New ports

[skylark]

Made some good progress today. Three ports are bolted in, watertight (knock on fiberglass), and just need some more caulk around the edges.  The other ports are installed and drilled, ready for bolting in, I just need some longer bolts.

The bad caulk job is all cleaned up.  A couple more days work and they should be done, assuming there are no leaks.  But now I know how to do it, I could take one off and have it back on in a day or two.

[AdriftAtSea]

sounds good, post photos when you can.

[CapnK]

Agreed - we need pics, Paul! :D

[skylark]

I finally got the ports done this morning, they are looking pretty good. I was up north for a while so didn't work on them for a couple of weeks, thats why they took so long. 

I used some black caulk on the outside to match the black butyl tape. The ports look like they have a solid black gasket around them, even though it is part butyl and part caulk.   There are a few air bubbles which are a cosmetic problem. I still have to remove excess butyl tape from the inside of the port, the cabin side.

In theory they are now ocean-worthy from a structural point of view, or Lake-worthy as it may be.  Hopefully they are not leaking through the bolt holes, they shouldn't be but water is persistant and hard to stop.  Hopefully the butyl tape and caulk will not be damaged by UV. Some of the ports have bolts that are not long enough to cover with acorn nuts, this is also cosmetic but maybe I will replace them with longer bolts.

I'm glad to have this big job behind me.  Now I have to clean the boat up and get it into the water. Pics to come.

[skylark]

Here are some pics of my new ports. There are bigger images in my gallery.

http://sailfar.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=73







The ports were cut out of 1/4" Lexan, cut the same size as the old aluminum frames. I used less than one half 8' x 4' sheet. 

I reused the interior aluminum beauty rings.

After cleaning up the old opening and wiping down with acetone, butyl tape was placed around the opening with no gaps, trying to cover the existing bolt holes. The butyl tape was 1/2" wide and 1/8" thick. The seam is was at the bottom and should self seal.

After removing the protective plastic covers from the lexan ports, the ports were placed directly on the butyl tape. From the inside of the boat, I took a small awl and made a mark on the lexan for each drill hole (through the butyl tape).  Then from the outside, I drilled through the lexan, slightly oversize (the bolts fit loosely with some expansion room).

Then the bolts were pushed through from the outside after application of caulk into the bolt hole. The bolts were tightened using lock-nuts on the inside.  This is a two man job. Tightening the bolts squeezes the butyl tape out both inside and outside.  A razor blade was used to cut the excess butyl tape away.

The caulk was 3M Windo-Weld Super Fast Urethane, Part No. 051135-08609.  This is available at most auto parts stores.  I used 1 and one half 10.5 oz cartridges.

I taped around the ports on the hull and on the lexan port, then applied caulk all around, and shaped it with a tounge depressor (stirring stick). After curing, the excess caulk was removed. For the most part it came away easily using a razor blade to make sure  it separated correctly when the tape was pulled.

Inside, I intend to either use caulk, or to push a piece of string or twine into the joint.  The butyl tape is sticky and it will smear if you wipe it with mineral spirits. So far I have finished one port by cutting the excess butyl tape off with a razor blade.  This seems to be a better job in cold weather, when hot the butyl gets gooey and sticks to everything.

I am not recommending this method yet, first I want to see how it holds up over time.  These are well proven materials but time will tell how it works on a boat.

You can see that the lexan is distorted a bit around the bolts, perhaps we put too much pressure on it when tightening the bolts.

The ports seem to be dry.  My bilge is dusty, although it usually is.