replacing glass in porthole windows

[defever]

i have a 30 yr old boat w/ bronze ports and what appears to be automotive glass in them (a plastic laminated in between the 2 panels of glass. the windows are getting "foggy" around the edges and is getting worse by the year. i assume it's the plastic doing this. does anyone else have this problem and , if the only solution is to replace the glass (which i think it is), how the heck do you get the glass out? it appears that the weather strip is holding the bronze edges together but who knows? help please....

[Cheechako]

got a picture? It's hard to say... some have a wire ring inside the glass that you remove, some are sandwiched between two bronze pieces with screws holding them together, I think others are just held in by the sealant... seen this problem many times. I wonder if you couldnt wipe some sealant around the periphery before installing the new ones so moisture doesnt get in between the glass layers...?

[Shoalcove]

Mine were held together with screws and it was pretty obvious how to dismantle them. You may want to consider replacing the glass with acrylic (plexiglass) when you put them back together. It takes impact better than glass and is easy to have cut to shape. You can buy it with a UV and scratch protector as well IIRC.

[roverhi]

I'd stick with glass. My 40 year old fixed windows are safety glass and are finally getting the point of being nice to R&R. It they were plexigalss, would probably have been on their 4th replacement because of UV damage.

Every port manufacturer built there's differantly. They assembled so there is a way to disassemble them hopefully without a larger hammer. If there is such a thing, a marine glass shop would be the place to get the job done. They'd have some experience with replacing glass in a variety of different ports. I know it's been done before as a dockmate had his done. Unfortunately that was a long time ago in another state so can't help you with a source.

[Cheechako]

Yeah, glass is real nice... hard to get it in ports anymore.