Window refurbishment

[thompsondr1]

I have mapped out my plans for removing, refurbishing, cleaning, re-gasketing and re-installing my windows. The forum (which is amazing) answered the vast majority of my questions but a few remained that I would really appreciate your help with:

1. Removing windows (pic of window mechanics below) – to remove the window I read to just remove the rivets but it didn’t say which ones. Are they the 3 with green dots next to them? And what type of rivets are those (so I can replace the windows)?


2. Sealing windows (pic of window corner circled below) – there is a clear substance that is peeling off the edges where the glass meets the aluminum. What should I replace this with? I also need to reseal the small 45 degree angled section of the picture where aluminum meets aluminum. For that, I was planning to use Trempro or Sikaflex (but please correct me if I should use something else).

Again, really appreciate the help!

Ryan

[TheGreatleys]

I assume you're trying to remove the center window, not the wing windows, correct?

To remove the center window, you'll need to disconnect the lifter mechanism, and then lift the window up past 90 degrees, and it will fall out of the channel. Your lifting mechanism is different from my 74, so hopefully someone else will be able to jump in who is more familiar with it.

The rivets you pointed out look like they're attaching the lifting mechanism to the window frame. It looks like there might be screws you could use to remove the lifter without drilling out rivets. How is the lifter arm attached to the window itself?

If you are trying to remove the wing windows, you're in for a much more involved project. You can see our process for removing, refurbishing, and replacing our wing windows on our 1974 Overlander in our blog here: Wing Windows

Sikaflex 221 is great for sealing between glass and aluminum, rubber and aluminum, and aluminum and aluminum. I'd get as much old sealant out as possible and fill the gaps with Sikaflex.

[thompsondr1]

Thanks for the reply! Yes, we're trying to remove the center window but also all the other windows that are easily removeable. The one exception is the wing windows (which your post made me want to avoid removing even more). It looked like the easiest way to clean the windows and the lifters was to remove them in one piece and that I can do so via the 3 rivets highlighted in the pic above. But the rivets looked a little different so I just wanted to make sure I would be able to replace them.

[kelmeans]

We removed all of our windows, including the wing (both). One of them had an inch of water between the panes. Ours is a 74 Excella. Getting the windows in and out isn't too tricky but the wings sure were. We have all the windows reinstalled now except for the wing. That will be tonight. It took us approx. 80 hours give or take, to pull apart all the windows (all double paned except for the vistas), clean the old tint off, reassemble and reinstall. None of them were ok, you couldn't see a thing out of them. Hard since we both work full time but totally worth the time and money.

[Shermy1987]

Something I haven't foimd searching these forums is how to easily remove the old window gaskets.... so here it is. If you want to drastically reduce your time removing the old gaskets this is how I do it. A window usually takes me about 45 mins from start to finish.

Buy an oscillating tool and a flexible metal scraper blade. Scrape the gasket off as best you can with a single pass, minding any rivets. Apply a good quality paint stripper to the remainding gasket. Repeat process. Apply paint stripper again. Make a final pass with a scouring pad to remove the rest of the glue and its done in no time at all.

[tuxdog]

Been doing a lot of research on which windows are single pane and which are double pane in our '72 Excella 500. Seems like the wing windows are definitely double pane and more difficult to rehab than the rest. But what about the vista view windows and the stack windows? All of the glass is in good shape and we'd like to clean and reseal as many windows as possible. Any advice is appreciated.