restoring a 1960 Century Resorter, and just started to put on a new non soak replacement bottom. once again good luck ! G .G

 

I was speaking of the decking piece that is the forwardmost section of the margin pieces. I guess the stem piece is okay from the pictures, though I have a slow connection and can't enlarge the pictures.
Are you going to refasten the boat? I could get you started.

A.

 

Thanks to all for all of the responces, they have been very informative and helpful. As you can tell I am new to this and excited about really digging into it. I finished pulling the deck and interior and now have full acess to the entire inside bottom. My father many years ago attempted to replace a plank near the nose piece and I now see that he had a very hard time doing it. I found a section of dry rot that has been coated wiith varnish or another simialar product to stop the spead. He also inserted a few peices of odd shaped peices of wood to use a back support. Well I need to pull it all and replace his work and a bit more to properly restore my treasure. I have included a few pictures of the area. twoo are from the inside and the third is from the outside sowing the portion he replaced. Any input would be helpful.
Thanks
Neal Miller

 

I have to say that i have alway's loved the Chris Capri and the bull nose or clipper bow on those years , i am looking at a 55 Capri in good shape with all the hardware , motor & trailer $ 3.400 . G .G .

 

sounds good G.G., I was given this one by my father who passed away a couple of years later. I learned to ski behind this one at the age of 8 (I am now 52) on one ski and it has been in my family since it was new. It has been parked in a garage for nearly 15 years and I have finally got of my a@# and have begun to work on it. It is a bit scary because of cost and labor involved but I am still excited about it and can't wait to take my now 8 year old boy for a ride and explain that some day this will be yours if he promises to keep it in the family.

 

nam57 Funny thing ............. i started working on wooden boats many year's ago , i tried to make a living working on them , i gave it all up and started working at Thompson boats , S2 YACHT'S , PowerQuest & Skater doing fiberglass repair , plug's and mold's . I Have to say that i have gone full circle and now i have come back to my old , new hobby WOODEN BOAT'S AND I AM 56 ! I sure wish that i would have had a boat that was in my family for that long , you are a lucky man & to be able to pass it on to your son ! WOW

 

I suggest you use the old plank as a pattern, final fitting it with a small plane.
All of the side planks on a Chris Craft are fitted tight with no caulking gaps. The bedding between the battens and the planks (which could be replaced by 3M 5200) seals the plank.
The planks are Phillipine mahogany. The original screws are brass but bronze is stronger and they stand up to a driver drill better. First he counter bores are done with a 1/2" Forstner bit, then the through holes with a profile bit and I believe the screws are #8 x 1 1/2" or 1 3/4".
The bungs are glued in with thickened varnish. I use a random orbit sander with 50 grit to sand down the bungs the following day, which is quicker and easier than a saw or a chisel.

 

It sounds like the outside planks do not have a joint cut in the edges, so all I need to do to the exterior is remove the entire bad plank, cut, fit and install the new plank with sealer and glue and screws. Then sand to finish. Sounds easy. Not sure if the pictures were clear enough to make out what was done to the interoior. I am working to remove the piesces that were placed to I guess support area damaged by rot. I am a little green on the termanology for various parts but the two ribs at the front have been damaged and doe not reach all of the way to the center peice on the bottom. It looks like the bungs will need to be removed from the out side to release thesee two peices. Then I can cut and reinstall both.

 

The edges are plain square edges. No glue, just bedding compound. It's not that easy unless you are an advanced woodworker. The tolerances ideally are close--- maybe within a few thousandths. There's reverse curve on the forward end of the planks as well. Not a lot, but enough to make things challenging.
The partial sawn frames are also Phillipine mahogany but white oak will also do (actually superior). They must screw to the stem and adjacent planks.
The greatest care must be excersised in removing the old bungs, so as not to damage the hole's edges. A cheap set of pseudo-dental tools (usually sold in hobby shops, Chinese tool dealers, or Western Tool outlets) are a good start in your bung tool collection.


A.

 

good old fashion ice pick to remove the bung's

 

True. Unfortunately, bungs are not always installed using varnish (in fact I've used Gorilla glue to fill in a loose bung gap a few times). In general, they pop out easily. But all you need is one recalcitrant bung and you have to use a different method. Some are just so problematic that the hole around them is messed up and then how do you fix that?
You can enlarge the hole if it's first filled with a bung set in Gorilla glue (the drill has to have a center), or you can fashion a punch by sharpening the inside of a slightly larger piece of hard steel tube. It's therefore a good idea to have a bung cutter one size larger for those occasions.

Alan

 

Clean up and inspect

I have removed the entire deck and have found a couple of spots of dry rot which have been addressed in this thread. I am now cleaning up the inside and inspecting the entire interior for more dry rot or trouble spots. It has been a very intresting and educational couple of weeks and I am all ready starting to feel like I know something about Boat building thanks to all who have particapated in this thread.
In trying to plan for the replacment of the deck later in the process, I have took some time to inspect the peices of the deck that I have removed, both whole and broken peices. Earlier in this thread it was mentioned that I should use the same size board that I removed. Well after inspecting the larger peices I removed I am unable to find even one joint in the planks other than a butt joint on peices of the front decking. The two peices on either side of the engine hatch which I was able to remove without breaking seem to be one peice. The are both at their widest point 14" wide. Is it possable that these two peices are truely one wide board? On the front deck I found what seemed to be planks, but there did not seem to be a standard width. Although I did pull two pieces that were 5 1/2" wide. Both were removed from either side of the light colored planks in the center of the deck.
Although I have plenty of time before I begin to reinstall the decking I need to compile a list of material needed to reassemble both top and bottom. I am not quit sure whay widths to look for, I would like to get the boat back to orginal if at all possible. I also have all but decide to purchase a jointer, or a routher table to make the proper joints for the decking because I am also making a 800 square foot wood ceiling in my basement that will need the same type of joints. I feel very confident in my ablity to cut these joints and cant wait to get started on them.
The one major thing I think I have relized is that even more important than the skill to craft the lumber for the project is patience and commitment to quality.

 

Neal, are you saying your decking is of plywood? The decks I'm familiar with are actual boards and not plywood. Each board appears to be three narrow boards because the board is routed to simulate joints.
In fact 5 1/2" is about right for three "planks".
Battens are let in to the transverse deck beams and the deck planks are screwed into the battens and beams as well.

 

Neal if your deck has some plywood instead of Machogany , part of it must have been replaced at one time .

 

G.G. The wood is moghany not plywood, at first when I began to pull the deck I thought it was plywood besause of the width and the board had so many coats of paint I could no tell untill I cut into the board.So it is all maghony at this point. I guess that the back pieces could be planks that are very well glued together, regardless it sounds like I need to look to prepare the repllacement planks to be about 5 1/2 inches wide and not worry about what the ones I removed seem to be.

Thanks
Neal