richanton

I'm having a disagreement with someone about the proper way to paint a hatch, help us clear it up. How do you do it? How do you tape off the gasket around the plastic lens (or do you not tape it off?)? How do prep the plastic so that it holds the paint? Any other tips/tricks?

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

If there's a gasket involved it should be removed then prepped and painted to be done right. Some lenses are held in with a bead of silicone and in that case it might be best to pull the lens and just re do the whole thing. If it's on you OL I assume you want quality to remain high so it's probably best to fully disassemble.

Any pics of the hatch? What is your paint tech telling you?

Pending on what type of plastic it is you will need a light sand with five hundred or so and a couple dustings of an adhesion promoter like Bulldog

richanton

I'm reluctant to pull the lens on these hatches for fear of ruining them. When we did the repaint I ordered a pair of new low-profile Bomars and we took the lens out of the hatches to prep and paint. They came out perfect except now the lens is popping out of the hatch door on both hatches. So, I bought my 2nd set of brand new Bomar hatches to replace the first set and we're trying to figure out the best way to prep and paint them. Like everything else on the boat, I want them to be perfect.

I'm thinking we tape off the gasket (caulking), paint the hatch and leave the gasket (caulking) white, like on this Hustler below. If anyone has experience painting these type of hatches (especially if you do paint for Hustler, Formula, or A/T because they use these hatches) I would love to hear a detailed step-by-step.

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

Got'cha, What about sending you existing hatches back to Bomar for a reseal? Sounds like the paint is still good but the seal went bad.

Seeing as its gonna be tought to get anything to stick to that seal and leave a sharp line i would probably use a combination of tape and a spray mask like PVA or something. Looks like in that pic only the lens is painted, is that correct? Not the frame?

richanton

Bomar actually sends all their hatch work to a place here in CT, I went there for a consult but nothing they could do. We heavily modified the first set of hatches so that you wouldn't see the gasket/caulking in the door of the hatch. It looked great but didn't last long. This set I don't want to get so crazy, I'm thinking that we just paint the frame and the lens and leave the caulking white. I don't want to take the door of the hatch apart. I'm not sure the best say to tape the door off, and also not sure how to prep the lens so the paint sticks.

C.I.M.

I have taken many bomar hatches apart, painted and reassembled with windshield urethane and never had any come back or fail.

richanton

How did you do it?

C.I.M.

I cut the plastic window out with a razorblade, cleaned all the remaining sealent off the plastic and frame, prepped the plastic and the frame with 400, painted, scuffed the edge of the plastic and the inside of the frame with a grey scotchbrite pad. Then put the window back into the frame spacing even all the way around and set a heavy object on it to hold it in place. Mask off where you dont want urethane cause its messy. fill the gap in with urethane and smooth it out with wax and grease remover, then immediatly pull the tape. It will leave a nice clean line if you do it fast enough. Then let sit overnight.

richanton

Did you paint the frame and the lens? Any problems with the paint sticking to the lens?

C.I.M.

Yes I painted both. No problems. Just prep them properly and they hold paint just like any other plastic does. I think I have some pictures of some taken apart and being painted. I can email them to you.