I wanted to replace the windows because they all leaked, and they were not leaking from the seals, they were leaking from around the hull. Also, it's an hour and a half drive from my home to the boat so I wasn't go to screw around with removing windows to see whats wrong and then attempt to fix that. I wanted to rip this band-aid off as fast as possible, here is what I discovered.
1. When the hull openings were originally cut to fit these windows the workmanship was very poor, I could see daylight from around the window frame once the inner trim was removed. Once the window itself was removed I could see the opening appeared to have a jagged edge, you would have thought the opening would have been made with a router and some type of jig. Instead it looked like someone eye-balled it and then used a box cutter.
It was also easy to see two, and on one window, three different shades of sealant applied to attempt to stop the leaks. I would be willing to guess that these windows have leaked since the boat was new.
2. The screws used to attach the windows are all to long, some by almost 1/8 inch, as I set the windows in and start installing the screws I noticed that they were bottoming out before they would tighten up. I compared the old screws to the new ones and they are all the same length. I need 80 screws for 6 windows so if I can't find any metric screws here locally then I'll just cut all of the old screws to length, clean up the threads and install those.
I removed the old windows, cleaned up the old sealant, sanded the opening to give the adhesive a good base to adhere to, then I slid the new window in the opening and used a pencil to draw an outline of the new window frame, then I popped the new window out and applied tape around my pencil outline.
I started by applying a good thick coat of adhesive to the hull, applying extra to the poor fitting corners, then I slid the window into position and went inside the cabin to install the inner trim ring and screws, once tight (or as tight as I could get) I cleaned all of the sealant that got on the hinges etc. from sliding it through the opening, then I went back out on top and made sure the window frame was flush with the hull.
I let all of the windows sit for several hours before I peeled my tape off, and I'll go back next week to install shorter screws to help pull the windows in tight to the hull and then I'll trim the couple of areas with a razor blade were the adhesive is sticking out.
I did use the 3M 5200 adhesive sealant and after seeing how poorly my opening were cut I'm glad I did.
I removed 6 windows that no longer had any tint on them and were crazed pretty badly, not to mention leaked, and now I have 6 clean, tinted windows that hopefully won't leak once I get the correct screws installed. Oh yeh, all of the new windows came with screens, so now I can open the windows for fresh air and also keep the bugs out.
