General Discussion

As part of our 1967 42 Commander's seemingly never-ending restoration, I've already replaced the headliner in the v-berth, salon, and aft cabin. As we were going to be fixing the hardtop, I never really got around to doing that headliner, but this year is the year!

A number of years ago I did the salon and aft cabin, and last year I did the v-berth. I decided that I wanted easy access to the area above the headliner so that if I ever needed to access for wiring, leaks, etc., it would be easy to do so. I used 1/4 plywood, covered in foam backed vinyl for the panels, and then used mahogany trim to keep it all in place. Long ago when I was redoing the rest of the interior, I worked with my dad to determine the profiles of trim that I needed, along with measuring every bit of trim that I thought I'd need. Dad then made all of the trim, and when he was done, I finish sanded it, stained it, and varnished it. As I worked on projects, all of the trim was there waiting for me. Now that I'm at the end however, I have found that due to either using incorrect pieces (they were all numbered for their location), warpage, or a change in my trim plan (as in this project), I was short on some trim and needed to make some pieces.

In any case, here are a few pictures as I move through one of the last major projects on our 42

ABOVE: String it up. I did the same with the salon when I measured for not only trim and the center board, but also the headliner panels as well. If you open the picture and look closely, you can see the string marking where the 6" wide centerboard will go, and the "outline" of the four panels that will make up the headliner. By using screws and string, I'm able to get a really good measurement for everything I'll need.

ABOVE: Measurements. As much as I'd like everything to be nice and square, it was 1967 and this was the first year of the 42 aft cabin. So.. measure, confirm, and write down. On the right - measurements for the curve on the back of the hardtop. I used a string to get a straight line across from one end of the curve to the other. From there I took a measurement at every inch, from the string to the edge of the curve. On the left is the outline of the hardtop with all of the measurements I'll need for various lengths of trim, the centerboard, and panel sizes. Again, it's the same process I used for the rest of the headliner panels throughout the inside of the boat.

ABOVE: The measurements take shape. Using heavy card stock, I put my measurements to paper to "build" the curve of the hard top in two pieces. As I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to manage the junction of the centerboard and the curves, so I added about 4" to the inside end of each curve to allow for some play in my design.

ABOVE: The trim list. From my measurements above, I put together a list of the pieces of trim I'll need by profile type. From there, I reviewed my remaining inventory of trim and determined what I needed to make.

ABOVE: The beginning of hardtop curve templates. with the initial curve, I added 3/4" to each side, and that gave me a 1.5" trim board which will match up with the other edge trim pieces. Using some scrap 1/8" thick hardboard, I outlined two pieces for each side of the aft curve to get me to the 1/4" thickness I'd prefer for the router to slide along.

ABOVE: Lots of clamps. After cutting the pieces of hardboard, I glued them together to get the 1/4" thickness. Once dried, I used a random orbital sander with a foam pad and a piece of 60 grit sandpaper to shape the curves... checking for the 1.5" width consistency, and for a nice smooth curve from one end to another.

ABOVE: The results... so far. Fortunately, I only needed to make a total of 6 pieces of trim (including the centerboard). The outer trim and cross ribs are all mahogany 3/8" thick, with the centerboard being 3/4" thick. This all matches what has been done in the inside of the boat.

The next process will be to make the curves. I'll use a flush trim router bit to cut the curves... then sand them and use a 1/8" round over bit for the outer facing edges of the trim. From there I will start the process of finish sanding, staining, and varnishing, while I work on making the panels for the headliner material. Stay tuned... I'll update this as I go!

C.