Easy Port Hole Cleanup

[Ted]

My boat is out of the water right now while I wait for a sail report to be finished so I was looking at the old do-list.

When I got my 19 the port hole glass was milky white. Here is how I replaced the film between the panes to restore them.

I removed the port holes and this is what they all looked like:



To remove the glass, you have to unscrew the inner ring. I tapped on a driver at an angle until it started to turn (I had sprayed it with WD-40 and let them sit for a while first):



...and out it came:



Then I carefully pushed out the glass:



It's a little hard to see in this picture, but the two panes are separated by a sheet of safety glass plastic.



I used a razor blade to start the separation of the two panes of glass and came apart pretty easily once started. Peel off the old plastic:



I soaked all of the copper parts in a solution of vinegar and salt:



Then I scrubbed and rubbed. I actually backed off a bit on this because I was marring up the copper a bit. I figure a little patina gives it some character. This is about half-way done:



I used 2 Mil Clear Safety Window Film 24" Wide x 1yd. Sold by the yard as one continuous roll. It cost me about $14. I forgot to snap a picture of this part, but it's just a matter of cutting the plastic and sandwiching it between the panes of glass. I used a bead of marine sealer (but not one that holds permanently like 5400) in the groove closest to the outside wall and screwed back in the retainer ring.

The finished product:

[skip1930]

"I see"
Very interesting.
I did not realize there was a 2mm plastic safety film between the glass.
Thank you for the detailed procedure.
Good to hear it's easy and doable.
How difficult was it to remove those screws to spin off retainers?
Hey? When your putting it back together, how tight should the ring be?

skip.

[brackish]

Very nice job and a good addition to the DIY list.

[Ted]

Getting the retainer rings off was not hard but I took it slowly. They are pretty much corroded together (my boat is a 1990 so they have been paired for 24 years). I know that there are better thread looseners than WD-40 but I wasn't sure what their effect would be, if any, on copper so I started with the WD-40.

There were no "screws" on the retainer rings - just two little holes drilled into the ring.

When putting them back on I was careful not to overdo it. I image it applies pressure in a uniform manner but when the ring was flush with the rim of the porthole (and much of the sealant had been pushed out) I felt it was tight enough.

[crazycarl]

nice job ted.

thanks for the step by step and photos.

cc

[Mike]

This will be a good off season clean up .....thanks for the detail.