treeskier
Jetboaters Commander
- Messages
- 303
- Reaction score
- 320
- Points
- 197
- Location
- Ocean City, MD
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2016
- Boat Model
- Limited S
- Boat Length
- 24
The 4th Nor'easter that came through oscillated the starboard windshield enough to disengage the latch and the wind flipped it up and snapped it off the boat.
Its mostly intact but snapped at the hinge, the so called windshield was forcibly and completely separated from the boat at the hinge (hinge still attached to the boat) and the top of the windshield was damaged as well.
My efforts to find a replacement wee unsuccessful (at any price) and if one could be had it seemed the going rate would be a very steep $600-$750.
I decided to give my father (retired engineer...radar not trains) a crack at repairing it while I continued to search for a replacement. He has had some experience building sail boats and kayaks from wood covered in fiberglass cloth and resin. He has also successfully repaired the roof of a leaking travel trailer using similar materials and techniques.
We were fortunate that the breaks were fairly clean, most of the pieces were on the larger side and we were able to recover nearly all of the missing material.
My father was able to epoxy all of the parts back in place and reinforce the area where the hinge snapped off with fiberglass cloth and resin. He then repaired the top which came out a bit like Dr. Frankenstein's monster (alive but not very pretty). We evened that out by sanding and applying auto body filler until smooth.
Needless to say all of the solvents, glues, fillers and sanding did quite a bit of cosmetic damage to the plastic and our attempt to paint it looked horrendous. So we decided to D.I.Y . vinyl wrap the windshields with a carbon fiber look vinyl that we purchased from Amazon. Honestly I am thrilled with the how the finished product looks and assuming it holds up I am calling this a success.
I also ordered some light weight vinyl coated stainless steel cables to tether the windshield so that it can not slam back against the hinge. I'll post the pictures of the installed finished product once it stops raining long enough to reinstall the windshields.
Its mostly intact but snapped at the hinge, the so called windshield was forcibly and completely separated from the boat at the hinge (hinge still attached to the boat) and the top of the windshield was damaged as well.
My efforts to find a replacement wee unsuccessful (at any price) and if one could be had it seemed the going rate would be a very steep $600-$750.
I decided to give my father (retired engineer...radar not trains) a crack at repairing it while I continued to search for a replacement. He has had some experience building sail boats and kayaks from wood covered in fiberglass cloth and resin. He has also successfully repaired the roof of a leaking travel trailer using similar materials and techniques.
We were fortunate that the breaks were fairly clean, most of the pieces were on the larger side and we were able to recover nearly all of the missing material.
My father was able to epoxy all of the parts back in place and reinforce the area where the hinge snapped off with fiberglass cloth and resin. He then repaired the top which came out a bit like Dr. Frankenstein's monster (alive but not very pretty). We evened that out by sanding and applying auto body filler until smooth.
Needless to say all of the solvents, glues, fillers and sanding did quite a bit of cosmetic damage to the plastic and our attempt to paint it looked horrendous. So we decided to D.I.Y . vinyl wrap the windshields with a carbon fiber look vinyl that we purchased from Amazon. Honestly I am thrilled with the how the finished product looks and assuming it holds up I am calling this a success.
I also ordered some light weight vinyl coated stainless steel cables to tether the windshield so that it can not slam back against the hinge. I'll post the pictures of the installed finished product once it stops raining long enough to reinstall the windshields.
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