Yesterday in the shop I took lots of pictures. I looked back at a post a few days ago - the one where I showed the oxidation and broken parts and stuff on the big dinette window?
And took some pictures of the finished window from those same angles.
So today we get to do some before and after! :)
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And of course that has now been done to all the windows!
Much of my record keeping (for future what-evers) is accomplished through pictures. And I'm saving these posts as a PDF file and will print to place in a book, as well as keeping a digital copy. So that is one reason why I go into greater detail, and definitely more pictures than many do.
Here are a couple more of the large dinette window. Notice the stamp on the glass panes. ARM-R-CLAD.
Now the side galley window.
You can also see the manufacturing dimples in the glass above the ARM-R-CLAD. These are on every pane, but only one per pane and on this same side.
And the back-wall galley window.
So I stored the long dinette window on the top of Lil' Willy (on a packing blanket to protect his top), and stacked/stored the rest of the windows inside on the back seat. They are all tucked away nice and neat now.
And that includes the fixed windows at the cab pass-thru, as well as both windows for the front Vee-nose wall of the cab-over bunk. Wait what?
Yes, you are remembering correctly, one of those Vee-nose windows hadn't yet been assembled! I was still looking for gasket channel.
Well - here's what I did.
As you know, I was lucky, in that all the other window's rubber gasket was quite flexible. After cleaning it with a stiff brush in warm, soapy water, I had begun assembly, using the original gaskets in the small windows. Then when I had trouble locating replacement gasket, I just reused all the old rubber on the bigger windows too. Adding the windshield silicon sealer at the corners and the butt joints.
And I never took apart the one Vee-nose frame, or the cab pass-thru window frame. But the OTHER Vee-nose window had the glass pane backwards and we know that wouldn't do (for the ARM-R-CLAD stamp). Hey! People can be so judgmental!
But when I took it apart, the rubber was too brittle in many places to fully reuse. So I took apart all my donor windows and frames around the panes. Then I picked through all the rubber and discarded any that wouldn't do - brittle, hardening, not soft enough. And I saved out all that was still good, no matter how short (within reason).
You see, I figured if right from the factory they were cutting a perfectly good solid piece at the corners, to make the frames and panes fit, and then touching those cuts with some sealer, then why couldn't I?
And of course, that's what I already did on all the assemblies at those corners and butt joints.
So what could I do with this? Pay no attention to the big black thing.
Okay so let's talk about the big black thing. That is a sample of non-adhesive, thin, tough rubber I got from the glass shop. It could be wrapped around the glass edge and the frame pressed around it, then trimmed, etc. And I might do something like that if leaks develop in future (but one surface will require a double layer), or if I can't locate the right channel rubber from someplace (thanks again ticki for the link).
But for now, I took those many pieces of rubber and placed them something like this.
This design will create the four corners needing the silicon sealer treatment (as all the windows did). It will also require one butt-joint at top (like all the windows did). And it will require an ADDITIONAL butt joint at bottom. Even so, all joints get the silicon windshield sealer (thin flow-able). And I don't imagine that extra butt joint will be a show stopper, as the top joints are right out there in the driving rain as you roll on down the highway anyway! We'll see.
Here's how they all fit. And you will note two different sizes of gasket!
And the finished window. I may trim the rubber edge but it doesn't look like it's hurting anything right now.
Then I cleaned up all my extra glass and took stock. Let's see, I have three extras of the small panes that fit my three single pane small windows and the back-wall double pane galley window. Then I have two extra panes for the four pane dinette window and the two pane galley side-wall window. And I have one extra pane for the cab pass-thru. None extra for the Vee-nose wall. And that one longest pane is from the larger dinette window in the donor camper. I can't use it, but will save it in case I ever hear of somebody needing one in that size.
Then I wrapped them up and put them under the tree!
Some Christmas in the future I'll surprise myself. Or at the very least, give a descendant some additional information to try and figure out their eccentric fore-bear who just sits there dribbling down his chin mumbling something about his pane.
