Princess - Windscreen rubber seals

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John100156

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The windscreen black rubber gasket sealing strip is pretty tatty on the Princess I just bought, anyone know where Princess may have sourced them or a good source? They are not leaking as far as I know so it may be a case of 'if it aint broke dont fix it" but wanted to take a better look next time out on the boat!
Screen.jpg​
 
If you can, find a joint and pull a little bit of the seal out to get an idea of the cross-section of the seal (if wedge seal). There are loads of wedge seal gaskets too be had online. There are also lots of captive seals online so you just need a small cross-section sample. If you can do this and find a match on ebay it will be much cheaper than the steelers. (It looks like wedge gasket so easy to replace)
 
Looking at those pics, John, It doesn't look like she has ever had screen covers fitted.
When I wen on board last week, the internal woodwork was a bit bleached in places too,
I know you are planning new general covers but the sun is very strong out here so a screen cover would be a good idea to protect the window seals (old or replaced).

Also, I believe that the rubber seals around the windscreen wipers (where the wiper motor shaft comes through the superstructure) are susceptible to breaking down and leaking. Worth talking to Hepworths and getting some spare seals - I have one of their wiper extractors if you ever need to strip the wiper assembly down.
EDIT - Actually, looking at your pic, your wipers are different to mine but I bet they are still Hepworths and worth checking the seals.
 
Thanks Mike - I think the washer hoses are perished too, so I will be taking a closer look at the wipers, definitely will be fitting a screen cover, most of the covers look shot to be honest, so will need renewing. There were no obvious signs of leaks when I looked at the boat, which surprised me, given the state of the rubbers. We shall see....!
 
John100156 said:
Thanks Mike - I think the washer hoses are perished too, so I will be taking a closer look at the wipers, definitely will be fitting a screen cover, most of the covers look shot to be honest, so will need renewing. There were no obvious signs of leaks when I looked at the boat, which surprised me, given the state of the rubbers. We shall see....!
Click to expand...

On the subject of wiper hoses, the P58 here (I think you know the boat) operated their wipers last Sunday and found the same problem that I had a few years ago,
There is a small solenoid valve that opens fresh water through the rubber/plastic hoses/tubes to squirt fresh water from the boat's central fresh water system onto the windows.
Probably much the same as other boats.
In this case, the solenoid valve gets stuck in the open position, thus continually draining the contents of the fresh water tank over the windows - eventually emptying the fresh water tank.
We had exactly the same issue a few years ago so I cleaned our solenoid valve to get it working and fitted an inline ball valve to shut the water supply off completely.
If a subsequent owner wants to use fresh water to wash/wipe windows, he can simply turn on the ball valve - assuming that it doesn't get stuck open again!!
I use a product from A Glaze called Crystal Vision which is like Rainex from the motor industry.
Any sea water landing on our windows turns to droplets and runs off
These products are so good at clearing the windows that you don't need to squirt them with water.
We do use the wipers sometimes but never need the water squirt.
And, of course, our current mode of boating, we don't need the wipers anyway ------ well mostly anyway!!!
 
Thats exactly what I did on the F43, the pressure of the CW pump when cut-out was too great for the solenoid valve, the leak stopped before cut-in, so I could have selected an alternative SV but I just installed a lever operated ball valve to isolate which took a minute to open when needed.

Crystal Vision sounds interesting, did you add a car type washer reservoir and pump?
 
John100156 said:
Crystal Vision sounds interesting, did you add a car type washer reservoir and pump?
Click to expand...

No, Crystal Vision and Rainex are applied to the window like polish.
You clean the windows first, apply it and then polish.
Lasts most of the season.

I would bet that the actual A Glaze sealant is similar (if not the same) stuff.

See this video for the results

 
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