Sealed Vista Views with Parbond. Didn't work.

[adwriter73]

I spent 5 days sealing up my newly renovated Airstream before I pulled it out into the elements. Well, last night we had a massive Texas storm, so I decided to see how the leaks held up. There was a lot of water inside. Just a little on top of the vinyl floor, most of it was underneath. And there were no water drips down my newly painted white walls, so it must have leaked behind the interior wall (which would explain why there was more water under the flooring than on top of it. The vista views appeared to be the culprit. The tilt out windows had some water pooled up between the glass and the screen, but I'm wondering if that was water that blew in from the drain holes (we had sideways rain).

Something to note: I removed the inner pane several months into the redo, but I never put anything back. I read somewhere just to seal up the outside really well, so that's what I did. I removed a layer of silicone caulk on the outside of the window and put a bead of Parbond over the rubber seal that sits between the glass and the aluminum. Is that not enough or did I not use the correct sealant? Quite a bit of water came in from all three vista views.

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by adwriter73

I spent 5 days sealing up my newly renovated Airstream before I pulled it out into the elements. Well, last night we had a massive Texas storm, so I decided to see how the leaks held up. There was a lot of water inside. Just a little on top of the vinyl floor, most of it was underneath. And there were no water drips down my newly painted white walls, so it must have leaked behind the interior wall (which would explain why there was more water under the flooring than on top of it. The vista views appeared to be the culprit. The tilt out windows had some water pooled up between the glass and the screen, but I'm wondering if that was water that blew in from the drain holes (we had sideways rain).

Something to note: I removed the inner pane several months into the redo, but I never put anything back. I read somewhere just to seal up the outside really well, so that's what I did. I removed a layer of silicone caulk on the outside of the window and put a bead of Parbond over the rubber seal that sits between the glass and the aluminum. Is that not enough or did I not use the correct sealant? Quite a bit of water came in from all three vista views.

You may have to seal around the rivets. Another spot for leaks is the tv antenna, the roof will rot under it, causing a leak you can never find.

[soldiermedic]

Roof vents are a huge leaker too...keep an eye on them.

[ticki2]

There were two versions of the vistaview . One had an inner pane of plastic , the other had an inner pane of glass . Which did you have?

[adwriter73]

I had the glass inner panes.

Also, I have a new roof antenna and roof vents. I guess I will check them too, but I put a ton of Vulkem on those including covering the screw heads. I really think it's the vista views. They are definitely leaking as they were wet on the inside. Should I use Vulkem to seal the instead of Parbond?

[soldiermedic]

Originally Posted by adwriter73

I had the glass inner panes.

Also, I have a new roof antenna and roof vents. I guess I will check them too, but I put a ton of Vulkem on those including covering the screw heads. I really think it's the vista views. They are definitely leaking as they were wet on the inside. Should I use Vulkem to seal the instead of Parbond?

Vulkem or sikaflex 220..Parbond really deteriorates from UV expose faster.

Steve

[Wsmith]

Make sure where you sealed over the rubber that you are covering the crack between the rubber and the aluminum. I spent a few hours today re glazing an insulated glass vista view. My rubber strip was starting to fail so I added a tempered laminated glass to the unit and discarded the gasket and used 1/8" setting blocks to position the glass in the frame I also put quite a bit of caulk in the channel before sliding the glass in. I had rusted screws in the splines holding the two aluminum halves together, they were so bad I couldn't tell they were screws so that tells me I was getting water into the window frame channel which caused the panel to fail.
After I rivet the frame back in tomorrow I intend to inspect the other rubber gaskets and make sure they are still doing their job. Twenty six years is a long time for a gasket material to be out in the weather and still preform as designed.

Good luck finding your problem.

Wes

[Wsmith]

Originally Posted by adwriter73

I had the glass inner panes.

Also, I have a new roof antenna and roof vents. I guess I will check them too, but I put a ton of Vulkem on those including covering the screw heads. I really think it's the vista views. They are definitely leaking as they were wet on the inside. Should I use Vulkem to seal the instead of Parbond?

If you have water between the glass you have a failed insulated panel. It will start to really look nasty before long. It can be fixed if you find a insulated glass company that carries swizzle spacers. That is DOT Glass so if you don't want to buy a $350.00 piece of glass don't let it get to bad or you won't be able to clean it up to rebuild.
Wes

[adwriter73]

Originally Posted by Wsmith

If you have water between the glass you have a failed insulated panel. It will start to really look nasty before long. It can be fixed if you find a insulated glass company that carries swizzle spacers. That is DOT Glass so if you don't want to buy a $350.00 piece of glass don't let it get to bad or you won't be able to clean it up to rebuild.
Wes

That's the thing. The insulated glass DID fail, so i broke the inner pane out. Now there is nothing but the outer pane in place. But...would not having an inner pane cause leaks? I would prefer to just leave it a single pane and seal the outside only. But at this point, I'll do whatever I need to to make this thing stop leaking.

[Wsmith]

It won't work like that you have got to fill the channel up with something to pressure the glass to the outside flange. I had intended on re insulating mine but It was just as cheap to have them do it than me buy the swizzle. It was $15. to have the glass put back together after I cleaned it up for them.
You may be able to take that gasket out and caulk the glass to the outside frame and have some blocking to hold it in place until the caulk sets. Or you can take that glass to someone that can temper glass and have a new inside panel made. The spacer I used was 1/4".

I could send you some double sided foam glazing tape its 1/16:" you can put it on the outside flange and then place the glass up against it. It will hold the glass and then you can caulk the outside. You would need to put setting blocks under the glass. I have some of those also.

Wes

[wahoonc]

Sounds like you have the same Vista Views I do. I broke the inner pane, cleaned everything up and reset the outer pane into a bed of Vulkem. Then wedged the glass until the caulk set up. IIRC I used some 3/8" water line forced against the back of the glass and the frame where the old glass used to set.

Aaron

[Wsmith]

Originally Posted by adwriter73

That's the thing. The insulated glass DID fail, so i broke the inner pane out. Now there is nothing but the outer pane in place. But...would not having an inner pane cause leaks? I would prefer to just leave it a single pane and seal the outside only. But at this point, I'll do whatever I need to to make this thing stop leaking.

I used to own a Four Season Greenhouse Franchise and have known the owner of the one in Dallas from several years. He can also let you have some glazing tape and setting blocks. Clean glass and aluminum with alcohol before caulking. I would probably install the glass with professional Silicone GE 1200, or Dow Corning 732. You are depending on that sealer to hold the glass in the frame. It is very strong between two objects but will tear and fail if it is joined to a third plane. There sealers will probably be $12-15 dollars a tube. This is one of the only good application places for silicone on an Airstream.

Product Information GE 1200 Series Construction Silicone Sealant - Aluminum | SCS1209

[Wsmith]

Originally Posted by wahoonc

Sounds like you have the same Vista Views I do. I broke the inner pane, cleaned everything up and reset the outer pane into a bed of Vulkem. Then wedged the glass until the caulk set up. IIRC I used some 3/8" water line forced against the back of the glass and the frame where the old glass used to set.

Aaron

I just couldn't see destroying an insulated glass panel when I could repair it for around $20.00 plus I think will be 52 olympic rivets. It was a job splitting the unit apart to get the glass out. But now I know how the unit is put together,

[wahoonc]

Originally Posted by Wsmith

I just couldn't see destroying an insulated glass panel when I could repair it for around $20.00 plus I think will be 52 olympic rivets. It was a job splitting the unit apart to get the glass out. But now I know how the unit is put together,

At the time it was done it was my only choice. I attempted to locate someone to rebuild the units. I removed one and took it to every glass company in town and no one wanted to touch them.

Apparently the OP has already broken out his inner pane, if that is the case he might as well use the proven method for resealing them.

Aaron

[mello mike]

Aaron hit on an important point. You want to make sure that the vista view window glass is sealed where the glass meets the frame with a bead of vulkem. My windows leaked bad until I did that.

The pic shows how I went about doing it with the use of painters tape. Makes things a lot easier and less messy.

[ticki2]

As has been mentioned above you have to make up the space in the aluminum channel that the inner glass and gasket took up . I completely removed the old rubber gasket and caulking and thoroughly cleaned the channel with alcohol . Then went to local glass shop and bought a tube of caulk that they use for windshields and put a bead around the edge of the glass before pushing it to the outter portion of the channel . Then put a continuous rubber spacer on the inner portion of the channel to hold the glass tight to the outside . IIRC the spacer needed to be 9/16" wide . Leave this spacer in or heat and vibration will allow the glass to sagg and loose it's seal.

[adwriter73]

Mello Mike,
It looks like you did not remove the glass, correct? You just taped off the glass and frame so the vulkem would only cover the sealed area. That is what I'd like to do. Removing the outer pane entirely makes me nervous. How is this done? Is it held in place by the old sealant if the inner pane is no longer there? If that is true, then I guess you just need to apply the right amount of pressure to "pop" it loose?

[mello mike]

Originally Posted by adwriter73

Mello Mike,
It looks like you did not remove the glass, correct? You just taped off the glass and frame so the vulkem would only cover the sealed area. That is what I'd like to do. Removing the outer pane entirely makes me nervous. How is this done? Is it held in place by the old sealant if the inner pane is no longer there? If that is true, then I guess you just need to apply the right amount of pressure to "pop" it loose?

This is correct. I didn't remove the glass. I didn't need to. My glass looked good.

[Bowmans]

Originally Posted by ticki2

As has been mentioned above you have to make up the space in the aluminum channel that the inner glass and gasket took up . I completely removed the old rubber gasket and caulking and thoroughly cleaned the channel with alcohol . Then went to local glass shop and bought a tube of caulk that they use for windshields and put a bead around the edge of the glass before pushing it to the outter portion of the channel . Then put a continuous rubber spacer on the inner portion of the channel to hold the glass tight to the outside . IIRC the spacer needed to be 9/16" wide . Leave this spacer in or heat and vibration will allow the glass to sagg and loose it's seal.

We also had the dual glass panes. We did exactly as ticki2 did on the 4 VV windows and the 2 wing windows. We used Vulkem (trempro 635) as the sealer and bought the rubber gasket that Can-Am in Canada sells to fit the gap where the inside pane of glass and space was.

My first try, I left the old rubber gasket on the outside pane of the first one I broke out and just sealed around it. The next day, we had a water pool inside. You really need to remove the old rubber seal for water not to wick in around it.

It has been 2 1/2 years now since we did that and none of them are leaking. I kind of documented the process in our blog but others have done and much better job.

Vista Views

Wing windows

[Gosman]

Qustion all---- how does one get the foging out of the windows that are in between the glass ?
Thanks All