New port light #3 of 3! Finally done.

Well it looks like the saga has come to an end! I think I figured out a way to have shiny new plexiglass on the boat.

Seeing how the screws into the wood were not holding on very tight. Noticing that the professionally made ones bolted through the hull. Much easier to get them nice and tight, much harder for them to come out! I wanted to find a way to bolt the port light to the hull.

The inside of the boat is just bare fiberglass. No wires or anything important in the way. It sure looks like I should be able to drill through the boat and bolt the portlight on. I did see that one of the screws lined up with the little bulkhead we have in this boat. No surprise there, life as usual. Always something, right?  I can easily drill out a small area for the nut to sit neatly inside.

All that is left to do is get the bolts and drill more holes in this little boat. So I was able to get a bag of 100 stainless steel bolts the right diameter. I also got fender washers and nylon locking nuts.

I was able to remove all the screws holding the starboard side and the portlight stayed stuck to the boat. So I was able to just drill through all the holes.

Carefully lined up the drill, and drilled away. It went through the balsa core pretty easy. Took a little bit to get through the fiberglass on the inside. After drilling all the holes, I cleaned up the inside a bit. Some of the fiberglass holes were a bit rough.

Then I started wrapping butyl tape around all the bolts that I would be using. Making sure that I had enough to easily fill the holes in the plexiglass and the boat. I made sure to wrap it down the bolt pretty far to make sure I would have some butyl tape contact the hole I drilled and fill the space between the bolt and the hull. Man do I know how to have a good time or what?

Then cleaned up the inside fiberglass. Bolting through the boat and making sure to have large washers on both the inside and the outside. Then tightened it down, not cranking down really tight. One thing that prevented that is that the bolts that I could find was considered a "security" bolt. So it has a special head that used a special tool bit. After tightening down a few of them I snapped the bit. Luckily I got 4 bits just because of that.

Made sure to use plenty of butyl tape around all the bolts. It looks like they sealed up pretty good. The next thing to do is test it. So I grab the hose and soak down the portlight really well. Not a drop of water on the inside!!

Some of the bolts needed to be so tight that they snapped the bit. So I had to make a tool to be able to tighten them enough. Looking at the two little round places for the bit to hold on, it looked like a nail would fit in there. Luckily I had some finishing nails that fit pretty good. So I pounded two through a little board with a long handle. I was able to really tighten down the pesky few that needed to be really tight!

Simple wood and nail tool

Put the bulkhead back in place to mark where I need to drill a little hole to make room for the nut. Luckily I was able to bulkhead right next to the nut and screw it into place night and tight! So something went quickly and easily. Man I like it when that happens.

Then the next day I was able to repeat that whole process on the port side! Now I have 2 shinny new portlights to look out of. They sure make a difference with how much light gets inside. Not the most perfect or beautiful of jobs. But so much better then what was there before.

I am so glad that most of the anxiety of trying to figure out how to work on a boat and doing it right, is gone. There is so  many new things that I have had to learn. It is very different then working on cars. That is my greatest amount of experience working on and fixing.

I have just been so worried about messing it up. Cutting the plexiglass, you can't just put it back together. If I don't seal something up perfectly and we are in the middle of the Puget Sound it would be really really bad for us. Its not like driving down I-5 and having something not working on my car. I can usually get to the shoulder.

I am very glad and happy so many people share their experience, knowledge, and information on the internet. It would have been so much harder for me to try and figure this stuff out if it wasn't for people sharing with the world!