How to Have Sexy Windows !?

Been to the boat shows and seen those slim shiny and perfectly trimmed windows on the new production boats? Wonder how they do it? Does your boat have old perspex/acrylic things with cracks radiating out from every screw? Do your windows seal every drop or just slow the stuff down? Did you try to re-seal your windows and now have a smeared mess all over your cabin sole and you? (and your mate and your clothes and the dog if you have one!)

I didn't know so I checked with the pro's to see how they do it and it is a lot easier than a lot of the pro's want you to know! If you are a heads up sailor and handi man, this little article will give you the information you need to do it all thus save a $$$ in the process.

see http://www.thecoastalpassage.com/windows.html and for those that don't know me, this info and everthing else on the TCP site is free.

If you know some tricks that you think are better, let me know so I can post them and share the info around.

Cheers

[jemsea]

Thanks for posting the hard won info

cheers mate

[seafox]

Interesting.
Where did you get the double sided tape? Is that the 3m product you are talking about in the article?
Is the tape fairly thick (like 5mm) so as to make a space for the sealant?
I just used a dam rubber (one sided sticky) to do mine.

[Talbot]

I used a 3m tape to seal my polycarbonate onto the window. I purchased mine from a 3m wholesailer. It comes in a long roll, and they have to cut off the width of tape that you require. Its quite expensive, but the end result is worth it.

Greetings Seafox

yes...3Mbrand ..... it is reliably very good. It is two sided and often used to hold that plastic trim on car panels and quite a few other applications. Not limited to a marine source. The stuff I used was only 1.6 mm thick but I faired and edge all around the inside to even out the waves in the steel work so where the sealant was, was between 3 and 6+mm. The tape has serious grunt. A mis-alignment in window instal is no fun. With no adhesive action by the sealant, the tape should be more than sufficent to hold the polycarb. I understand it is availabe in a variety of thickness's.

Your 5 mm dam would make things easier on your sealant and allow for much larger plastic. The size I was reporting on were about 1 foot (300mm) square kinda sorta. The silicone I specified is intended for those big glass and steel buildings with tinted glass panels of very large size. 2X3 metres for example, and has an extreme amount of 'give'. One of the things I liked about the system was that it was rather low profile relitively speaking.

Greetings Talbot
that sounds like the stuff alright!

[cat man do]

I'll admit this is the most attractive way of doing it, and I'll be doing my windows just like this on the newie, but unless you have a couple of through bolts [oversize holes in the plastic please, and timber should be sealed] in strategic spots, the bond is only as good as your paint to your hull.
I must stress that I have not seen or heard of a failure yet. Great description Bob, you'll put us boatbuilders out of job giving away the secret's....... doesn't matter, the smart one's are building their own and going cruising.

Have fun
Dave

[delmarrey]

My cabin sides are cored with foam. So I'll pull out the windows and will be routing out about an inch of the foam, then epoxy in some mohogany wood fillers.

Then I'll router out a 1/2" step all the way around the outside of the hole. I'll Epoxy and glass over that and fair it in.

Then cut out new Lexan inserts a 1/4" radius smaller then the step with the outside corners radiused. Will then seal them in by filling the gap between the frame and Lexan flush with the cabin.

Hope this makes sence. But every twist in the cabin while underway will be taken up by the filler material. No more cracked screw holes and water tight too.........................................._/)

[Sandero]

Why do you haver a thing for sex with widows?

I thought it was virgins who drive men wild?

hahhaha

[GordMay]

”...Why do you haver a thing for sex with widows?...”

In my case, it’s not that I want to have sex with windows; but that windoz just keeps ‘screwing’ me anyway.

[Canibul]

Originally Posted by defjef

Why do you haver a thing for sex with widows?

I thought it was virgins who drive men wild?

hahhaha

You've got us mixed up with the Taliban....they dont sail much.

I should have titled it sexy windows for perverted sailors!

Hey Delmarry... yeah thats the good look alright. Rebated is the local term. The masking is the tip on that menthod too to make for good result. The method i discribed is intended for alteration of existing old fashion stuff but rebating is the modern way. The builders I know using foam or compositte panels are making the hole about 1/2 inch over the size of the windows each side or 1 inch all up then cutting another piece of composite 1 1/2 inch smaller than the window od and wide enough to be about an inch bigger than the ID of the hole and glueing in on the backside to get the rebate. Then use ton of silicone all around. Thick bed underneath and all around. Can't beat that but for after the fact an overlay is the way to go.

If any one can understand that mess I'll be impressed.

Here is a tip I just learned. You can often still get auto glass for old car/pickups with split windows that curve back toward the wind wings. (anyone remember those!) These can sometimes be used for those corner windows on bridgedeck cats that are otherwise bitchy to source anything except expensive custom or light plastic tortured into curves with screws and stuff that tend to fail. Nice way to get tough glass cheap if you are lucky on the shape.

cheers

[schoonerdog]

hmmm, I have leaking windows that I will be replacing with lexan. The lexan windows are large, about 18"x30". it has a recessed lip into which it sits and a fiberglass frame on the outside. I believe they used sikoflex to secure it, it's black stuff which causes black streaks each time it gets wet and worse when its touched with a wet deck brush. Would the window tape work with this type of installation? It seems like the simplest method with caulking around the inside and outside edge as you describe.

[Talbot]

if it was sikaflex, then they used the wrong sort. There is a version of sika which has a lot of UV inhibitors that are not in the others.

[GordMay]

Sikaflex -295 UV black is a fast curing, one-component, flexible, high performance polyurethane-based adhesive, intended to be used as an adhesive and/or sealant in bonding applications for polycarbonate and acrylic (PMAA) windows.
"How To Bond & Seal Plastic Marine Windows & Hatches using Sikaflex ® -295 UV" ~ Goto: Sika Corporation | USA