Calling all Narrowboat owners past and present!

I've taken a couple of the brass porthole windows out of our trip boat to reseal them but they are quite small and rigid compared to your larger windows I guess. I found they were still sealed in places and not others and had to get a thin blade/spatula in between the frame and cabin side and work it all way round to break the seal. It will be important to be very careful not to bend the frame and glass by pulling/levering the frame from one side or corner or you may be shopping for some plywood. Good luck.

 

Are they push-in with an outside lip?

Do you know what type of seal has been used before?

If there's any silicone in there you could work in some "silicone eater" and tape over to give it time to work in.

(No narrow boats were owned in the making of this post)

EDIT ... just now seen your silicone reference

 

The porthole frames are quite thick brass and were fastened to the cabin sides with 6 brass countersunk head bolts. I removed the wooden decorative inner frame first to get to the nuts on the bolts. A couple of the bolts sheared off and I had to drill them out from the outside and a couple had no nuts on....from new by the boat builder! Yes silicon can be tough but take your time and work round the frame. Don't think about pulling or leavering until you are satisfied the frame is loose. I guess you are going to have to grind or drill the rivets out. I found that on one frame the glass was leaking in the frame and not the frame to cabin side. I carefully removed the glass, cleaned it and frame and resealed. All good now.

I think I resealed with silicon called CT1 if I remember correctly, sticks like Marmite to a blanket.

 

How do you know?

 

How hard can it be....

 

I haven't done a comparison test....but was told so by an informed diy'er who I suspect has more experience than me

 

I do enjoy advertising/listing mistakes like this one ......
that conjour up all manner of

 

Post a photo of these rivets. I've never seen them riveted before. Usually it's self tappers but there's no single method.
Mine were a PITA to remove as someone cheaped out with steel self tappers which had rusted instead of stainless steel ones. It took the best part of a day to get each one out as I had to nibble the heads off with a die grinder in the channel without wrecking the ali frame too much. they were through clearance holes into wood behind so even after the windows were out I couldn't remove the remains. I had to drill and countersink a new set of holes, again without wrecking the ali frame.


To refit you'll need some closed cell foam tape. Yours is old enough that mastic bedding compound (google it) may have been used between frame and hull but I'd use tape to refit them. I painted mine before refitting as the anodising had weathered beyond redemption.

 

After you drill the rivets out you'll need a flexible putty knife/scraper to patiently hammer in right round the window to break the seal.
When the window is off you'll then need to either drill out of punch through the rest of the rivets so you might need to get at the insides of the fixings too (you probably will). It's a job that should be straightforward but of course....
Day before yesterday I removed 3 portholes. 6 brass M6 screws each. 6 just unscrewed, the rest sheared off/ heads fell apart/heads already missing. Some of those I managed to unscrew from the inside with molegrips but about 8 had to be drilled mostly then the remains picked out of the threads then re-tapped. It took all afternoon. When I did the other side of the boat a couple of years ago they all just unscrewed!

 

If I've put you off, try digging out a mm or 2 of the existing sealant (whatever it is), clean it all and reseal around the edge with a bead of black silicon. Of course if you have rust creeping out of the join that won't work, or at least not for long.

 

Not a narrow boat owner, but I helped put my mates in, who had a boat built. The fixing were a type of brass screw through one frame, into a into a captive nut in the other.
Beware though, as they can be a male and female fitting, so the thread isn’t captive.
We used a rubber seal and plenty of mastic type gunk. Not sure what it was, but it was ‘boat’ specific . Some of the older seals were made from leather and were tightened/ loosened depending on weather, apparently. But I think it’s quite rare now.

 

Nothing is ever as straightforward as it should be on a narrowboat!
Looks like some nails have rusted through from your leaky window, at least it's just the bottom one.

 

We had something similar, water getting into the inside and soaking the spray foam insulation and wetting the ply lining and causing paint to bubble. Caught it just in time to stop any major damage. As I said, one of the leaks was between glass and frame so resealing the frame to cabin side didn't fix it but resealing the glass to frame did.

 

On the yachts we use Butyl tape to seal between frames and hull, alternatively people do use Sikaflex 291i but that is an issue as it pulls the gelcoat off.

@Zed what did you paint over the anodising with, that looks like a nice job and I need to do similar on one of my yacht window frames.

There are a number of boat window firms around these include Houdini marine windows, Eagle boat windows and sea glaze, (probably others too) most have how to info sheets on their websites.

Good luck

 

I would go for something like butyl tape or other non ssetting sealant. As if you use Sikaflex 291 or something like that.
Once it has set and rust / damp gets behind it.. it falls off, just like anything else..
Once it has set and its still on good metal or glass .. it wont ever come off without cutting through it. On the way bits of aluminium may get bent, glass broken.

If its got significant rust behind the sealant now, it will just get worse. And rust is able to lever apart inch thick steel plates ...

The screws could be the captive type where outside screw is a hollow tube, inside the boat is a machine screw.

Though if its a canal boat, it could be done using anything...

 

I cant help, although I did fit the windows in a Junkers ju52 once. Anyway is this what life on the canal is like.