More glazing

Started the week by fitting the starboard saloon window back into place all went well it took a fair amount of effort to pull it into the curve of the coach roof starting with the screws in the centre and gradually working out to the ends.

Port saloon window

Starboard saloon window

I then removed the opening part of the fore hatch the acrylic glazing had been 'glued' in with some form of black mastic but the glazing had started to lift letting in rain water there was some minor crazing to the glazing but as it is 10mm thick I decided that I would reuse it. The glazing came out of the frame with very little effort after cutting round the edge of the acrylic with a Stanley knife and then gently levering it out with a thin scraper. I cleaned up the acrylic panel and the aluminium frame with an acrylic scraper and Detak which is basically chewing gum remover  but seemed to be quite effective at removing mastic I then washed the frame and glazing with hot water and detergent and left them to dry thoroughly. Before fitting the glazing I ran masking tape around the edge on the upper side to make the final clean up easier, finally I gave the glazing and frame a wipe over with methylated spirit to remove all traces of grease and put them aside to dry. While the frame was drying I removed the remains of the steel roll pin that had retained one of the locking screws and also the brass pin on the other locking screw and replaced them with some 1/8" stainless steel pins. 

Glazing cleaned up and ready for fitting

Once everything was dry I ran some EHB5321 double sided tape around the frame, EHB extra high bond or really really sticky tape, this is a transparent acrylic foam tape. This tape is a little tricky to use it is important not to stretch it so I left the red backing tape in place  but this needs to be removed to bend the tape round the corners the ends of the tape were then tightly mitred together.

Applying the double sided tape

The glazing was then pressed into place and clamped up for 24 hours.

Glazing clamped up

After 24 hours had passed I removed the clamps and squeezed some mastic into the gap between the edge of the glazing and the frame before removing the masking tape.

Removing the masking tape

Complete and ready to refit

The hatch was reassembled today which hopefully will mean all the glazing is now watertight there was some heavy rain later this afternoon so it should have been tested I will probably go and have a look tomorrow. Again all the advice and materials for the work to the hatch came from Hadlow Marine. 

Also this week I have carried out some minor fibreglass repairs to the flanges that support the wood trim around both companionways the wood trim was then replaced on the main companionway and then the stainless steel retaining bars for the wash boards were permanently screwed into place.