I realize you were asking Scott, but in the spirit of "in case you don't mind more information," I did completely remove my original vent to re-bed it (it had started a slight drip in one corner, which I luckily noticed right away). It was a cinch to remove. It was bedded in a non-butyl type putty tape (hence it was slightly dried out and cracked), and then had the gummy type "leveling" stuff around the perimeter and over the screw heads, RV style. I used a screwdriver bit in a drill to poke into the screw heads and loosen them, after which it was not hard to get the gummy off. Then I used a thin flexible putty knife to slide under the vent flange (I cut up milk jugs into flat pieces and use them between any parts of the tool not under the flange, and the roof to avoid scratching). Popped right out and all cleaned up easily with mineral spirits (ahhhhh, one of the benefits of them not having used silicone or something super adhesive).kdarling wrote:
So you replaced the entire assembly, right?
Any difficulty removing the original one?
I put mine back with "true" butyl tape (not putty tape) under the flange and under the fastener heads. Nothing "around the edge" or over the top of the screw heads (I mean, do you put Neosporin on top of a band-aid or underneath it?). I have removed 20+ year old real butyl tape and had it still be stretchy and doing its job. If that had been used I probably would not have needed to re-bed. However, that said, I have no problem with re-bedding once every 15 years as long as the bedding compound(s) used are easy to clean up and re-do. It's trying to remove failed silicone or 5200 or the like that is ridiculously vexing and takes hours or days
This is the butyl tape I use. It's the only currently available butyl tape I have found that is just like the 25 year old stuff I still have. Any other I have bought has been completely inferior and more like just putty tape (even if called butyl). This is a boater who got sick of not being able to find any himself and started having it made for him (he has a "one guy" marine business).
http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/butyl_tape
I see Hamilton Marine is carrying it too now.
http://store.hamiltonmarine.com/browse. ... 63071.html
His tutorial on bedding things is really good. I've done basically the same things on my boats for years and do the same on the Chinook now. (With some minor technique adjustments for things like the vent that have thin/flimsy flanges.)
http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/rebe ... are&page=1
Best part is that when/if you do have to re-bed (or something breaks; or you just want to put in something different), clean up is a breeze and you are ready to go again.