38 year Window Upgrade

[NoSlack]

After 38 years of having way to much weight on the fly bridge, my original aluminum window frame just weren't supporting the fly bridge to my satisfaction. Don told me several time, he never designed the 23' fly bridge to support things like radar arches, 10 rod holder and a couple of fat dudes. All the weight up top has taken it's toll over the years and I'm done putting a band-aid on it to get me through the season.

Built some scaffolding to support the fly bridge on Friday, pulled all the frames and glass, then finished the bulk of the frame and skin work by Sunday. Next step will be the glass work.







Back in 2005, I photo shopped a picture of what I hope it would look like. Maybe 14 years later I'll finally get it done

[DOGHOUSE26]

Man I wish I had your energy!

[madrugador]

Looking good mike . I have glass cups if you need them I'm an ex glazier.

[NoSlack]

Put a couple long days in Thursday and Friday and I'm just about ready to get back on the water.

Made the the window replacement in two pieces for an easy installation. Port side skined



Both halves glassed and installed. I'll test drive it for 6 months to a year to see how it holds up before I get excited about finishing the outside or ordering windows.

[fireescape]

Looks good Cod King!!!! Your new roof looks good as well....Slow your roll amigo....Zack

[NoSlack]

The roof is old news. That was last year's OCD project

[brian_g]

Looks awesome Mike!
Did you reinstall it like the window frames? If so, are you going to glass it in to make it an integral part of the cabin if you end up liking it?

Brian

[NoSlack]

I used the existing bolt hole from the window frames. The frame were held on with 10-24 hardware. I was breaking those now and them over the past few years so I went with 1/4-20 stainless on this project. to line up with the existing holes, I went with 1x2 on the bottom and 1x3 on the top frame work. Corners are all 1x2 with several layers of glass to give the extra strength. Outside has one layer of glass and the inside has a very heavy layer of woven glass. The aft corner used to be a 2" thick glass post/support that didn't give much in the way of lateral support. I made the aft corners 12" wide at the top and 2" at the bottom. Bolting that to the flybridge made things very solid side to side.

For now the outside has a coat of paint over the glass and the inside has been painter and textured. I still need to trim all the bolts flush with the nuts and make some decisions on how I would like to finish the outside.

I'm really considering skipping the windows and going with a camera and monitor for the lower station. The only time I'm driving from the lower station is when I'm bounce balling or moving back up to make another drift on a cod spot. In both of those situations you are moving slow and the bow was high making it hard to see traffic out the front windows. Most of the time I would look around the outside to see what was out front. A camera and monitor has to be better than that.

I was real pleased with how solid its felt on Sunday.
Forward port corner


Aft starboard corner

[NoSlack]

Getting closer to finishing the project. Added the camera and monitor at the lower station last week and worked on the outside color and fake windows on Saturday. Took a break from sanding today and hit the cod spot for some pretty good fishing.

Lower Station with monitor



Faked in some windows like the photo shopped image at the top of the thread

[Old Blue]

That's looking great Mike!

I just had an idea...…
I think you should get your hands on some molds, and start cranking out some boats.