hatch lens

[MarkT]

Last year I did a lot of work to my 1999 3000 express and it turned out great. This year I pulled off my 3 cabin hatches to replace the plexi-glass. The marina owner saw me and asked what I was doing. When I told him I was replacing the glass he looked stunned and said he never thought of that, they would just replace the hatches. I figured there may be some here that would rather save that arm and a leg for something else and save a ton by doing it themselves.
I was very careful when I cut the silicone around the lens. There is a gasket that the lens sits on and I did not want to destroy it. I took a razor knife and cut the outer perimeter of the seal to frame and then was able to pop the plexi right out. Then I just cleaned out the frame taking care when I removed the sealing gasket. I took the plexi to a plastics fabricator and he cut new ones for me. I got some weather strip adhesive to glue on the old seal and taped that in place. The fabricator also got me some Dow Corning 795 to seal the new lenses in place. I will put them all together this weekend. The total cost to me was $160 and my labor. They should look new when I am done at a fraction of the cost.