Somewhere on this board I came across this comment. “…The hatch and hatch cover are easy to remove. All phillips screws.”
Well that part is true, we had the leaking hatch over the dinette table off in about twenty minutes. The bedding compound and plaster like substance has taken two people four hours and every tool in the arsenal. We used wood chisels, cold chisels, a propane torch, and finally an abrasive wheel. What did they use?
Our plan is to rebed with Butyl tape. Any advice, any nay sayers? Thank goodness the one in the V-berth is not leaking.
Hi Tim,
I also removed and reinstalled my hatch due to leaking. Same issues removing old bedding ‘cement’ - that was tough stuff. The hatch frame is screwed into solid fibreglass. I discovered some of these screws were in voids in the fibreglass and although there was loads of bedding, leaks into And through the coach roof started In these screw holes and voids. Also I noticed some of the screws were not holding tight in the fibreglass. Assuming that might happen again I did not use butyl to rebed this as it requires absolute compression and occasional tightening of the screws. I filled all former screw holes with epoxy and glass fibre and retapped them. I used 3M 4200 to seal and adhere the frame to coach roof and in the mounting screw holes. Without the positive clamping action of bolts and nuts I believe this install needs the adhesive qualities that butyl does not provide.
Greg Silver
Misty Cat 26C #121
Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
