Calling All Chris Craft Geeks!
Fellow woody boater Dan Nelson of Nelson Boat Works is in the process of restoring another show stopper Chris Craft 1941 Barrel Back. Dan has found what looks like an orange dye on the back sides of the ceiling boards. Dan has figured that they might have been dipped into a aniline dye, and then stained on the front side. 
Can anyone confirm this? Chris? Are you out there Chris…. I have my Ouija board out… I am ready…Dan is ready… Chris… Chris… stop looking at your new statue…it’s not done yet… Chris we need you here…
Chris…..
I’ve seen some Philippine mahogany that was pumpkin orange after milling. The color range is all over the map. I think CC used a “dark “stain to even out the color. Just my two cents.
Maybe the new guy stained the wrong sides and it was never coated. Just guessin' JK
Many of these parts were treated (dipped or brushed) with product called Toxic Chemiseal. I wonder if over time the mix got tinted from all of the tannen(sp) in the wood. Like when you soak a plank for a couple days and it turns the water the color of red beer.
The other theory is what Gar Wood did: mix stain with a little varnish for use as a sealer. This created a flat, stained finish, like what is shown.
Brian
It's Chris here. Those planks were cut from wood that was still growing in a Forrest somewhere in the Philippines long before I was dead and buried. How would I know what made them look orange 70 years later? Those sons of mine wouldn't let me smoke my cigars in the plant so I always hid in the boiler house where they wouldn't catch me smoking them.
I didn't spend much time in the finishing rooms where those ceiling boards would have been stained so I wouldn't be able to answer your curious questions anyway. Now put that Ouiji Board away and let me get back to concentrating on this cigar, if you don't mind.
Goodnight,
Chris
PS – These computers are fun. Keep that Ouigi Board handy, I may be back.