1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 refit

[q240z]

The bow seat windows arrived! The bad news is....well, it's covered in the latest article. I'm starting to wonder if price point has anything to do with quality in American manufacturing anymore. If you buy a new Mercedes and you find chips in the paint upon delivery, do they just tell you to buy a bottle of touch up paint and fix it yourself?

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Bow Seat Windows

Cheers,
Q

[eze2bme]

Sorry for the issues. BUT - after reading the post, at least you were able to get in touch with the manufacturer and at least speak to someone. If this had been a foreign manufacturer you'd never be able to talk with anyone. Good luck with the fix.

As usual, always enjoy reading your posts and following the progress!

[jim rosenthal]

Anyone else make these? Worth looking in B&H, maybe?

[q240z]

Thanks, eze2bme. No doubt, they did respond quickly. It's just been really disappointing. I've been looking forward to these windows for four years or so. The price went from $1,200 to $1,750 in that time, which is odd because my liberal friends all say we need to thank our Great Leader for keeping inflation in check. I guess the biggest stunner was Motion's email acknowledging the problems and then saying the fix was on me.

Jim, there are quite a few companies making marine windows, but I sent RFQs out to pretty much all of them. Motion had the best product for me (e.g. no screws outside) AND they were the only ones who had a top hinge option for the center window.

Anyway, I'm waiting for their next response. We'll see how it goes.

[jim rosenthal]

I would send them back their lousy windows. From the photos you made, the work looks really terrible and that's only the stuff you can see. I would look in B&H and see who else makes these, and I would call Diamond Seaglaze and see if they can do it. If you are going to spend a lot of money on three little windows, you might as well get something decent for all your expense.

Someplace on this site is contact info for a fellow in NC who builds window frames for older Hatteras yachts. I can't remember his name, but someone else may know, and it might be worth following up on.

[enamorada]

While I haven't done this yet, I spoke to Mike at Sam's Marine and he gave me a reference for custom fiberglass frames. The guys name is Broadus Rose. His website is http://www.boatwindowframes.com/

[q240z]

Yup...I talked to them. I don't recall if they used screws to secure the FRP frames to the fiberglass or their design didn't allow for a top hinge opening window, but I believe it was one of them. I deleted the spreadsheet once I decided on Motion, but there were about ten companies in the running on the RFQ. In the end, Motion was the only one standing.

If, in fact, these windows are not representative of Motion's usual products and they're willing to give me what I paid for, I'm willing to listen. The president of the company invited me to call him and discuss. Personally, I like to keep these things in writing to avoid the "he said, she said" phenomenon. I'll let you know how that turns out.

In other news, I've attacked the aft stateroom portholes with nothing even remotely resembling a vengeance. It's hard to focus when other aspects of the job aren't going well. Gotta keep the momentum up though...

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Refurbishing [hateful] Aft Stateroom Portholes

Cheers,
Q

[jim rosenthal]

ATF and acetone= MMO, if you're interested....... I've not tried ATF +diesel.

[q240z]

The ATF/diesel combo was actually a mistake. I figured I might as well use it for something! lol

Q

[q240z]

New glass showed up! It's even better than I expected!

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Glass!

Cheers,
Q