Leak hatches on F-32

TADTOOMUCH · Post by **TADTOOMUCH** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 7:56 am

All three of my hatches have small slow leaks around them when we get heavy rains. The deck is very strong around the hatches with no soft spots and the leaks are not coming from the rubber seal but rather where the wood meets the deck.

What are recommendations to seal the interface between the wood and the deck? I am not sure I want to use 5200 as it is almost impossible to remove to re-caulk at a future date.

Anyone have any suggestions.

Stripermann2 · Post by **Stripermann2** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:48 am

Not sure I follow. On mine, the only part of the hatch when closed, which touches the deck is the rubber hatch foam gasket...the wood frame of the hatch does not.

captainmaniac · Post by **captainmaniac** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:08 am

Ditto what stripermnn said... normally the rubber weatherstripping on the bottom of the hatch rests on a raised section molded in to the deck - are you saying yours rests on raw wood?

I have had one of my hatches leak through the screws / bolts that fasten the locking mechanism or prop rod to the hatch. Any chance you might be getting the water from there or are you sure it's elsewhere?

Stripermann2 · Post by **Stripermann2** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 11:42 am

The foam gasket doesn't adhere to the wood, it adheres to the inside of frame work to bottom of hatch plexi.

g36 · Post by **g36** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 12:32 pm

on my f32 hatches i had the same leak. i chose the 3m 4200 intead of the 3m 5200 i have had no issues and the 4200 can be disassembled

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... 8HT14PGTgl

wowzer52 · Post by **wowzer52** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 1:30 pm

Ditto on the 4200. Our older F-32's have a wood frame attached to the deck that the hatch seals to.

captainmaniac · Post by **captainmaniac** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 1:38 pm

wowzer52 wrote:Ditto on the 4200. Our older F-32's have a wood frame attached to the deck that the hatch seals to.

I guess '78/'79 were the transition years, as my '79 has the molded deck surface and TAD says his is a '78.

ready123 · Post by **ready123** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 1:56 pm

TADTOOMUCH wrote:All three of my hatches have small slow leaks around them when we get heavy rains. The deck is very strong around the hatches with no soft spots and the leaks are not coming from the rubber seal but rather where the wood meets the deck.

Do you know if the hatches were removed and replaced?
I have this problem on one hatch because it was not replaced square... so the leak is in fact where the two pieces of wood meet at the corner.
My solution was to build up the 5200 at deck level at the corners to prevent surface water from sitting against the vertical edge joint and then to coat the vertical joint/seam with varnish which I redo a number of times during the season.
Does the job for me...

TADTOOMUCH · Post by **TADTOOMUCH** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:05 pm

All hatches are original installations and have not been replaced. I do have small stress cracks in the fiberglass deck near the corners of each hatch that I will seal but I was wondering what everyone else used to seal their hatches with. I might try to seal the stress cracks first and then if it still leaks, I will seal around the wood where it meets the deck. For the stress cracks, would it be better to seal with some other method like use a syringe and some form of white epoxy or gel-coat? I don't want it to look bad once I seal it or collect dirt.

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Leak hatches on F-32

Leak hatches on F-32

Re: Leak hatches on F-32

Hatch leaks