Window Gasket Placement

[youngpeck]

Greetings!

I'd like to ask all you good folks for advice on my window gasket installation on my '76 Caravanner. The question is just how close to the outer trim the gasket should sit. The left-hand picture shows my typical installation, with the "D" gasket rounding the corner. I attempted to line the gasket up against the inner rail (for lack of a better word) as I installed it. Ended up looking pretty good, I thought, and all windows did well during the winter here in Salt Lake City.

But during a recent prolonged rainstorm I noticed that, from the inside of several of the closed windows, moisture was wicking up the surface of the gaskets on the inside of the (closed) windows and eventually dripping into the channel there (where the latches reside--see bottom photo).

The middle photo shows a bottom left-hand corner of a typical window. Note that the gasket on the bottom does not reach the edge of the outer "sill," at the bottom, and this is the critical issue. Should said gasket reach all the way to the sill, especially at the bottom, to cover the gap there? The water does collect on that sill. Should I be taking steps to stop water from collecting there? The advice I've gotten from one or two "experts" is to apply a bead of caulk at the bottom, along the sill, to prevent water from collecting there. Or do I put on a new gasket, most likely with a different profile to reach out further?

The old gaskets did, in fact, reach out further and seemed to cover these gaps. But they were a different profile. Also, I did not apply spray silicone (which I will do now) and, with the water-repelling qualities of silicone spray, is it possible that this would prevent the water from wicking up the surface of the gaskets where they meet the inside trim?

Any thoughts or comments would be most appreciated. Thanks much.

YoungPeck

[timzog]

My gaskets do compress down to fill that gap and seem to provide a seal that prevents water from getting to the sill. I don't have a picture, but I'll check it out this evening. I haven't had any issues with leaks at the windows. I just got back from a trip to Southern UT and we had some condensation issues when it got cold at night, but it wasn't related to the window gasket. The great thing about UT is that the sun came out and the condensation disappeared