Re: 76 Seafari Fwd hatch
I came up with a hatch gasket scheme for my Seafari years ago which worked well, although the cheap Home Depot foam rubber gasket material wasn't real durable; it tended to crumble and I had to replace it every few years. Same scheme should last much longer with today's better softer foam. Might be able to find better quality material at an auto supply store or some outfit like Steele Rubber Products that makes gaskets for old cars. Here's one approach:
1. Remove all the shag carpet material from around edge of hatch where it contacts lip of deck/hatch gutter. Outside edge of hatch seems to overhang inside lip of gutter by at least 1/2".
2. Put some modeling clay on top of gutter lip, about 1/16" thick x 1/4" high.
3. Close and latch hatch to compress modeling clay.
4. Get some foam gasket material, approx 3/8" thick x 3/4" wide and glue it to OUTSIDE edge of gutter, with top of gasket even with the top of the modeling clay. You can set gasket slightly higher if you don't mind hatch not being quite flush when closed, but curvature of hatch will still cause slight gasket compression even if you set it flush with clay. The bottom of gasket was typically 1/8 to 1/4" above bottom of gutter on sides and bottom, and closer at top of hatch where I set it up for less compression.
5. Remove modeling clay and proof test after gasket cement cures.
The material I used was fairly dense rubber; some of the new foam stuff probably isn't stiff enough. It has some adhesive backing on it, but I used good old 3M yellow gasket cement which works a lot better. Resulting gasket wasn't particularly pretty, but didn't leak with either a bucket of water dumped on hatch or hose sprayed on it. Although the rubber compressed against underside of hatch provides primary seal, I believe the bottom side of gasket projecting out from gutter surface acts as a deflector that keeps most "high velocity" water from getting up to the primary sealing surface.
One could probably create a better looking molded silicone gasket using modeling clay and some RTV, but the foam gasket was quick and easy and worked well even if it wasn't very fancy.
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