Back in '89, my wife and I bought our first house in Ft. Lauderdale. I replaced all the jalousie windows with wood casement windows I made myself. At the end of the project I said if I ever get the chance to make my own windows again, I'll buy them instead. Now I remember why.
I've spent the last two weekends working on my windshield frame. The geometry is mind boggling. Today I got the frame assembled and did a trial fit. First time out was close, but no cigar. Then back in the shop to trim a few pieces, and the second trial fit was a success. Here are some pics of the process.
First, a mockup made of masonite so I could check all the angles. There are lots of them and none of them are 90°. There are the angles at the corners of each panel, and then the angle between the two front panels, and the angle between the front panels and the side panels.
Here are the frames for the windshield panels. All the corners are done with mortice and tenon joints. That was the easy part. Once the frames were made up, I had to figure out how to miter them together at the corners.
And here is the assembled frame set in place on the boat.
My windshield is smaller than the original. I want to be able to see over it when standing at the helm, and through it when seated.
I used some of the masonite from the mock up to make templates for my glass. I'm going to use 1/4" laminated for the front panels and either laminated or tempered for the side panels. I'll order the glass this week.
I plan to seal the frame with penetrating epoxy and then spray it with a two part polyurethane varnish. All the fastener holes will be overdrilled, filled with epoxy/wood flour, and then redrilled. I have at least one more weekend and some week nights before I'm ready to mount it on the boat.
Dave