Restoring Chris-Craft Boats to their Original Beauty
After roughy cutting the bottom planks, I have to soak them for 10 days before steaming them. One plank take one to two hours to steam. It’s a slow process, but very rewarding in the long run. After I have all the planks bent, I have to let them set for two weeks to dry out before I sand them to fit. I then dry fit the entire bottom and pre-drill all the holes. Next, I remove the bottom and add a layer of 5200 to water proof it, in-bed the bottom planks and screw them all in. There are a lot of screws; the average bottom takes approximately 2500 screws. The last step requires the bottom to be sprayed with water and covered to keep it wet for a week.
This was a real time consuming project, but in the end, worth every minute. Next week, we start steaming and bending the bottom planks.
