Choosing to install new portlights is a complicated decision. There are many companies out there building poor products that sell for big money and others building beautiful products that sell for a reasonable amount. My decision involved much research and investigation into the minute details of portlight construction. Many of the larger, well known, companies did not stack up when I began to dig into the small details so I chose New Found Metals as my portlight supplier.
This project is not for the boater who barely knows the difference between a Phillips head and a slotted head screw driver and is about a 5-6 on the 1 to 10 complexity scale. The task is straight forward and does not require "artist" like skills akin to blending and color matching gelcoat but it is a long and time consuming task.
Our boat has 8 ports and I figure this project took me a little over 45 hours of time. Hopefully this article will save you some time and you can learn from my mistakes and time saving tips. I figured each port would take about two hours but I was a little off.
I do hope this article helps someone considering new ports or who needs some guidance installing NFM portlights.
As always click on any photo and it will get bigger and offer more resolution. This article is quite LONG and totals four pages and more than 40 photos so don't forget to click "next page" when you get to the bottom.