Changing lens and gasket

[andre]

Hi I'm loocking for picture or video for to fix my opening porthatch size 1 I want to change the lens and the gasket. I saw on Catalina direct the gasket and seem a little bit special and also there are two model of lens one is little bit thicker. Recommendation will be appreciate. Thank directly from Montreal.

[Steve Hansen]

Just did mine this summer. Lewmar ports. The newer lens fit fine, as for the gasket, I believe I ordered size 1 and was way too thick. You may want to check on correct size. I cleaned the old gaskets and bedded with silicone, water tight for another season. The hardest part was prying the doghouse cover. I had new ones so I dug the old ones out. Used silicone grease which I ordered from CD and didn't overtighten the latch screws. other than that, strait forward. Cheers

[ewengstrom]

Caution here. I replaced the lenses and gaskets on Ohana last year immediately after we bought the boat, I purchased the material from CD (because I didn't know better.... ) and found the following.
The new gasket material for the Lewmar opening portlight (size 1) is just a wee bit thicker than the original gasket material from Lewmar, the reason for this is that Lewmar no longer makes this gasket so it is now made by another company and doesn't match exactly. Not a big deal one might think...unless you couple that with new "upgraded" lenses from CD as well.
The thicker gasket coupled with the slightly thicker "upgraded" lenses make closing the port almost impossible. I had to put my back against the mast to get enough leverage to close those suckers....but they did seal up!!! I was hoping the gaskets would "seat" a bit and make closing the port easier...but that didn't seem to be happening and we used those nice opening ports less and less.
I finally reached out to CD about this issue and when I explained my problem to the tech guy he immediately stated that I needed to shim the hinges on the ports to ease closing them....this was a clear indication to me that they'd run into this problem before and this was their solution.
In the end I did end up shimming the ports and it did make closing them much easier. I do think that CD should mention the thicker gasket on their site though, I didn't find out about that detail until I was talking to the tech specialist and realized what I was up against.
My recommendation would be that if you want or need new lenses and gaskets that you should only buy the replacement Lewmar lenses, they are a bit thinner and will probably work with the new thicker gasket if you have to replace that too.

[andre]

Thank you I will buy the oem lens from lewmar for the thinner and what about the color of the lens? I think is suppose to be smoke grey isn't it?

[ewengstrom]

Yes, they are gray in color.

[waughoo]

I can confirm the shimming.  I just bought someone's old Lewmar ports that they had upgraded with new lenses and gaskets (they upgraded to Lewmar's new style after these became too hard for them to opperate).  Upon inspection, i found washers under the hinge mounting screw at the top.  Additionally, you can see that the lens has a wave to it where it has been deflected by the tighter fit of the CD lens and gasket.  I only bought 2 to replace my Beckson's in the aft cabin.  But based of this information, i will use the lewmar thickness lens when i replace the rest of my lenses in the boat.

[Ron Hill]

andre : I believe that you will get a better price from Defender (800) 628-8225.  I used Defender and changed all of my lenses and gaskets.
You might want to call them.

A thought

[andre]

Hi Ron the lens and seals are similar or a little bit thicker like Catalina direct

[Steve Hansen]

Eric pretty much summed it up. To do it over I would have gone with Defender as per Rons advice and used OEM. The thicker CD lenses of themselves are fine but you need the original gasket. I'm assuming Defender has OEM gaskets the same size as the original. Next years project. Would like to finish this project without having to jury rig anything.

[andre]

I sent a mail to Defender to ask them if they are the oem seal and lens. So what I see is that Catalina direct has the oem lens but they don't have the oem seal.

[andre]

Defender said that the lens and seal are both oem product. So I will go with them

[waughoo]

Please report back and let us know how it goes with your defender sourced lenses and gaskets.

[andre]

I'll come back this spring when I will work on the boat. For now there is snow on the boat.

[Kevin Roesler]

I recently purchased new lenses and gasket from CD.  The lense replacement kit came with what looks like shims.  That said, I wasn't able to break loose the screws that held the hinges in place so I thought I would try to replace the seal.  I can confirm that it was made of a different material and it was slightly less pliable than the original.

With regard to getting the screws out in order to replace the lenses, any suggestions?

[ewengstrom]

Removing seized stainless screws from aluminum......ouch
Heat is one of the best remedies for this problem......coupled with a good penetrating oil it can work wonders.
I would suggest if using a heat gun that you don't really need to get the metal white hot.....apply the heat, let it work to expand the metal some and perhaps do it a few times before applying a screwdriver to the screw.
When faced with a particularly tough screw I'll often use an impact screw driver to help with the leverage needed to break the screw free. You don't have to hit that impact screw driver with a sledge hammer either, a firm "tap" will often do the trick.
Best of luck and keep us posted!!!