Oval window leak

John41

I could use some advice for my leaky front port window. I have the 342 and I finally had the chance to run a hose on the window and sure enough that’s where the water is coming in. It seems like when you run the water on the glass it really starts leaking. The water is running down behind the vinyl in my forward berth. My question is what’s the best way to stop the water from coming in? I guess I need to start by taking the screws out from inside. If I take the screws out will the whole window come out? Any advice would be great. It’s driving me crazy because it’s getting wet where we sleep and creating some mold in the area. BTW I’m not that handy. Lol

Cableguy Greg

Remove the caulk between the chrome ring and the white ring and reseal with 3M4000UV. 

John41

What’s the difference between 4000 and 4200?

Aqua_Aura

4000 is UV resistant and 4200 is not. I learned that from other smart people on here 👍

aero3113

Yea, 4200 will yellow from the UV.

Pat310

I did two of mine today. I removed the inside portion so could clean  the old caulk on the bathroom widow. Re-installed and re-caulked. Aft cabin window on port side looked like it had some water getting in so I removed and re-caulked the chrome ring also

John41

So when I take the screws out from inside the whole window will come out?

Willhound

Yes, it may take a bit of work depending on if there's any residual sealant in there. On most portlights the frame extends outward with the outer ring being a trim piece. When I did mine I removed the inner trim screws and then from outside carefully ran a thin putty knife in behind the outer ring and all the way around until it loosened and pulled it off. If you have a helper it's even easier because one person can carefully apply pressure from outside (push on the frame, not the light itself) while the inside person can pull gently on the  frame to get it out. Be careful as the inside frame might be stuck to the vinyl a bit. Also gives you a good chance to inspect the opening and clean up any old sealant or repair any rot. My portside forward portlight (the usual culprit on a 270 for some reason) showed a slight bit of water damage but not enough to really worry about, the others were all good. On that note, if you're going to do one, do them all while you're at it.
You can't go wrong I suppose with either 4200 or 4000UV but there shouldn't be any sealant on the outside when you're done anyway for the UV to affect. So whichever one you can get your hands on should be fine. Be careful not to get any on the vinyl inside, hard to clean up. I gobbed quite a bit in there and when I pushed the light back in and tightened up the screws I had a bit come out around the outer trim ring that I cleaned up with a bit of acetone.

bella-vita

After removing inside window there is 3 or 4 tabs connected to outside trim that need to be bent up to pull outside trim tape around outside trim for easy clean up of caulk. The hole cut out is not fiberglassed I filled mine in with long haired fiber glass so water can never get in between

Willhound

Thanks @bella-vita I can't recall if mine had those, thinking about it maybe they did and I forgot, it was a couple of years ago. Good catch.

Cableguy Greg

I removed my windows last spring, but did not remove the stainless ring. After doing so, I found that I could just remove the sealant between the window frame and the trim ring and reseal that gap. Much easier than pulling the window out. 

Willhound

Great pics @Cableguy Greg. You can see from the bottom pic how the frame extension holds the light up, indicating the depth. Absolutely you can do it without removing the ring. I did on mine only because I wanted to get some sealant all around it, and also gave me a chance to clean some of that black guck that builds up and always seems to run down the hull every year. It was absolutely black in behind that ring when I removed it.
I pity the future owner (or me) if they ever have to remove that ring, I put a pile of 4200 in there.

Cableguy Greg

I used 4000 on mine. 

davidbrooks

This task is in my future as well.  My outside rings are actually sticking out at least an 1/8 of an inch or more from the bulkhead.  I applied some caulk last year as just a temp solution but not looking forward to it.

Pat310

One took 20min to remove inner and outer on one side other side  took an hour just for the inner portion. Depends if they had been redone in the past or if they are original. Even original can be different side to side

skennelly

As someone stated be careful if the inside frame is stuck to the vinyl.  I really jacked the vinyl around my window when I removed mine.  It haunts me Everytime I'm at the boat

John41

Thank you everyone for your advice. I will try fixing it when it starts drying out around here. I’m a little worried about the vinyl but I’ll be very careful 

davidbrooks

So i realized that I don't have to do the two windows that are up against the bulkhead on the bow. However, 3 that are on the side near the dining table and above the sink need to be done. I removed one by just taking off the outside ring and realized that the plexiglass was cracked along the outer edge. It looks like the plexiglass has a beveled Edge so that it sits flush with the Chrome ring has anyone ever found a replacement for these?

John41

Update:  A couple of weeks ago I tried to take the window out. I spent 2 hours digging out the sealant around the outside of the window. I just couldn’t get the window out. I was afraid of messing up the vinyl on the inside of the boat. So I taped around the window and resealed it. So far it worked!! We had some pretty good storms and I’m still dry. I will keep checking.