q240z
Legendary Member
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2008
- Messages
- 1,678
- Status
- FRIEND
- Hatteras Model
- Not Currently A Hatteras Owner
I'm looking for opinions on materials to use for the sliding doors. These will be used on my Chris Craft Roamer 46 project, but many more Hatteras came with sliding doors than did Chrises...I suspect y'all have more informed opinions on this than the Chris guys.
The options I've considered thus far are aluminum, fiberglass, or solid mahogany--all three of which would require windows to be built--the other alternative is clear plastic.
The upsides to aluminum are that it's an aluminum boat, so I've got lots of of plate and extrusions laying around and the equipment to cut and weld the door components together. The doors would be finished in AwlCraft 2000 to match the rest of the boat. But since stainless hardware would attach to the aluminum, there's a possibility of dissimilar metal corrosion 10~20 years down the road. That said, Tef-Gel or similar "modern miracle" products might make the corrosion concern irrelevant.
Fiberglass wouldn't be any harder or easier than aluminum to make the basic door shape. I would have to buy Divinycell or something similar for the core, but I've got plenty of resin and cloth left over from the cabin top rehab. Cost-wise, FRP would be a couple of hundred bucks more than the aluminum option, but the final product would be roughly the same: "maintenance-free" doors with stainless latches, but without the risk of dissimilar metal corrosion issues.
I've also got a few hundred board feet of 8/4 African mahogany. It would take a lot more time to make mahogany doors, but they would be stunning. They'd also be a relatively high maintenance item. This boat will have new mahogany toe and hand rails and other exterior wood, without which it really wouldn't look like a classic Chris. As such, "maintenance-free" exterior isn't my highest priority. But the doors aren't original and there would be a lot of additional clear coat surface area to maintain if I went this way. They sure would be pretty, though...
Clear plastic doors are the final option I've considered. I had 3/4" acrylic wing doors on my Connie 52 and I have to say they were nice. Excellent visibility, zero maintenance, and the all-in cost is perhaps even less than aluminum would be. Not having to buy windows would save roughly $500 over the other options. All of the hardware would be the same regardless of the door material used. The options are acrylic or lexan, I think, and lexan just happens to be both stronger and cheaper (at one supplier). But the acrylic doors on my Connie did have surface cracks after a few decades and scratches probably much sooner, so there's a possibility that they'd look...worn...as time went on. I'm not sure how lexan would hold up in the long term.
I'd appreciate any and all constructive comments or opinions.
Cheers,
Q
The options I've considered thus far are aluminum, fiberglass, or solid mahogany--all three of which would require windows to be built--the other alternative is clear plastic.
The upsides to aluminum are that it's an aluminum boat, so I've got lots of of plate and extrusions laying around and the equipment to cut and weld the door components together. The doors would be finished in AwlCraft 2000 to match the rest of the boat. But since stainless hardware would attach to the aluminum, there's a possibility of dissimilar metal corrosion 10~20 years down the road. That said, Tef-Gel or similar "modern miracle" products might make the corrosion concern irrelevant.
Fiberglass wouldn't be any harder or easier than aluminum to make the basic door shape. I would have to buy Divinycell or something similar for the core, but I've got plenty of resin and cloth left over from the cabin top rehab. Cost-wise, FRP would be a couple of hundred bucks more than the aluminum option, but the final product would be roughly the same: "maintenance-free" doors with stainless latches, but without the risk of dissimilar metal corrosion issues.
I've also got a few hundred board feet of 8/4 African mahogany. It would take a lot more time to make mahogany doors, but they would be stunning. They'd also be a relatively high maintenance item. This boat will have new mahogany toe and hand rails and other exterior wood, without which it really wouldn't look like a classic Chris. As such, "maintenance-free" exterior isn't my highest priority. But the doors aren't original and there would be a lot of additional clear coat surface area to maintain if I went this way. They sure would be pretty, though...
Clear plastic doors are the final option I've considered. I had 3/4" acrylic wing doors on my Connie 52 and I have to say they were nice. Excellent visibility, zero maintenance, and the all-in cost is perhaps even less than aluminum would be. Not having to buy windows would save roughly $500 over the other options. All of the hardware would be the same regardless of the door material used. The options are acrylic or lexan, I think, and lexan just happens to be both stronger and cheaper (at one supplier). But the acrylic doors on my Connie did have surface cracks after a few decades and scratches probably much sooner, so there's a possibility that they'd look...worn...as time went on. I'm not sure how lexan would hold up in the long term.
I'd appreciate any and all constructive comments or opinions.
Cheers,
Q
Last edited:
