Vintage Eyes

Well...I had a nice long posting all drawn out, and then my computer decided to go into shutdown mode, and the draft I saved is NOWHERE to be found. In short, Bob and I were able to use our 4 hour half day to good use, and got the front window reinstalled into the trailer. Rebuilding this window took a very long time, and there are a great number of parts to it even though it may not look like it.

We started by finishing the reassembly of the windw since I had missed a few rivets while I was last working on it months ago. I popped them into place, and slid in the newly rebuilt sash. I didn't have my camera, so sorry for no pics.

Next we dry fit the window into place. These old 50's windows sandwiches in between the top of the front curved panel, and a bracing panel that is inside the front endcap. This was done to assist in shedding water and help with rigidity. The holes lined up perfectly, but we had a couple of holes that would not hold tight with a 5/32 cleco fastener.

Window in place with clecos

After the dry fit, we removed the window and I applied a hefty bead of vulkem on three sides of the window opening where the windo would overlap the skin. The top would be vulkemed later once the window was installed.

Be liberal with sealant, and clean it up later before it is completely cured.

We placed the window back in the opening and seated it against the bead of vulkem. We then clecoed through the holes and proceeded to buck rivet the window into place. Each rivet squeezed a little more vulkem out the sides of the window ensuring me a water tight fit. A few holes that were too wide for a 5/32 solid rivet were replaced with olympic rivets. These worked like a charm. After the riveting, I proceeded to wipe off the excess vulkem with a laquer thinner soaked rag. I shaved the few olympics that we had to install with Bob's shaver tool, and we were done.

Get the mess off now or be sorry later.

We were running out of daylight quickly, and the sun had already gone over the horizon. We were working off the streetlight, and decided that we couldn't get much more done. I decided last minute to install the drip cap over the window to have a complete front window ensemble. I applied a liberal bead of sealant to the back of the drip cap, and used olympics in the installation. The originals were buck rivets, but I wanted the ease of olympics in the little light we had. I shaved the mandrels off, wiped the sealant residue, and called it a night.

Rebuilt window fully riveted and sealed

The Cylon

More work tomorrow with hopes of getting a couple more windows installed and the front panel completely fastened.