Polycarbonate Windows & Shade Cloth

[Seman]

Hello,
I have tinted Polycarbonate windows on my cat & installed shade cloth on top of the saloon windows.
Just noticed that the shade cloth if permanently marking the Polycarbonate, leaving a pattern of the (nylon ? ) shade cloth on the window.
Wonder if anybody has an idea on how to alleviate this problem.
I don't want to remove the shade cloth, as it cools down the cabin a fair bit.
Thanks for your suggestions,

Cheers

[delmarrey]

PolyC is very soft and gets even softer in the heat. You might try lining the covers with a velvet to keep the pattern from forming the poly.

[Terra Nova]

Anywhere the shade cloth rubs the Lexan, it will dull the surface. Prevention means keeping the cloth off the window. Perhaps a thickness of bolt-rope sewn into the cloth, to space it away from the window frame?

[UNCIVILIZED]

Put an eyebrow above the window, & screw a bolt rope into it. And below the window, affix another eyebrow, & screw the male part of several snaps into it. That, or another bolt rope. Plus, of course, the matching attachment hardware bits into the lower edge of the cloth covering piece.

You can go with the shiny, nautical, varnished teak or mahogany look. Or just paint it to match the cabin, your choice. And since these items aren't structural, you can just attach them with adhesive, or adhesive & a few screws.

Hope that helps.

[JPA Cate]

Roll up a nice soft towel and stick it under the shade cloth to hold it off the polycarbonate.
There are some good polishes that will do a good job repairiing what the shade cloth has done: Meguiars has a whole line of such stuff, and we've recently been using something our sailmaker recommended for our clears: Novus. It comes in three grades from polish to clean and shine.

It seems to me there's also a sunbrella fabric that comes with fleece on the inside, which might be soft enough if you want to use that approach.

Some shade cloths are softer than others, are you using the hard agricultural kind or "Breezeway" or something similar. (Breezeway is PVC, and tiny squares of air holes, the agricultural is more of a 3 dimensional mesh.)

If you go the "eyebrow" route, make sure they stand proud enough to really keep the shadecloth off the polycarbonate.

Good luck with it.

Ann

[Lucky]

I have shadecloth more or less permanently on the fron windows of our Belize and do not suffer much from any damage of the lexan. However I polish the windows once a year using my polishing machine on low revs and a disc also beefing used for light rubbing. I'm using Autosol as o polish. After that procedure I polish with a lambswool dish util it shines like new.

This can also be done on hatches etc. and if small hairline cracks is to be removed you can start with a coarser rubbing compound. Worse than that you can use wet and dry starting with 600 grit and work your way up to 2000 grit. Then start the polishing procedure.

Good luck!
Lucky

Happe lead free sailing

[valhalla360]

We had a similar situation and when we replaced the windows, we put covers on the inside where they hang away from the windows rather than on.

Seems to do just as good of a job keeping it cooler.

[Seman]

Thank you for your suggestions,
I've installed a 6mm nylon rope in the centre of the windows, easy & I think it well do the job.
Cheers

[thinwater]

I've had Sunbrella covers for 4 years, no problems.

In the opinion of most canvas makers, the padding often just catches grit and makes the scratching potential worse. Just plain Sunbrella. I do wax the windows 2x per year.

Sail Delmarva: Search results for covers

[Seman]

Originally Posted by thinwater

I've had Sunbrella covers for 4 years, no problems.

In the opinion of most canvas makers, the padding often just catches grit and makes the scratching potential worse. Just plain Sunbrella. I do wax the windows 2x per year.

Sail Delmarva: Search results for covers

Sunbrella is a good idea, but hard to see through.

[happyendings]

Here is a different solution to shading boat windows that I used on my old Edel 43: white perforated-vinyl without graphics. Easily installed and needs to be replaced approximately every two years in Florida sun:

[stevehalter]

You can get solar window film for lexan and poly carb windows. Goes on outside or inside keeps out 98% of the heat and uv. it is made my Hanita coatings they make lots of window film. I think it is called ch120. It is made for plastic and the gassing problems with poly carb you can actually see out of your windows .It has been on my boat 4 years and I just replaced it. Has a glue that lets it release so not much cleanup. I have it on the outside that is why life is less. If you could put it on inside of windows you would get a lot more years out of the film. It not cheap but makes saloon liveable in heat of day even in the tropics. You have to seal the edges which we did with black 6mm pin stripe tape worked excellent.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Steve.

I didn’t see any reference to ch120. Can you find your recommended film, here?
➥ Welcome to HanitaTek Window films | HanitaTek
➥ Window Films

[SV THIRD DAY]

To remove the marks....use Eisen Shine -

[stevehalter]

The name for the stuff in Au is Polyzone silver 20x by Hanita. If you want a whole roll it is lot cheaper to get it from China. One roll would do 3 or 4 cats.