[C320-list] Replacing Salon/midship Hatch Lens

[Dave Hupe]

I had done this earlier this year and luckily had finished it with much less difficulty and time.  I completely removed the hatch frame from the boat and did all the work at home. I cleaned, then temporarily covered the deck hole with a wood panel covered with plastic taped in place.  I did not take the frame apart and did not remove the seal. 
I removed my old cracked lens easily by cutting carefully with a razor knife, and cleaned out the old sealant by careful scaping and acetone wiping. I taped the upper frame edge and left the new lens protective paper on. I made sure the rubber seal was stretched out well and then placed a bead of sealant to place the lens onto.  Once centered well, I placed a full gallon jug in the center of the lens to keep it in place and put uniform pressure on the rubber seal, then applied more sealant around the edge and smoothed it out with my finger and allowed the sealant to cure 2 days. I immediately removed the frame tape very carefully, but didn't remove the lens protective paper until after the 2 days of sealant curing.  
I rebedded the hatch with butyl tape and all has been great since.
Dave Hupe1994 Cat320 (hull 32)Holland, MI

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  On Sat, Nov 25, 2017 at 10:32 AM, Christian<ccaper at gmail.com> wrote:   Few weeks ago I made a post inquiring if anyone has replaced the lens on
their salon hatch before.  I completed the job yesterday.  Should have been
a straight forward job, but I ran into some real headaches.  So I thought
I'd share should it help the next person.

My 320 is a 1994, #138.  My salon hatch is a Bomar, low profile,
18-3/16x18-3/16.  My lens was badly cracked when purchased.  It wasn't
leaking yet due to sealant the previous owner had used, but was beginning
to crack further, and was an eyesore.  Both the lens ($99.74) and the
complete hatch ($419.99) are still available from Catalina Direct.  I chose
to replace the lens only, as my hatch was in fine condition.

You will want to plan on taking the top hatch off the boat, and ideally
home, for about a week.  You'll also need to buy the sealant Catalina
Direct recommends (
http://www.catalinadirect.com/index.cfm/product/1052/sealant-for--hatches--plex-fixed-ports-black.cfm)
for floating the lens in the hatch frame.

The top hatch attaches to the hinge with 6, #10x32 3/8" flat head stainless
screws, countersink angle 82 degrees (standard for empirical).  Port side
hinge has 2 screws, the starboard has 4.  The two more on the starboard
side are for the hatch seam, to keep the frame rigid.  Even though the port
side hinge only attaches with 2 screws, the hinge itself had the same for
holes as the starboard hinge, only the 2 extra holes aren't tapped
(important for later, in my case).

Now lies the problem I encountered.  The frame and the hinge are aluminum.
The screws are stainless, and then Catalina used a triangular type of screw
for self tapping the hinge.  This triangular screw allowed water to seep,
and due to dissimilar metal, all 6 of my screws were seizing.  I was able
to get 4 of the 6 out with my drill on impact.  The other 2 would turn a
hair, but no more.  Took an hammer impact driver, still no go.  Seized
pretty good.  At this point, I knew they'd have to be drilled out.  The two
seized screws spanned both hinges.

Decided at this point it was best to remove top hatch frame from boat, and
take it to a friend who has a vintage motorcycle shop and is pretty good
with seized bolts on stuff.  Luckily the screws on the hinge that attach to
the deck and bottom portion of the hatch were not seized.  So I was able to
remove the top frame along with the hinge.  Should note that if you have to
remove the hinge from the deck, in addition to the frame screws, there are
4 screws that pass into the deck core that will need to be sealed when put
back in.  Of the 4 screws, 2 are longer, and go on the inside holes,
shorter on the outside holes.  So I knew that I would also have to plan on
a day to complete the job where air temps above 40 with no rain due to
required sealant (getting rare in Chicago in late November, but luckily,
day I finished hit 61, with next 2 days at about 47).

At the shop, we drilled out the heads, and the starboard side hinge with
the seized screw, after some patience, penetrating oil, and careful
wiggling, came free, no thread damage.  But the port side seized screw,
even after heat applied with torch, wouldn't budge.  It had become
permanent.  Fortunately the port side hinge, as mentioned above, had 2 more
unused holes.  So, took advantage of that.  Filed down remaining seized
screw flat with hinge surface, then drilled a matching hole in the frame to
the extra hole in the hinge, tapped the hinge.  And countersunk the frame
hole.  However, the countersink spans 2 different surface planes, so had to
be done in a drill press, with frame securely mounted, so the bit wouldn't
wobble off when it hit the different angled surface plane.  Used a
countersink bit with a 1/2" cutting body at 82 degrees.

I replaced all screws with new ones, since the original are triangular, and
didn't want to face this problem again.  They are #10x32 3/8 flat heads 82
degrees, stainless.  Got them from Fastenal, but be careful on your order
as Fastenal also sells them in 100 degree angels (yes, I ordered the wrong
ones first).  6 screws for the top frame, 4 more for the hinge to the
deck.  Total of 10, I think they were 20 cents each.

This completes the headache phase.  Everything else describe the lens
replacement.  You'll want the frame off the boat (makes sealant removal
process and re-sealing MUCH easier).  You'll need it off the boat for about
a week.  I took a piece of cardboard and covered with 2 layers of heavy
trash bags, and thoroughly taped down with gaffer's tape, as we had rain
(and snow and sleet) in the forecast.  This held well through the weather
for a week, nothing penetrated.

Remove gasket, pulled out in under 5 mins.  Inspect.  Replace if damaged.
I'd err on the side of replacing, given how hard it will be to put a new
one in after lens is sealed again.  I didn't, and now regret a little.

To remove the lens, take an exacto blade and cut into sealant, going around
lens.  Be careful, you have potential to really take a finger off, or mar
your frame.  After about 45 mins, I had the lens out.

Next, you need to get every bit of the sealant scrapped out.  Have acetone
on hand.  Took me about 4 hours to remove all sealant.  Exercise in
patience.

Next, tape up the top part of the frame, VERY thoroughly, right along the
edge of the frame where the lens will sit.  The better you do this, the
easier your life will be later, and the better this will look.  This
prevents excess sealant from sticking to the frame.  Took about an hour to
tape up the frame.

Next, put gasket back in frame.  Then put a medium sized bead of sealant
along the frame lip where the frame will sit.  This step took 30 mins.

Then, peel off paper on one side of lens (either side is fine, there is no
true top side of the lens).  Set lens in frame.  Position holes in lens on
opposite side of hinge, and front side of hinge should have 1/8" gap
between lens and frame so dog ears will work later, and center lens left to
right.

Then put a solid bead of sealant in gap around lens.  This took about an
hour.

Then with underside of spoon, at about a 45 degree angle, smooth sealant.
I got obsessive with this stage.  Took about an hour, but looked
fantastic.  Then store in undisturbed place for at least 2 days.

When cured (I waited 4 days), peel off tape on frame, slowly, but steady.
My excess sealant peeled right off with tape, leaving almost no frame
cleanup.  Then peel off top lens paper.  Again, sealant cleanly peeled
right off, cleanly.  Tape and lens paper removal took about an hour.

Move your hardware from old lens to new lens.

To budget time for the lens process, I removed old lens and scrapped
sealant in one day (about 5 hours total).  Bedded lens on a different day
(about 2-3 hours).

Mount frame on boat.  Highly suggest using anti seize on the screws since
they are dissimilar metals.  Job complete.

I took pics of the process if anyone would like to see.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb5U6a0DNCv/ (10 pics in the series, hover over
pic to see arrows for more pics)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb5VYpPjtyN/ (8 pics in the series).

If you read this far, thanks for reading.  Hope this helps others, as I
didn't really know what I was facing when I started the job, time wise or
complexity wise.  Hopefully your screws won't be seized like mine.  In
hindsight, a new frame would have been the easier solution, But, budget
constraints.

Christian Caperton
1994 C320 "Canuck" #138
Monroe Harbor, Chicago, IL