I was going to post this in the "sovereign redux, sorta" or "removing Overlander interior skin" but it wouldn't get the right audience there, so here's another thread!
My Vista Views leak and look like hell, in both the Overlander and Sovereign. I had removed the inner pane in both windows in the Overlander a few years ago, but it didn't last. At least in the '72 Overlander you can get the inner pane out by removing the clip ring. the '75 Sovereign windows are riveted together and the frame is made in such a way that it has to be removed from the shell in order to get it apart. Ouch!
Here we go. The Overlander windows are riveted in. Piece of cake, just drill out the rivets, right? But BEWARE--drill the entire rivet out, not just the head. The frame is not tight down on the shell, so the rivet shaft not only is bucked on the indside, but it has a little bulge where that gap is. If you don't drill it out completely, you'll find you have all these little stumps that you've got to drill out, but you now don't have a nice guide hole.
Once you've drilled out the rivets, you can SLOWLY pry the frame away from the shell. You can see I use an old motel key as a pad.
Yea! It's out! OH CRAP! The frame edge is very narrow and I cut the covers to fit exactly, which is too small. too small. to darn small. Back to Denver for more 2024. Not only that, but the trim of the skin is really ragged and in many cases the rivets don't even have purchase. Lots of them had less than one diameter whe they should have at least 2D.
Got the new aluminum (thanks for cutting rectangles to size, Kip/
Aerowood), trimmed the ends to the same curve as the frames, and then put a slight bend to it using a 4" piece of PVC and clamps. You've got to clamp it right on the edge and then a couple places in the middle.
But if you get the bend about right (doesn't have to be perfect, but it should be slightly more curvy than the shell to ensure that the edges pull down tight to the shell when riveted), you get a nice fit. There is a trick to getting the holes in the right place--have someone hold the patch on the outside and you go inside and mark the existing holes on the patch, then put the new holes BETWEEN THEM and a little further from the edge.
The hole in the inside skin will be covered with the sliding window cover, since it's made with the same vynil finish and will look compatible. It'll also be trimmed so that the ends are rounded with as big a radius as possible. I'll finish up the outside patches using black Proseal and 5/32 bucked rivets (the modern 5/32 MS20470A5-X rivet provides a similar head to the obsolete 1/8 rivets that were used originally). The inside will be sealed with Vulkem.
Zep