Reply To: Fitting new seals
Funny, we’re a group doing similar parts of our Land Rover restorations at the same time.
I was able to put in both windows and filler strips by myself with a blunt screwdriver without any trouble. This might be relative, however, compared to years of mounting poorly fitting bicycle tires, which is a similar procedure, only around the outside of a tight rim instead of the inside. Mick is right, though, your fingers hurt after two windows!
A tip I can give anyone, again similar to bicycle repair, is to twist the filler strip in: first get one edge in over a distance of a few inches/cm, hold it in with a firm grip, then pop in the center with help of the screwdriver, and finally snap in the opposite edge of the filler strip. I didn’t find that soap or window cleaner as lubricant helped, because then I couldn’t grip anything anymore. I use corn starch for bicycle tires but I didn’t think to try that, here.
The manufacturer of the seal recommends on its website using silicone in the groove on the window and fiberglass sides of the seal, which I found made the job more difficult because it squirts out and gets on your hands and the lot gets slippery. Originally my roof didn’t have any silicone inside the seal. I did the second window without silicone. We’ll see which one I need to do again!
Putting in the vent cover was simple but fiddly work. It seems to have been molded inside an old vent. At least, it’s appreciably smaller than the original, in every dimension. So fitting the aluminum strip for the bug net was a trick because its dimensions were too large. I had to re-bend it as I drilled the holes one at a time, putting screws in as I worked, to hold it in place. Something like 35 holes have to be drilled, including the new hinges. Each hole has to be fitted carefully because the original work is hand-done and not measured to any precision or regularity. For example, the hinge holes in my original Martin Walter roof are drilled crooked (neither parallel to each other, nor in line with the vent or the lines of the roof) and with inconsistent centerline distance, and the hinges each have to be custom-fitted. The easiest solution is to drill very big holes in the hinges!
The new vent cover looks the same as the old one from inside the roof, but from outside it appears dark grey because it’s more transparent. I prefer the old, white look, but the old one was too brittle to repair. Since one fits inside the other, maybe I can stack the two … ?
In all, these steps took me one leisurely day. I had most of the other roof parts restored and the new hardware ready to go by the time the Dormobile order arrived. I still have to make the replacement bug net and glue in the vent seal with window putty.
-Jeremy
