King Starboard window frames?

[Boydster]

Our old Grand Banks is about due for new window frames. Thinking that some chunky Starboard frames may keep the vintage wood framed look with the added benefit of being nearly indestructible despite being a bit pricey. Anybody here gone that route? ...photos? - thanks

 

[Comodave]

I did it on a previous boat. Worked great. There was a thread last week about this. I don’t have any photos but I did upload a shetch of how I did it.

 

[Westiculo]

Our old Grand Banks is about due for new window frames. Thinking that some chunky Starboard frames may keep the vintage wood framed look with the added benefit of being nearly indestructible despite being a bit pricey. Anybody here gone that route? ...photos? - thanks

We thought about that when we did ours. Only problem is that you can't paint them, so they'll always look at least a bit cheesy because you can tell they're just made out of plastic. The other problem with them is that nothing sticks well to polyethylene, so it makes sealing the window frame to the boat a bit more difficult. Unfortunately I can't comment much on this because I don't use starboard for much - even though it is a great material!

We chose to use marine ply instead, and coated it extensively with thickened epoxy. We then painted with awlgrip. When we attached them, we didn't use any screws, so the epoxy covering was never penetrated, meaning the frame should last forever. Adhesives have gotten pretty good, and 3m 4000 will last a long time until it fails. Once it fails, I'd rather have the window frame start falling off so I know that water is getting behind it instead of having a bunch of screws give the illusion that it's still well sealed even though water is seeping behind - if that makes sense.

I attached 4 photos - two of them show the raw frame (the rounded cornered ones were cut from a single piece of ply for max strength), and the other two show installed frames. Clearly we also changed the design. Many of the larger windows we switched to fixed and the ones we want to open we switched to awning.

 

[FF]

Anybody here gone that route?


I used Azek , works great and they can be painted.

 

[Choices]

What a timely post, I am doing mine now.

My frames are good so I am redoing them, two coats cpes, then three coats Awlwood primer, sanded to perfect, then Awlgrip primer and topcoat.

Frames look like molded fiberglass.

Considered making frames from extruded fiberglass. With carbide tools cuts like wood. Then glue them together and paint.

With a little thought, you could make a trim to clean up the hole, then glue the glass in. I would have done this but don't really have the time. It would make everything very clean looking, but windows would not open.

On mine, almost each hole was a different size. Looks like they custom fit each one. Cabin has a slight bend also, very slight. Might fit them and finish one side so it will hold curve before removing.

Post pictures of what you do. Also check IGBO site.

 

[Boydster]

Thanks Comodave. Looked for your upload but couldn't find it. Do you happen to recall the title of the original post?

 

[Boydster]

Westiculo - Looks great, some outside the box thinking using plywood. Certainly more cost effective than rebuilding with solid mahogany as our was originally built.

 

[Westiculo]

Westiculo - Looks great, some outside the box thinking using plywood. Certainly more cost effective than rebuilding with solid mahogany as our was originally built.

Thanks. The main reason I used ply was so that I could cut the smaller windows out of a single piece without having to glue a bunch of stuff together to get the rounded corners. They're definitely stronger that way. Also cheaper.

 

[Comodave]

Thanks Comodave. Looked for your upload but couldn't find it. Do you happen to recall the title of the original post?

Look in the Californian group. It is in a thread called Sliding Doors. Last post was on 9/15.