More progress today...LONG POST WARNING!
First I drilled 3/16" holes in the frame where I wanted the rivets to go. Then I marked out, measured and taped the locations on the plastic where I was going to drill for the rivets. I wanted to drill with the Lexan in the frame because I figured it would be too difficult to make everything line up and fit back together afterwards.
Lined up with the mark previously made for lining it up:
In the next picture you can see that two frame holes on one end were partially or fully below the edge of the Lexan. This was due to my previous template tracing.
Confession time: I should have more thoroughly test fitted the template in the frame on the boat ! :facepalm: I would have discovered that (and other things) earlier in the game. More about that later.
After fitting the windshield into the frame, I first drilled and riveted the top center hole to hold it in place securely while I drilled the rest of the holes. I did put a double layer of the Felpro gasket in as a shim at each hole on the straight sections of the frame, and drilled right thru everything at once. I couldn't use it in the curves because it was too tight a fit.
Gremlin: For some reason, several of my rivets broke off much further up the shaft than they should have, rather than inside the rivet itself. I don't know if that's an indication of poor quality rivets or if my rivet gun is wearing out. It was fairly cheap, but hasn't really seen all that much use. For the ones that broke off long, I cut them with wire cutters and used the ol' Dremel to grind & smooth off the tops.
What I thought would be just a test fit turned into a full installation on the boat. And back to my Confession...My template was off by almost 1/2" in the two spots marked by the red arrows. I guess I could have let the cardboard sag into the bubble of the original windshield, but how much would be the big question, I guess it depends on the depth of your bubble. The deck curve wasn't right, and more careful checking on the boat would have caught this. I shoulda known better!
I have a lot of excuses why I didn't do that, but I won't bore you with them! :sleeping:
So I decided to forge ahead rather than start over basically at the beginning and remake the template etc. etc. Since it was "pretty close", I thought I'd have this be my "test project" and run it to completion, saving the other half of my Lexan sheet. That way I can use the windshield for a season or two and see if it holds up and also if there are any other issues, then I won't have to buy more "next time"!! What I will do is make detailed notes about the adjustments I need to make to the template, and next time I'll do a lot more on-boat test fitting!
Oh, and
Confession Time Part 2: :doh: I riveted the dang plastic into the frame flipped LEFT/RIGHT, but it was symmetrical enough that it didn't really matter "much" after all. Maybe that's why the two frame holes I drilled were below the bottom edge of the plastic. Live and learn. I guess the stars were out of alignment today or something. I have more excuses, but.......
So it wasn't a total loss, and I consider it basically finished... Although not perfect, it's a whole lot better than what I had!!! It was a little tough getting the four deck angles installed, but once they were loosely in place, it got easier as I tightened everything up. Would have been easier with that missing 1/2". So we'll see how she holds up.
I left the protective sheet in place until the windshield was fully mounted, removing that was the last thing.
Did you ever notice on TV how when they finish their fabrication, the protective sheet pulls off in one big, neat piece, and reveals a beautiful finished project?
ound:I guess that's why they are the pros! Since my rivets passed right thru the protective film, it was hard to get off at the edges, particularly in the bends of the frame and near the rivets. I ended up having to spend a lot of time fighting with it and using a utility knife to get it off several spots around the edges. But I didn't want to take a chance on scratching the plastic.
So here's my before and after, a big improvement, although that little bit of template error will aways bother me...'til next time!
Before:
After:
Next thing to think about and research is the issue of heating it on the curves to prevent crazing. Stay tuned!
