Closer to Splash!

The dust has settled and Miss P is starting to look like her "old-self". With fresh varnish in the helm, and new everything; engines, headliner, wallpaper, wood flooring, curtains and shag carpets through-out, she's looking as good as the day she was first launched, 41 years ago. 

The flooring has allowed the hatches (pictured here before they are covered) to be accessed at any time. Shag throw rugs are being used to cover the main engine hatches, and in the aft cabin, which have been trimmed in the dark oak.

The new headliner has been made in sections of removable panels, there will be thin strips of white wood installed to keep them in position. Like the carpets, wall to wall stretched fabric stapled up made it impossible to gain access anywhere. With the new panels, each section can be dropped down in minutes, exposing wiring runs and allowing thru-deck fittings to be re-sealed, and electronics replaced in the years to come.

G the machinist from Pacific Parts who rebuilt the engines has been busy in the bilges on the weekends doing the cooling side and helping align the engines to the shafts. I joked with him this morning that they are his engines, in Doug's boat. 

He's agreed to be the motor man for Miss P ongoing. He will grow old looking after our gal. The original engines ran for 40 years! With the re-builder being responsible for future servicing and the installation of a fresh water flush kit these should go for 50 more!

The upholstery is back from Jott Industries and they have done a cracker of a job! Adding a small head-roll to the bench and some automotive style piping to the helm seats. The automotive styling we borrowed was not from a car, instead it was taken from the 1968 19' Commander's seats - undoubtedly influenced at the time by Detroit.

 

Props On! and Off!

Everything was going great, until the resident prop polisher and boatyard's old salt - Don - discovered that they were not a matched set. The prop shop had not polished the barrel of the prop and had used a grinder to clean the blades. Don massages the props with emery paper and doesn't loose a gram of the bronze. Using a grinder to polish a prop he thinks is murder and should be a capital offense. Not to clean the body of the prop - "what kind of prop shop does that!" demands the now cranky Don.

After doing the first, he moved to the second and within minutes he was in a flap - the props don't match! I heard shouted from the stern. When he sanded down the second barrel it was confirmed the two props were a mismatch and somewhere along the line Paramount's two sets of props were mixed-up and one from each pair were on the boat.

If Don didn't give the props the extra care, we would have missed this. In fact we had. They were back on Paramount.

We could have spent the next year trying to figure out what and where the difference was - she might have pulled to one side, she might have vibrated on one side - and we would have checked everything, transmissions, compression and still scratched our heads!

Using the latest $4000. laser tool for aligning the shafts was a solution that ensured true alignment for the very first time for Miss P. 

Dr. Doug discovered the engine stringers were too high and everything after that had been forced - right down the shaft. It was almost impossible to turn the props by hand. Doug took 1/2" off the top off the stringers to allow the engine to sit lower and be adjusted up or down.

With the laser in the shaft-log pointed back, the struts could all be shimmed and aligned dead centre. Tissue paper was stretched over the strut covering the cutlass bearing, the laser was then shot through allowing for an exact centre right the way back through the three struts. It was then shot at the engine and the dead-centre of the coupler was found and the engine mounts moved to facilitate the feeler gauge checking for the correct and perfect alignment.

We should be getting some strong winds in the next few days. I'm hoping to see these props turning in the wind.

The 427 Engines Return!

Vancouver is socked in with fog. The picture above is of the downtown with the north shore mountains in the background - the sea planes are grounded and the fog horns are constant in the bay. The first picture is of Vancouver from Cyprus Mountain looking south over the city.

Paramount is readied to return to the yard for the engines to go back in.

We could not have done this project without the internet. The Commander Forum was a great source in locating parts, and for learning how other owners had approached similar work on their boats. Craigslist was the source for the two spare engines, that provided choice parts for the rebuilds and for locating the fresh-water risers from Troy in Springfield. eBay lead us to the Chris Craft original engine decals and engine tags.

Shrouded in fog Paramount rolls out of the barn after an extended stay in "intensive care", every inch of the gal has been gone over and the engines are "BTN" (better than new) the performance Edelbrock intake manifold eliminates the "hot spot" cross-over in the Ford design, carbon it was found, builds up here and chokes the engine. The increase in horse-power was surprising. 

Every screw has been removed and re-bedded on her topsides and hull. Let it rain! She will be dry. Enough of this fog.

  

Pacific Parts workshop have done a brilliant job rebuilding the engines, "G" the machinist responsible for the build is featured here over-seeing the return. When it comes to classic anything an extra keen sense of time and patience is required. P's engines were all stock 40 year old iron legends when they arrived at Pete's - original to the nuts and bolts. G is young enough to realize the old saying is true; they don't build them like they use to.

He's gone the extra mile to build them with pride.

 

 

  

Doug and Scotty watch with horror as the big blocks fly through the fog. 

All in a days work, the crane operator Gord, relaxed as ever. G has a grip.

One in and over it must go, standard rotation is moved to port and the counter-rotation comes in and goes straight down.

There is Gord again - Cool Hand Luke, reclining as he moves 1000 lbs of steel with one finger. 

Here Doug holds the brush handle out the port salon window to guide Gord, and Gord brings in the boom for the lifting of the port engine over from the starboard engine bay on the mark!

"Captain Scotty" keeps an eye on the 3" of clearance and protects the gel-coat and window edge - just in case Gord slips - never.

Port is in place and the second engine comes in for the starboard side.

It is a beautiful thing to see a 40 year old engine recycled and renewed. The rush for new misses the quality of old.




 

G and Scott over-seeing the installation. 

Dick Avery - Commander Designer

After knocking the designers choice of wall-to-wall carpet - I have to take my Captain's hat off to Dick Avery - the Commander designer. The video below is from the Chris Craft Commander site. It features Chris Craft designer Dick Avery talking about how the Commander series was born. How many times does he say "sexy"?

Top to Bottom, Stem to Stern

The Cabin Sole

B.O.A.T. "Break Out Another Thousand" or by definition; "A hole in the water into which one pours money" the scariest thing would be to have a hole in that hole.

Nothing is ever simple or easy on a boat. The above picture is of the no-longer used thru-hull for the forward head. Laws in America require heads be plumbed to holding tanks and Paramount was converted at some point leaving behind this ticket to Davy Jones' Locker.

The designers at Chris Craft were at the leading edge of interior design, wall-to-wall carpet was all the rage. Not to worry that access hatches are covered. To find this thru-hull you almost needed a metal detector! We have Dr Doug, who has left no hatch unturned.

The sea-cock was frozen in the open position and the galvanized iron pipe that looked not-so-bad from the outside, but as you can see above very rusted on the inside, there is a reason for never using anything but bronze for these critical fittings! This could have sunk Miss P.- it would have been almost impossible to locate where the water was coming in. Access hatches have to be accessible.

When it came to new flooring for Paramount the wall-to-wall is being replaced with wood. In a house everything is pretty well square when it comes to flooring - not on a boat! This is the dinette area - about the only "square" - in all of her total square feet.

Below is the forward V-berth as Joe our master boat builder knows, another jig-saw within the jig-saw. Worse in fact, as each and every tongue & groove board had to be fit, the next cut made, the area pulled apart and fit again and so on until every angle was tapered in. The grey square is the hatch - it is going to be covered with floor and trimmed in oak with a handle installed to make access easy.

 

Bridge Brightwork

Ten down - Two to go!

It seems excessive, almost compulsive - however it is the long standing practice to apply 12 coats of varnish to woodwork that gets direct sunlight.  Each year the top three or four coats takes a pounding from the UV rays, damaging these layers, and each year you should sand these layers off and refresh the top-coats to protect the underlying base. If you don't follow this maintenance schedule, you end up having to go back to "new-wood".

Like a jigsaw puzzle with a 1000 pieces Miss P is starting to look a pretty picture again as the pieces fall into place. The new panels have been fitted to the helm station/bridge, all the trim has been screwed down to check for fit before the final wet-sand and last coats. It all looks good, the fear is a scuff when the engines are replaced, so we are holding our breath waiting to lay the final coats, seal her up and button her down - ready for the 09 season.

You can just make out the original colour behind this panel, the sun had turned the brown stain to a pumpkin colour and the grain was lost behind the UV damaged varnish.

The contrast between the picture above and the one below is a flash was used on the second - lighting-up the grain.

The headliner arrives this week. And the helm will be complete.