Tom.B
Moderator Emeritus
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2009
- Messages
- 5,839
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Skinny Dippin'
- Vessel Make
- Navigator 4200 Classic
Over the past year, Skinny Dippin's venturi windshield deteriorated quickly. It's always been a poor fit as the PO just got a friend to do it and must have told him to do it on the cheap. The plastic was a mere 1/8th" thick and of the 36 screws used, there must have been 10 different sizes used. It was deep yellow and looked like crap. At idle, the thing rattled around and made a heckofa racket. It was time to change it out.
Pics of the old:
IMG_1755 by GonzoF1, on Flickr
P1020250 by GonzoF1, on Flickr
I found a local (Morrisville, NC) source for Acrylite GT at 3/16" thick and hunted down a local waterjet cutting company. I wasn't comfortable trying to rig my woodworking tools to try and cut the weird angles or hope I could make them straight with a jig/scroll saw. Waterjet seemed like the best option.
The hard part was coming up with super-accurate measurements to give them. The previous one fit so poorly, I had a lot of on-the-fly adjustments to try and improve the fit. And these parts are neither square or identical from port to starboard. Finally, after a bit of experimentation, I found it only took two screw sizes to do the whole job with nice little acorn nuts to give it a factory finished look.
The whole acrylic job... Materials (4x8 sheet and cutting) set me back only $225. Screws and hardware came in at another $100. Nice.
I was sweating like a whore in church hoping the measurements were correct and it would all go together correctly. History as the barometer would say that I would be headed back to Cary... disappointed... dejected... and would have to fork out another $225 bucks for a re-cut.
However, things could NOT have gone more smoothly. Every piece fit like a glove, and other than drilling a 3/16 hole in my middle finger on the very first hole of the project, I am 98% happy with the results.
Hope this help someone in the future.
Project completion pics:
IMG_2273 by GonzoF1, on Flickr
IMG_2267 by GonzoF1, on Flickr
IMG_2241 by GonzoF1, on Flickr
IMG_2239 by GonzoF1, on Flickr
Thanks for your time!
Tom-
Pics of the old:
IMG_1755 by GonzoF1, on Flickr
P1020250 by GonzoF1, on Flickr
I found a local (Morrisville, NC) source for Acrylite GT at 3/16" thick and hunted down a local waterjet cutting company. I wasn't comfortable trying to rig my woodworking tools to try and cut the weird angles or hope I could make them straight with a jig/scroll saw. Waterjet seemed like the best option.
The hard part was coming up with super-accurate measurements to give them. The previous one fit so poorly, I had a lot of on-the-fly adjustments to try and improve the fit. And these parts are neither square or identical from port to starboard. Finally, after a bit of experimentation, I found it only took two screw sizes to do the whole job with nice little acorn nuts to give it a factory finished look.
The whole acrylic job... Materials (4x8 sheet and cutting) set me back only $225. Screws and hardware came in at another $100. Nice.
I was sweating like a whore in church hoping the measurements were correct and it would all go together correctly. History as the barometer would say that I would be headed back to Cary... disappointed... dejected... and would have to fork out another $225 bucks for a re-cut.
However, things could NOT have gone more smoothly. Every piece fit like a glove, and other than drilling a 3/16 hole in my middle finger on the very first hole of the project, I am 98% happy with the results.
Hope this help someone in the future.
Project completion pics:
IMG_2273 by GonzoF1, on Flickr
IMG_2267 by GonzoF1, on Flickr
IMG_2241 by GonzoF1, on Flickr
IMG_2239 by GonzoF1, on Flickr
Thanks for your time!
Tom-
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