Carver 396 salon window replacement

[KyleR]

Okay, I know I've posted about this in other threads but I thought I'd start a "clean" thread to capture our salon window replacement. I'll add to this as it progresses.

First, I originally planned to do this repair myself as the original quotes I received up in the North Florida area ranged from $3000 to a little over $6000. That was just for the replacement. It did not include the cost of the window. I couldn't justify that so I figured I'd just do it myself.

However, while we were in the Keys/Miami area this winter I did some checking and found two reputable places down here, one at $1650 and the other at $1500. Both had great reviews and had been in the business for a good length of time. The $1500 business had a seawall they used for repairs which saved us additional marina/boatyard fees, which the $1650 quote didn't include. As such, we went with the $1500 company.

Anyway, here are some pics of what lies behind the glass and how the construction looks. I'll post more as they progress and hopefully they'll be done today. If you have any questions please let me know and I'll try to answer them.

Kyle

[KyleR]

The first "phase" of glass removal went pretty quick since they were not trying to salvage the old window. Basically they just put plastic sheeting inside the boat and sealed it off with tape, then took a small hammer and busted the old window up to remove everything that wasn't actually attached with sealant.

Then they could access the adhesive/sealant from both sides pretty easily and cut all of that out with a razor blade and an oscillating tool with a basic scraper blade. This whole process took one person a little over 2 hours to complete.

If you were trying to remove a window and keep it intact, this would have taken substantially longer due to less access and having to be careful of cracking the window. Since our window was cracked it made it a lot easier. This was a good learning for me as I probably wouldn't have thought about just breaking the old window out like that.

[KyleR]

Glass going in and taped for sealant. I will post the products used later once I confirm the actual names.

[KyleR]

Here's the final install. They started at 7:30am and were done by noon. Unfortunately in my excitement I forgot to take a good close-up of the final install before flipping the boat around so they could reseal a different window in the port side. (The port window wasn't leaking but the sealant had some degradation that I had them take care of while they were here.) I'll get a better pic in the upcoming weeks and post then.

The material used as both the adhesive and sealant was Bostik 70-05A Silyl Modified Polymer. The company's name is Yacht Windows Florida and I would definitely recommend them and would use them again without hesitation.

Kyle