I just completed the portlight resealing project on my 1981 E38. I'll take you through the process I went through to rebuild and reseal the portlights. I wish I had pictures but I'll use a 1000 words instead.
Portlight removal:
1. Remove the acorn nuts holding the portlight. Remove the bolts holding in the portlight.
2. Remove the outside ring. With a sharp and thin putty knife blade cut through the caulk between the ring and the protruding port. I then tapped the knife between the ring and the fiberglass side of the boat all around the ring until it popped loose.
3. Remove the port light. I was lucky in that there was little caulk between the inside flange of the portlight and the teak so removal did little damage to the teak. Use the sharp knife to cut through the caulk between the side of the portlight and the side of the cabin. In some cases, I used a heat gun to warm the caulk and make it somewhat pliable. I then placed a block of wood on the outside of the portlight and tapped it loose with a hammer. They came out suprisingly easy.
Time per portlight - 1 hour or less
Portlight refurbishing:
1. These portlights are aluminum castings and of relatively poor quality. I checked into having them anodized and was assured that they wouldn't look good. I then cleaned off most ot the caulk and had a powdercoater sandblast tbe powder coat them. The heat from the powdercoat ovens caused the air pockets in the castings to gas off leaving bubbles in the finish. The powdercoater ran them three times and the results were poor at best. I then sanded them to rough up the powdercoat (atlest I had a strong though ugly coating on them), filled the airpocket voids and painted them with an automotive grade paint. They turned out very nice. If I had it to do over again, I would have them sandblasted, fill the voids, prime and the paint them which I think was done originally.
2. I replaced the plastic windows with an acrilyc and sealed them in with a silicone sealent.
3. I purchased new neoprene gasket material from Pompenette (or something like that) on the internet.
Time per portlight - 1 hour to replace plastic, 1 hour to clean up and paint 15 min to install new gasket.
Boat refurbishing:
The side of the cabin is about a quarter inch of fiberglass bonded to half inch plywood with teak veneer. The plywood had rotted out in many spots but the teak veneer was in tact; although I had to bleach and stain it to bring it back to color. To repair the rotted wood (which was mostly at the bottom of the portlight hole) I clamped wood on both sides of the porthole. I clamped plastic between the wood and the teak veneer on the inside. This created somewhat of a damn or retainer. I then poured thickened epoxy into the voids of the rotted area. When the epoxy cured, I removed the clamps and wood.
Time per portlight - about 1 hour
Reinstalling the portlights:
This was a messy job even though I tried everything I could think of to be neat. I tried 3Ms new UV4000 and Sikiflex 291. I much prefered the Sikiflex as it was stickier and easier to clean up with alcohol. Here is what I did:
1. Redrill the bolt holes filled in by the epoxy.
2. Place the portlight in hole and hold in place with two bolts. Note: I tried to screw in all the bolts and then slip on the outside retaining ring. Forget it. The bolt holes were originally drilled at such angles the the only way to get the bolts through the ring is to screw them in one at a time with the ring in place.
3. Sand the newly applied epoxy on the side of the portholes to provide a bonding surface for the caulk.
4. Tape the side of the boat around the perimiter of where the retaining ring will be. This will make clean up easier.
5. From the outside, force caulk between the portlight and the cabin side. This is the critical sealing point so be sure the caulk is free of voids.
6. Place caulk on the outside retaining ring and slide it onto the two bolts you are using to hold in the portlight. From the inside, drive the remaining bolts through the portlight and retaining ring. Here is where the clean up begins. Clean of the bolt tips and screw on the cap nuts.
7. Do not overtighten the nuts but secure enough to squeeze out some of the caulk.
8. Squirt caulk between the retaining ring and the portlight. I actually taped the protruding portion of the portlight before applying the caulk so clean up would be a little easier.
9.Clean up as much of the caulk as possible. This was the biggest challenge for me in the whole project.
10. 24-48 hours later go around and tighten the acorn nuts putting additional pressure on the retaining rim caulk.
Time per portlight - 1 hour
Hope this helps
Tom
sv/ Mistress
1981 E38