CORNER OF WINDSHIELD AND SALON ROOF REPAIR

[bob mitchell]

A common area of problems on Newporters is the corner junction of the pilot house windshield and the roof of the main salon. Of course it is much easier if you have the cabin side off, which I would not wish on anyone, but none the less I thought it would be worth posting anyway just so people could see what is there.

The good news is that it is 3 layers of 3/8" plywood that provide easy scarfing in. Where you cut the scarfs requires some thought and creativity for each specific situation - dependent on the boundries of rot in each layer. I started with a relatively narrow scarf on the bottom layer, and worked my way up. Could have started at the top, but it is hard to work upside down!

Rot seems to form where water accumulates, ie possibly flowing from other areas as well as leaking at the specific area of rot. So in the areas surrounding the rot you may find some delamintion/glue exhaustion of the three layers of still good 3/8" plywood. That is what the hypodermic is doing in the picture. I gently pryed up the layers surrounding the scarf area and shot epoxy outwards.

One problem that might arise if the sides were not off is getting under the windshield. However, I think that probably one of the main sources of water was the window itself, so if you have deck damage you will probably have windshield damage as well. So plan to do them both - probably will require taking out the window. I am not doing the windshield at this point in time, so don't think that what is removed at this point is finished.

Two helpful hints - the straighter you can make your initial scarf cuts the easier it is to make the scarf piece. Hopefully you won't run into a screw as I did on the windshield. To make the scarf piece patterns I used rosin paper ($12 roll from home depot). I lined up the back edge and then creased the other edges, and then cut the pattern out (of course if you are lucky, the original piece comes out whole and can be used as the pattern) I left the outside edge hanging out, but will shape it up after the sides are back on.

The obvious notch or offset is worth talking about. The cabin sides are under the pilot house roof, but down the winshield sides, but then duck back under the main salon roof.

Since I used epoxy I did not want to clamp to tightly. Some places you just can't get a clamp to, so I screwed the layers temporarily, and took them out after the epoxy set. All in all it is not an especially difficult repair, especially if you assume you will be doing the windshield at the same time.

[Clyde A. Phillips]

One thing to remember (or know) is that (do you trust my memory?) the windshield is screwed and glued in all the way around; down from the top through the dog house top, up through the main cabin top, and in through the cabin sides.  Of size and number or distance apart I have no recollection.  To answer my question above, I'm not so sure I trust my memory, so just be aware that some screws may be anywhere in all the joints and corners of the house.