Leak3
Leaky Windows
Over the summer of 05, I continue to notice water in the boat; particularly in the cabinetry above the stove and sink (starboard side) but also in the cabinets above the salon seating (port side).
The obvious culprets are the windows.
Remove Windows
Remove Window rubber inserts
I pry out the rubber insert of the aluminum window frame, exposing the wood screws that hold in the frame.
Start unscrewing -- there are bunches of these screws. Just unscrew every screw to the frames.
Gentry (firmly) pull out the windows and the frames. There was still some sealant functioning on my aluminum frames (but not much) so I had to firmly pull out the frames to get them out of their holes.
Now comes the time-consuming part. Cleaning the frame holes and the aluminum frames. You've got to remove all the old goo, and worse, the previous owners various attempts to seal the windows and get those surfaces just sparkling clean. This took a lot of elbow grease and a good amount of cleaning. At least 4 hours of work.
I just the 3M stuff, because it has such a great reputation. I laid down a generour bead of caulk on the interior contact of thealuminum frame. Be careful not to let the caulk touch anything else. Once I was ready, I lifted the windows into their holes and pushed them into place gently (not much pressure ... I just wanted to get them in there and their holes lined up.
Finally, using new wood screws, I re-screwed the windows. Don't overdo the torquing of the screws ... just make them almost-snug. I let the caulk dry for a week and then came back and gave each screw an extra quarter turn.