forward portlights

[RichCarter]

I just finished rebuilding the four opening forward portlights. This is the second time I’ve done this in the 26 years I’ve owned my boat. I guess they need it every ten or so years. My boat has the original aluminum frame ports. The large opening ports were long ago replaced with Bowmar portlights of a similar size. I couldn’t rebuild them. The four smaller portlights were better quality. I’ve been reading threads sent by folks who replaced their ports with expensive stainless ports. I wonder if they had the same aluminum ports as me or if perhaps they had plastic ports. I find nothing wrong with the aluminum portlights. Here’s some tips for those who have the same ports and are considering rebuild or replacement.

Rebulding the portlights is a pain in the butt. I didn’t keep track of how much time I spent on the job, but I would guess it was around 20 to 30 hours. I worked on it a few hours each night for about a week. The original portlights had plate-glass. I replaced it with 1/4″ lexan in a light gray color. The lexan is easy to cut with a jig-saw and fine blade. Dis-assembly of the frames can be tedious if the screws don’t cooperate. The first step is to remove the gasket. There are about 10 screws under the gasket that hold the frame in place. The first time I did this many years ago I used an impact driver to dislodge the screws. Even with that, I ended up drilling the heads off two screws. I found no reasonable way to remove these screws. Heading didn’t work and the hard stainless #6 screw is too small for an easy-out. I am short a fastener on a pair of ports. They seem fine however. This second time, the screws came right out because I had allowed a little caulking compound to find its way into the screw holes when I last reassembed.

After disassembling the frames, I wire-brushed the inside of the frame using a bench-grinder with a brush wheel. This is tedious because its hard to get inside the frame where it curves with a wheel brush. I have some smaller wheel brushes that I can put on my drill-press that help get the tight spots.

I polished tarnished areas of the outside of the frame with a starbright-pad wheel on a drill. You have to be careful with a starbright wheel because it will leave swirl marks where you run it. Only polish spots that are obviously corroded. After the frame was cleaned, I taped off the outside of the frame and spray-painted the inside to help prevent corrosion. I used XRusto primer followed by a gray overcoat. Then I ran a tap through the screw holes to clean them out. I used a generic window-gasket material sold at home stores around the inside frame to seal the lexan window. This is a self-adhesive material that comes in a roll two pieces wide. The gasket is laid in on the outside frame face, not the inside. I laid in a thin coat of polysulfied bedding as the frame was reassembled to seal water out of the frame in case any got past the gaskets. I obtained a length of proper sized gasket material (5/16″) from a marine supplier online. I laid in another thin coat of polysulfied under the gasket to keep corrosion down and make sure it all stayed water tight.

I didn’t have to pull the frames off the boat this time. The caulking seems to be holding up well, but I polished tarnished areas of the frame with the starbright-wheel. I paid particular attention to the inside frame where it sits against the rubber gasket. A little mother’s mag-wheel polish and a starbright pad (not the electric wheel) helps clean up the aluminum frame. The job cost about $100 in materials. I bought enough to do it again then years from now so I spent about $200.

The screens were repaired a couple of years ago. After a couple of decades of exposure to salt spray, the screens corrode and must be replaced. I removed the old screen material from the screen frames and replaced with similar material. I used JB-Weld to attach the screen material to the frame. Careful cleaning of the frame was needed to allow the epoxy to stick. It’s held up fine for two years.

The rebuilt portlights look great and cost almost nothing to rebuild when compared with new replacement ports. If I still own the boat 10 years from now, I’ll do it again.

Rich
BlackSheep #47

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