New Porthole plexiglass

 As a follow-up job to the Plexiglass replacement, I also received 3 porthole glass replacements for my Lewmar portholes in the aft cabin.   The hatches are Lewmar 'Old Standard' size 1 (2x) and Lewmar size 2 (1x)

Install was very straightforward- Pull the old porthole gasket, clean the surface with goo gone/alcohol, glue the new gasket in place with contact cement (Weldwood contact cement from Home Depot).

Once again, Hadlow Marine UK supplied me with a turnkey kit.  New glass, new gaskets, and new o-rings for the dog levers.   Replace the Dog Lever O-rings by prying off the dust caps and unscrewing the dog mechanisms.

Here's the original porthole glass.... photo does not show the true extent of the cracking/crazing in the original plexiglass after 35 years:

Old glass and gasket.  Glass was crispy, gasket was crunchy.

Here's the new gasket and glass in place.  Nice!

New Hatch Plexiglass

I bought some replacement plexiglass for the lewmar hatches and portholes from Hadlow Marine UK.

The Hadlow team was very helpful, and it was very handy to buy the plexiglass ready-to-install.

Hatch replacement was pretty straightforward - Cut out the old plexiglass with a utility knife, clean the debris out of the hatch, lay down the double-side tape, bed the new plexiglass, weigh it down and wait, caulk the seam with black silicone.

Old glass (original, likely from 1987) in the Lewmar Rollstop 20 hatch

Old plexiglass removed by cutting silicone with a razor knife and pry up with flat blade screwdriver.

Glass removed, aluminum cleaned with Goo Gone and Alcohol, 3M EHB double side tape layed down

New glass in place, ready to be weighed down for a day or so (5 lb weight in a bubble wrap bag was used)

New hatch installed and sealed.  All in all a straightforward replacement.  Looks great!

Only thing I would chage is to use dark gray or black EHB double side tape (but I could/did not find tape in this color that was half inch wide by 1/8 inch thick).  

 Also learned:

• When initially dropping in the new plexiglas on the tape, I used 1/8 inch thick wooden paint stirrers as spacers before pressing the glass down. This ensured a uniform 1/8 inch gap between the new glass and the aluminum frame.  
• During caulking the seam, after the first hatch I learned that it is cleaner to pull the outside (blue) tape first, THEN pull the shipping film off the glass.  
• I used some quicker-curing GE Super  black silicone.... you have to pull up the tape as soon as the caulking is complete because it skins over quickly.   This is a worthwhile trade-off though as the GE Super Silicone is 'rain ready' in 30 minutes and fully cured in 24 hours. 
• Replaced the handle O-rings with replacements from McMaster-Carr