: Excellent. Thanks for your reply. I emailed Vaclav too, and he
: kindly responded almost immediately. He added that it is worth
: pasting the thin gasket with some wax to help pry it out.

: How cool is email and the internet eh!

: Regards, Ian

After installing my first pair of hatches (where I had to dig out the gasket and rework the channel) I searched for a better way. After searching high and low at home and wandering down every isle at my local box stores looking and not finding anything suitable I went to the Internet. There I found what I think is the perfect material to form the channel. It's a silicone rubber strip that is self adhesive on one side. I ordered the exact size I wanted for the channel from McMaster-Carr. The self adhesive pulled right off of the packing tape I used to protect the inside of my hatch and then the silicon rubber stretches and releases from the channel leaving a perfect trench for your gasket. It is also dense enough that it won't deform when you press down on it when packing glass around and on top of it.

The part number I used is: 5109K53
Extreme-Temperature Silicone Foam Adhesive-Backed,
1/4" Thick, 1/2" Width, 3' L
In stock at $6.87 Each

I hated to spend the money on a strip that would be thrown away but this stuff worked so well I think the results well were worth the cost and the time and effort saved has got to be worth something.

Here is a picture of the inside of my hatch right after I stuck the strip down. You can's see it but there is packing tape protecting the entire surface seen here. It went on as easy as it looks came off just as easy after the lip was glassed.

Kyle T