Semi Truck Windshield Repair and Replacement

Our motorhome windows were in a bad way. There were so many rust holes in the window frames that I was surprised that was not whistling like a kettle as I was driving up the road. As for the window seals, they were definitely well past their use by date. They were still holding the windows in. But they were letting in the rain also.

Drying The Old Girl Out

To continue with the renovations on our motorhome I was going to have to come up with a solution to stop the water getting in through the leaky window seals and rust holes. I could not install any of the replacement furniture until the interior of our motorhome was watertight. Some research came up with  a supplier of replacement window seal to suit but at $25 per metre and three metres per window it was going to cost around $1000 before I even took the cost of all the rust repairs into account.The other alternative was to remove the old bus style windows and modify the openings to fit new motorhome windows or caravan windows depending on what was available. This was the approach that I decided to take.

The first step in the process was to run my ideas past an automotive engineer to make sure that I was not going to  be breaking any safety standards . After getting the all clear I took a window out to determine how bad the rust was underneath the surface so that I could work out how much of the wall framing would need to be rebuilt I was pleasantly surprised to find that the rust was only in the outer layer and there was a good strong surface to weld to underneath. The job was looking a lot easier than I had first thought. All I had to do was:

• Remove the old windows
• Cut out the rusted sections where the new window frames were to be welded in
• Find some motorhome windows to fit
• Weld up new window frames to fit the windows out of box section
• Cut out any window pillars that are in the way
• Weld the new frames into the bus
• Neutralise the remaining rust
• Sheet over the new frames and old window openings
• Cut the holes and install the new windows

The search  to find some suitable windows that would fit the window opening height and wall thickness of  50mm. eventually led me to who carry a range of caravan windows that suited what I was going to do. I placed an order for the windows and three weeks later after a change of window sizes due a mix up at there end I had my new windows.

Jumping forward a month. After four continually wet weeks I have completed most of the work on the windows . Here is a video to show you how it all turned out.

That brings us up to date with where the work is up to at the moment. In the next post I will cover any progress of the motorhome windows and what I am doing to revamp the electrical systems.

Cheers,

Dave

New Life On The Road