Oxidation or Corrosion ? ?

[lumina]

Hi All,

Last year was the year of broken windows.

At the beginning of last season a boat hook cracked one of the salon side windows.........prior to haul out in October someone put their full weight on one of the three front salon windows over the galley and cracked that................and lastly, while in winter storage someone fired a 22clb gun into the boat yard and broke one of the large helm windows.

One of this years SPRING projects (april) was to replace all 3 windows however we're running behind so we're just getting to them now.

So with that long winded back story to set the stage here's my real question.

On the INSIDE of the salon side window there is the anodized aluminum frame. A few of the screws that hold the frame in turned blue/green? Not being a DYS-er but not being complete idiot either I'm presuming this is oxidation or corrosion. Before I replace the window and the screws I'd like to know how to neutralize/eliminate this so it isn't carried forward to the new hardware.

Any thoughts?

[REBrueckner]

It's likely due to a very small amount of moisture...a leak beginning...I had that on my 1972 YF. Eventually I removed the window frame and found caulk voids which over many years finally admitted enough water to begin to darken surrounding wood.

Rebedding the exterior window frame stopped the leak. The inner aluminum liner ring is a trim piece rather than a part of the window frame; rebedding it alone will not likely be a solution. This is an area that Hatteras did NOT do a good job and has been discussed in previous posts. I removed my window glass before removing the frame as the old caulk really had a grip....

[lumina]

Hi Rob,

Hope all's well.....

I'm with you on this issue. We're going to remove the outter frame and calking etc and rebed but I hate to put new screws into the holes on the inside frame that have oxidation/corrosion in them.

Could I clean them with some sort of mild acid or neutralizer ?

[Beckytek]

I use white vinegar, seems to work well for me. Ron

[REBrueckner]

It took me a looooong day working alone to removed the starboard side salon windows first, then frame...I posted details previously...placing a wide putty knife against the cabin side and banging a small one under the frame over the wide putty knife to break the old caulk seal prevents marring the adjacent exteior paint work...getting the lower frame...near the catwalk is a "bee yatch"....no room to get in a thin blade..

If you have a helper so two can break free the frame, and after removal one can remove old caulk from the frame and another can remove old caulk from the cabin side you can save quite a bit of time.

Removing all the old caulk before reinstalltion was an awful lengthy frustrating job....maybe somebody has done it with 5200..but it was tough!!!

If caulk does not ooze thru outer frame screw holes, (likely you need more caulk) dip the replacement screws before inserting in some fresh caulk.....