Deadlight Repair
I have a '73 2-29 and my deadlights were leaking terribly. Mostly at the aft ends of the larger rear deadlites. I unsrewed them and took them home to give tehm some love and they have been dry for 2 seasons now. Here is what I did (i should have taken pics) 1. Unscrewed the cover flanges that secured them to the doghouse and took the lights home. 2. pulled out the vinyl strip that kept the plexi secured into place. This is far as you can get without cutting anything. The plexi has room to move around in the frame but you cant get the plexi out. I had plans of replacing the old scratched stuff with some nice new hi-tech UV resistant stuff but I did not want to damage the frames or plexi. 3. Cleaned all of the mold and funk out of the frame channel with clorox and a brown scotchbrite pad. 4. Used some plexi polish to try to remove some of the scratches from the clear plastic - waste of money. Maybe you will have better luck. 5. Squeezed in a bead of lifecaulk into the track (dont use 3M 5200 - that is an adhesive that will not come off, the lifecaulk is a polysulfide based caulk that will stay soft and come apart easilly if the fix doesnt work the first time. 5200 in my opinion has no place on a boat) 6. Pressed in the vinyl strip (removed in step 2) The strip goes in with a little thumb pressure. 7. Reinstaled into the boat with 1" #8 screws. THe whole thing took 2 or 3 weekends of 95% chatting and 5% work. And it made a big difference.
