Replacing 43 Year Old Opening Portlights

[Hudson Force]

I recently finished replacing my 12 fixed portlights port and starboard, but my two aft portlights must be opening to allow aft cabin ventilation at anchor.

With the start of this day I was just planning to replace the gasket, but a careless move with a mallet while knocking out the pin holding the lens on my 43 year old portlight resulting in cracking off the hinge assembly. I'm opting to replace these two aft portlights.


I'm thinking that my best choice would be to replace these with the originals that will fit the same footprint and served well for so long. When I was examining the pieces of my removed portlight I found the manufacturer's label.

What a surprise! My portlights were made by an iconic company that was known for "door to door" sales in the 1950's in the USA. I was amazed,- My portlights were made by the... Fuller Brush Company!

Fuller Marine Portlights are still in production in Kansas and I'm buying a pair of new ones! I feel like I'm holding true to a pair of classic antiques!

[stevec195]

The time you spend removing, prepping and installing will be close to 10 hours a hole. So go on and get something nice like a new found metal bronze or stainless unit.


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[Sea Dreaming]

Darn... I hoped you were posting a "how I did it" thread. We want to replace somenof our 40 year old, fixed, portlights with opening. But now I just want to go brush my hair....
Nice find though!

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by stevec195

The time you spend removing, prepping and installing will be close to 10 hours a hole. So go on and get something nice like a new found metal bronze or stainless unit.


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10 hours a hole to remove and replace with same?!?! You must make a sloth proud!!

I removed fixed, enlarged holes and replaced with opening at around 3 hours a hole!


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[Cheechako]

10 hours would be a little extreme for sure, but it could happen, it's a boat after all!

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Sea Dreaming

Darn... I hoped you were posting a "how I did it" thread. We want to replace somenof our 40 year old, fixed, portlights with opening. But now I just want to go brush my hair....
Nice find though!

I've posted a number of "how I did it" posts in the past. Maybe I can do some more, but my camera is broken. I'll just have to work with my cell phone.

I'm closer to sailmonkey with the port removal and prep time, but I will admit that I like the Newfound Metal Ports; however, I don't see any relationship between choosing the portlight you like and the labor time spent. Regardless of the time I spend working, I'll choose the portlights I'm most pleased with for the price.

For my surface area the plastic and thick acrylic that I've had for about five decades will perfectly match my plastic boat! Stainless steel and tempered glass doesn't really give me anything for the money with this application. These are about 7 x 14 inch portlights forward of my dinghy on davits.

Now I'm inspired to try the camera on my new phone!

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by stevec195

The time you spend removing, prepping and installing will be close to 10 hours a hole. So go on and get something nice like a new found metal bronze or stainless unit.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

I'm still not relating the choice of portlight to the labor time, but I reviewed the product sizes and prices for the Newfound Metals Portlights and you are right!

They are reasonably priced and they are well-designed. .....and I'll admit that they are very pretty. Maybe that Bronze 512B, as I notice it's a perfect fit for my cut out.

I'll give Nancie the stainless steel or bronze choice. Thanks, Steve, I like your advice.

[Ramblingman]

I've been replacing our old. worn, oxidized Grey Marine plastic portlights with NFM, I just finished number 10 yesterday and doing number 11 today. ( 6 more to go!)

They look and work great!

Expect the first to take about 4 hours. After the third one I can do them in about 2 and a half hours.

Make sure to watch the videos, be sure there is plenty of butyl in all those little gaps and that the portlight floats properly or you will have leaks.

Last - you may need to adjust the dogs in order for the window to seal properly. Once done, they seal very nice.

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

I'm still not relating the choice of portlight to the labor time, but I reviewed the product sizes and prices for the Newfound Metals Portlights and you are right!

They are reasonably priced and they are well-designed. .....and I'll admit that they are very pretty. Maybe that Bronze 512B, as I notice it's a perfect fit for my cut out.

I'll give Nancie the stainless steel or bronze choice. Thanks, Steve, I like your advice.

Newfound Metals are great and priced right. Just be aware that they use (oddly, for an American firm but no big whoop to this Canadian sailor) metric bolt sizes. They are also very careful with confirming orders. In this respect, they are, along with Garhauer, in my top tier of "go to" marine supply companies.

Oh, and here's "how I did it": http://alchemy2009.blogspot.ca/2010/...oundmetals.com

And

The world encompassed: Bright and butyl full

[artisanmach]

they are Port Townsend WA but are manufactured over seas. that's why metric...

[Hudson Force]

I'm still waiting for my Newfound Metals Ports to arrive for fitting, but I've taken the opportunity to prepare my sites.



So, here's my temporary port for a few days...



'easy and cheap, but suspect for withstanding following seas! I'll post the update later.

[Ramblingman]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

I'm still waiting for my Newfound Metals Ports to arrive for fitting, but I've taken the opportunity to prepare my sites.



So, here's my temporary port for a few days...



'easy and cheap, but suspect for withstanding following seas! I'll post the update later.

Are you getting the template too?

You will need to route out the drip ledge/spigot too.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Ramblingman

Are you getting the template too?

You will need to route out the drip ledge/spigot too.

Yes..... & yes,- no surprises.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Ramblingman

Are you getting the template too?

You will need to route out the drip ledge/spigot too.

Oh, I think I understand now,- I had to come back to this because I didn't understand your post before. Theses are not my cut-outs for my Newfound Metals Portlights. These are just the voids left after removing my old Fuller Brush Company portlights.

When my new portlights and template arrives, then I'll cut out a slightly larger footprint and the spigots. I am close on the bottom edge, but I'll fit it right. Thanks!

By "preparing my sites", I was just speaking of taking out the old ports and cleaning the area. I filled the old screw holes and painted the boundry.

[Hudson Force]

Finished!





...time to move to the next project.