What we do., our services.
We provide a mobile and postal service to enable you to easily have any marine windows and hatches restored or rebuilt. We operate over all of Sydney and up to Newcastle. We will go where ever we are needed and are a one stop shop. We do it all. From quotation to the removal of the lids or full hatches or windows. Then seal the vessel with core flute or acrylic panels to secure and seal up your vessel against weather and uninvited and unwanted interest.
Once we have the hatches or windows we take them up to the workshop in Pittwater for the dismantling and the process of restoration. We make all the windows and hatche, or portlight lenses and the seals also. We make any repars needed and bond the lenses into the frames with a superior adhesive sealant made by Fixtech. They make a range of glues, adhesives, epoxies and other types of marine products. These adhesive sealants are all non toxic, they are made for specific applications and they absolutely do as advertised. Exactly and by far more than one should expect. I use a low modulus slow curing silicone based adhesive to bond any acrylic to any other substrate. Fix 200 is the name. it out performs any other adhesive designed for acrylic windows by many leauges. This is the worlds best acrlyic window adhesive sealant. Ihave used all the available types and tested them all. No matter what, Fixtech outperforms over every other product. By such a margin that all other products are totally archaic and simply not in my glue stocks. The sealant is cured slow over a few days where it attaches molecularly to th pores in the surface of the acrylic. It has a 600% elongation at break. This ensures the bonded windows are always able to twist, to expand and contract without placing the acrylic under undue stresses. The other sealants have maybe 15 % 0r 20% elongation at break. This is why so many windows fail. hatches leak, the sealants actually degrade and some well known brand even reverts back to a viscous tar like substance after only a few years in the u,v. All the Fixtech range are fully u.v stabilised and colourfast. i have had this sealant last over 20 years with little change in the finish and no loss of bonding.
We make most of our own seals and fit them custom made. The time to turn around a few hatches up to a full boat of hatches and windows is about a week usually. We guarantee our products and workmanship for 10 years minimum.
The reason the acrylic degrades is the pores in the surface fill with salt crystals and also pollution and chemicals. the plasticiser leaches out to the surface of the material and this makes it hard and no longer supple or flexible. This ends up taking on many tiny fractures from the expanding and contraction acrylic as it grows and shrinks, moves a lot during the different ranges of temperatures it is exposed to on a daily basis. This is why the damage is always on the outside at least to begin with. Once the acrylic gets some longer arc type cracks or straight line type cracks, only thin but different to the small surface crazing... Once these appear the strength of the material is failing and can become a danger if the windows or hatches are relied upon in heavy weather in Oceanic or even large bay crossings. The most horrific waves both in height and the angle of the face being almost vertical or at least too steep to take on the nose, this was always inside the confines of Moreton Bay. It can be a short outing and if wind and tide combine against the other you may be in a deeply troubling predicament. Itis best to look at repacing th acrylic at the 8 to 10 year mark. New material after restoration you will get 1 years easily with a little care and maintinence occassionally.
We provide a mobile and postal service to enable you to easily have any marine windows and hatches restored or rebuilt. We operate over all of Sydney and up to Newcastle. We will go where ever we are needed and are a one stop shop. We do it all. From quotation to the removal of the lids or full hatches or windows. Then seal the vessel with core flute or acrylic panels to secure and seal up your vessel against weather and uninvited and unwanted interest.
Once we have the hatches or windows we take them up to the workshop in Pittwater for the dismantling and the process of restoration. We make all the windows and hatche, or portlight lenses and the seals also. We make any repars needed and bond the lenses into the frames with a superior adhesive sealant made by Fixtech. They make a range of glues, adhesives, epoxies and other types of marine products. These adhesive sealants are all non toxic, they are made for specific applications and they absolutely do as advertised. Exactly and by far more than one should expect. I use a low modulus slow curing silicone based adhesive to bond any acrylic to any other substrate. Fix 200 is the name. it out performs any other adhesive designed for acrylic windows by many leauges. This is the worlds best acrlyic window adhesive sealant. Ihave used all the available types and tested them all. No matter what, Fixtech outperforms over every other product. By such a margin that all other products are totally archaic and simply not in my glue stocks. The sealant is cured slow over a few days where it attaches molecularly to th pores in the surface of the acrylic. It has a 600% elongation at break. This ensures the bonded windows are always able to twist, to expand and contract without placing the acrylic under undue stresses. The other sealants have maybe 15 % 0r 20% elongation at break. This is why so many windows fail. hatches leak, the sealants actually degrade and some well known brand even reverts back to a viscous tar like substance after only a few years in the u,v. All the Fixtech range are fully u.v stabilised and colourfast. i have had this sealant last over 20 years with little change in the finish and no loss of bonding.
We make most of our own seals and fit them custom made. The time to turn around a few hatches up to a full boat of hatches and windows is about a week usually. We guarantee our products and workmanship for 10 years minimum.
The reason the acrylic degrades is the pores in the surface fill with salt crystals and also pollution and chemicals. the plasticiser leaches out to the surface of the material and this makes it hard and no longer supple or flexible. This ends up taking on many tiny fractures from the expanding and contraction acrylic as it grows and shrinks, moves a lot during the different ranges of temperatures it is exposed to on a daily basis. This is why the damage is always on the outside at least to begin with. Once the acrylic gets some longer arc type cracks or straight line type cracks, only thin but different to the small surface crazing... Once these appear the strength of the material is failing and can become a danger if the windows or hatches are relied upon in heavy weather in Oceanic or even large bay crossings. The most horrific waves both in height and the angle of the face being almost vertical or at least too steep to take on the nose, this was always inside the confines of Moreton Bay. It can be a short outing and if wind and tide combine against the other you may be in a deeply troubling predicament. Itis best to look at repacing th acrylic at the 8 to 10 year mark. New material after restoration you will get 1 years easily with a little care and maintinence occassionally.
HATCH RESTORATIONWe take the hatch lids usually if possible. The apertures are closed with hatch lenses retained from old jobs, we use coreflute and acrylic panels to secure the apertures while the hatches and or windows are off the vessel. The lenses are removed and fabricated when back at the workshop. Frames and plastic parts are stripped down, soaked in a mild soapy solution overnight. Next day parts are pressure washed and sealed with a restorative compound.
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FIXED WINDOWSWe cater to all types of fixed windows including complicated formed or heat moulded acrylic and glass windows. We have a range of tints available and all acrylic used is cast acrylic which is fully u.v. stabilised. The quality is superior to most original hatches and window material, lasting far longer than the existing materials did.
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BONDED CATCH PORTLIGHTSwe make and rebuild all types of portlights and lenses. We can replace Lewmar portlights, either the lenses with turning toggles through the lenses an hinges bolted thru the lenses. Also the newer model portlights with the catches and hinges bonded to the lens. Hatches that have bonded handles we cater for and more.
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