Removing the old Ports

I figured removing the old ports would be very straight forward but like every boat project it was not to be. I got to the boat with some paint scrapers and putty knives, removed the thru-bolts from the first port, hammered in a couple of the putty knives and scrapers and the frame did not budge. Working on a smaller area I was finally able to pry and break off a small piece of the outside frame now realizing that the ports had been installed with 3M 5200, a PERMANENT polyeurathane sealant.
I remembered that people had talked about a relatively new product that is supposed to soften 5200 so on to the Internet I went and in several days I had a couple of cans of DeBond 2000. Now its the middle of winter and with the boat under cover, I'm waiting for a decent weekend to continue.


Armed with a few more putty knives (thin and flexible), scrapers (stiff with a sharp edge) and a linoleum knife along with the DeBond 2000 I went to work. With all the scrapers driven in I quirted the DeBond into the gaps and pryed. It definitely helped soften the 5200 but it was still a lot of work and 4 hours later the first port was removed, although a lot of cleanup remained and some of the interior teak ply was destroyed.

On the way home it was another stop at the tool store, this time coming away with a couple more scrapers and mini pry bars. On the next trip to the boat I had another plan to attack the 5200 gasket. You have to realize that this gasket properly installed wraps completely under the frame on both sides and has a 1/4" or more gap between the port and the hole. With a heat gun, 12 scrapers and putty knives, 4 mini pry bars and the DeBond I was down to about 2 hours to remove a port.

After removing the outside frame I tried to dig - cut - pry - pull out as much of the 5200 gasket as possible to allow less pressure removing the inside frame and saving as much teak veneer as possible.

By now the new ports have arrived so I try to fit the first one. Now I realize the original ports were hand cut and relatively irregular in shape. The port holes are just a touch small so it's time to cut and sand. The end result is the new ports fit and look fine but there's going to be a lot of work making them fit and fitting the teak spacers.