Adding a window at a rib

[my3sonsdad]

I have 12 & 14 yr old sons...and I was about that age when my father would drag me out in middle of Midwest winters to sit on the cold pavement and hold wrenches in the wheel well (because I fit in there) while he turned another in the engine compartment of our RV. I didn’t realize at the time how valuable those moments were.

[Belegedhel]

Just recalling the early part of this thread, where the concern was about the impact of cutting a rib. The picture below is from my local Craigslist--an extreme case proof that you can compromise the body with too much of a "hole." Note the drooping frame behind the wheels. This is just for fun--not suggesting your project is going to have similar results!

[my3sonsdad]

Fortunately my rib cut is a bit less extreme

[kidjedi]

OMG! What kind of nitwit would think cutting out THAT MUCH of the frame wouldn't have SERIOUS adverse effects? Geeze.

[my3sonsdad]

Didn’t get as far today as i wanted. Rerouting the wiring seemed to take more time than I anticipated.




My plan is drill the rivet holes first to make a dry fit holding the frame in place with cleco’s on the corners; do a final surface prep; attach the window frame with butyl tape and cleco’s all around; buck rivet the frame; apply a generous coating of sikaflex on the rivets from the inside and the around the exterior seam.

Anything I’m missing? Is it overkill to put sikaflex around each hole/rivet as it’s riveted?

[kidjedi]

Originally Posted by my3sonsdad

Anything I’m missing? Is it overkill to put sikaflex around each hole/rivet as it’s riveted?

It's overkill, but I still do it on every rivet. It gets messy, but knowing I did it satisfies my OCD.


Everything else sounds like you're doing it right.


One thing I noticed (so for future endeavors)... it looks like you're using solid wire (normal "house construction" 12/2). You really want to use stranded; it takes the road vibration better and is less likely to fail. They don't stock it at the big box stores, but it's easy enough to order from there and it's about the same price. I get the kind already in conduit.

[my3sonsdad]

I went with the same 12/2 that was originally there, but I’ll keep the stranded in mind for future. I did twist them at the connectors thinking that might hold up better.

It wasn’t supposed to rain this week but suddenly storms showed up in the forecast so I tried to make better progress today.

[HiHoAgRV]

Very nice job!

[my3sonsdad]

Thank you!

Hopefully the rains stop tomorrow so I can rivet the window frame over the weekend.

[my3sonsdad]

Sometimes it’s the obvious things that slow you down.
1) forgot to order a rivet set with the ATS rivet gun
2) I had been trying to avoid taking down the upper & lower interior skins which would mean taking off 2-3 sets of overhead cabinets and at least 1, most likely 2 partitions, as well as the hallway curtain partition assemblies. Unfortunately it appears I’m going to need to remove those skins in order to getting a bucking bar on the upper and lower window frame rivets. There are also horizontal pieces of angle aluminum that slide and have nothing riveted to them that may need to come out to fit a bucking bar in there.