Rebuilding Large Fixed Ports in a Gulfstar

[glhotka]

My Gulfstar 43 has 4 large fixed ports (windows) on the cabin house. We are doing a refit and when removing them for rebedding into the fiberglass, I decided to try to clean them up.
These are odd shaped parallelogram shaped ports with aluminum frames. Once removed i laid it flat and poured water onto the glass and watched it leak out where the spline around the glass was joined.

Has anyone ever taken the glass (not Lexan) out of an aluminum frame and if so, how did you seal the glass back into the outer aluminum frame before bedding it back into the boat?

I a thinking of taking the outer frame apart, removing the glass, cleaning the glass and then sanding/polishing the aluminum frames to remove some of the obvious 30+ years of use. The big question is going to be if I can get the rubber spline material to put the glass back in. If not, I may have to use silicone or Dow 795.

I am interested in any comments from your experience or even thoughts of how you might handle this.

[glhotka]

I thought I would reply and provide an update to my project. I was able to remove the frames and clean up all the glass and frames. I was able to get the spline in but could never get the 2 sides of the frame together all the way.
Finally I took the 2 that were done to a local mirror/glass shop. He took them one afternoon and had them done the next day. He said he used a different type of spline and that he used a tad of silicon on my mine.

[Blue Stocking]

The fact that you didn't get any responses, on a forum that has more opinions than a dog has fleas, is an indication of how frustrating window repair can be.
That said, glad you got them sorted out---and dont give up on us .
A friend has similar boat--very nice