Urgency about saggy black gaskets?

[Jenniflow]

I'm trying to decide how worried I should be if I leave my '82 Limited in Baja outside over the summer (rainy, humid season) with both the weird brown ]stuff and these sagging black gaskets, or whatever they are. They appear to be between the window panes, not around them which is why I'm not sure they're called gaskets. I've been reading here about other window repairs and I'm a little confused about this so I thought I better ask.



I don't see any sign of water leakage inside or outside the trailer. On the other hand, it's been stored mostly inside for nine years. Will it be a mess when I return if I do nothing?

And if I have to do something immediately, what's the minimum I can do?

Any thoughts, most appreciated!

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by Jenniflow

I'm trying to decide how worried I should be if I leave my '82 Limited in Baja outside over the summer (rainy, humid season) with both the weird brown ]stuff and these sagging black gaskets, or whatever they are. They appear to be between the window panes, not around them which is why I'm not sure they're called gaskets. I've been reading here about other window repairs and I'm a little confused about this so I thought I better ask.



I don't see any sign of water leakage inside or outside the trailer. On the other hand, it's been stored mostly inside for nine years. Will it be a mess when I return if I do nothing?

And if I have to do something immediately, what's the minimum I can do?

Any thoughts, most appreciated!

That gasket seperates the 2 pieces of glass in the doubled pane windows.

What you see is basically why Airstream quit using them.

You can, sometimes, remove the wondow, take it apart, and replaced the gray gasket with something else.

But, that something else creates the problem of "where" can I buy it.

I cannot help you with that.

Andy

[perryg114]

I have one that looks like that but only on the hotdog shaped windows like yours.

Perry

[Jenniflow]

Hmmmm. Well, as long as there's no active leak, I'm not going to get my knickers in a twist about it. At least not now. The heat down here can be great, so I'm guessing that's the cause. It hasn't been out in the weather until this next season, so I'll just wait to see what we've got.

Thanks!

[Jenniflow]

Andy, if I do take the whole assembly out - the two pieces of glass and the plastic frame - is there another window that I can replace the whole thing with? I have four vista windows that have this affliction. Interestingly, they are all the ones on the bottom. The three on the top are fine.

[perryg114]

These windows are what they call stack windows. I have not had time to investigate. If you remove the plastic trim on the inside, you should be able to see how the frame for the hotdog window is attached to the big frame that has the hotdog window and the opening window above it. It is not riveted in. It maybe glued in. You would have to remove the window from the frame to fix it.

Some folks have broken the inner pane and removed the gasket and then shim the outer window so it won't fall out. It is a real pain not matter what.

Perry

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by Jenniflow

Andy, if I do take the whole assembly out - the two pieces of glass and the plastic frame - is there another window that I can replace the whole thing with? I have four vista windows that have this affliction. Interestingly, they are all the ones on the bottom. The three on the top are fine.

Replacement single pane flat stack windows are available.

Replacement single pane curved vista view windows are also available.

Andy

[Jenniflow]

Thanks, that's good news. So, if I attempt to break the inner window and break more than that, there's a back-up plan. Now, if I can just remember which windows have which names ...

[perryg114]

Vista Views are the ones at the top. Stacks are the ones below the big windows that open. Evidently the vista's are curved and not flat. If you don't know how to rivet you don't want to be replacing windows.

Perry

[Jenniflow]

Thanks, Perry, for that clarification about the windows and I think you're probably right: I'm not the person to be doing anything even close to this kind of work. I guess it's a long shot that I'll get this trailer within reach of someone who knows what they're doing, but I'll keep an eye out, just the same.

[perryg114]

If you cut the lip off the gray gaskets and seal them with Trempro-635 it will keep more water from getting in there. I think the water is what causes the gaskets to degrade and also water gets between the panes. If you can keep water out of those gasket areas, your problems won't get worse.

Perry

[mariusg78]

There are threads on how to break the inner pane and reseal. I did it on my vistas and it worked great and they looked great. The vistas cost about $1000 each to replace and they are only single pane.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Airstream Forums mobile app

[Jenniflow]

Very glad to hear that, Mariusg78. Also, I'm not entirely sure that the damage was done by water. This thing has been stored all during the rainy seasons for 32 years inside a concrete warehouse with a metal roof in southern Baja. It gets extremely hot here, to the point where elastic in your underwear fails, not usually while you're wearing it, but over the course of a summer just sitting in your drawer. I suspect that these gaskets melted. I don't see any sign of water damage anywhere, except for minor things that look attributable to condensation. So I'm hoping that if I keep the outside sealed that these will just look ugly and not actually risk the body integrity of the trailer, while I'm waiting to get to them.

I'll be relieved to see this trailer intact after the summer because the water is warm in the Sea of Cortez this year which is a key factor in the manufacture of hurricanes. And you know how hurricanes feel about trailers.