One of the many projects I've got on tap to get done before re-launching in the spring is to replace the ugly old plastic laminate-covered plywood engine box. I'll be replacing two components - the fake wood-grain plastic laminated plywood bulkhead that makes up the front of the engine box, shown here:



I'm also going to replace the lid of that box, which is even uglier - it's a hunk of plywood covered in very battered and worn white plastic laminate, like an old diner counter.

My goal overall is to get more of a classic wooden sailboat feel to the interior, so I decided to build a frame-and-panel bulkhead to replace that ugly, battered brown thing. I will be painting the new one off-white, and I also will make a new lid out of some 40 year-old, air-dried, rough-sawn black walnut that I've had lying around for about five years, which I'll varnish.

Since the frame-and-panel bulkhead is interior woodwork, is going to be painted off white, and is not structural, I figured it didn't really matter too much what kind of wood I used, as long as it wasn't something that was totally not rot-resistant. I took a 2x10 that I'm pretty sure is Douglas fir and ripped it and re-sawed it to make the frames and panels. I figure I'll soak it with some clear penetrating epoxy and then paint it really well, and that should be more than adequate.

Unfortunately, I used my cell phone to get these pics and the pictures looked o.k. on the cell phone screen. Now that I see them here, I realize they look pretty bad. I'll be sure to use my digicam to get some better ones of the next steps and the final finished product.

Anyhow, here are the parts and pieces showing the joinery:



And here it is dry-fit together:



Right now the frame is overlong on all sides. I will treat all the parts with clear penetrating epoxy sealer, then paint everything and then glue it all back together. I will trim it to final shape using the old one as a template, but I'll do the final fitting in the boat with a sharp block plane.