| RE-GLAZING |
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| To seal the window frame and rubber together we would need to use the roll of 25mm wide mastic, we First tried to lay the mastic inside the rubber seal but this did not work so we decided to place the sealant on the frame first, this in itself was easier but still tricky. |
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| This next stage took the two of us, I held the rubber seal out of the way and fed it slowly to Annette and at the same time removed the paper protection layer off the mastic. Starting at the centre bottom part of the frame Annette had to feed the rubber seal slowly, keeping it open as wide as possible, ensuring the rubber sealed well with the frame and mastic. once both the rubber and the mastic came in contact with each other they stuck fast and you didn't get a second chance. once the rubber was in place we had a slight overhang of about an eighth of an inch, this is because of the shorter distance the rubber traveled due to the mastic, |
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| So using an old rolling pin on the seal we could squeeze the mastic and rubber tighter into the frame and ensure that the rubber went right into the corners and the rubber overhang had now vanished. |
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| Once the rubber was seated we could finally staple the rubber into place |
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| Its a very slow and tedious job that hurts your figures but its well worth the effort. Now that all the windows had been resealed it was time to start fitting the glass units. |
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| First job was to fit the right hand side window , by sliding the glass ( ok the plastic unit) into position and lock it off with the grub screw. now with a little pressure on the window you could mark out where the clasp needed to be screwed down. once that was fitted it was a case of repeating the process for the side clasps. We then repeated the whole process on the left hand side window |
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| Fitting the piston window retainers is much easier when two people work on it. First as I held the window in position Annette marked out the the first of two measurements needed , this was with the piston closed, by marking a small line at the top and bottom of where the bracket sits on the frame provided the correct piston position. We could now make the second marking which is the screw placement markings by lining up the two lines made previously and then mark the holes with a pen through the bracket. |
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| once this was done we could fix the piston in place knowing it was going to open and close with ease. |
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| The finished side window. |
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| Turning to the front windows I first had to clean the main window rail with white spirits a rag and one of Annette's short haired pastry brushes ( shhh don't tell her) once the rail was clean I placed the mastic on the rail using the 25mm roll of mastic. |
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| Fitting the main window rail is easy enough but their are a few tricks to doing it right first time round. When screwing the rail in , decide which side you are going to slide the centre window in from. We decided we were fitting the centre window in from the offside so I started to screw the main rail in from the first screw past the centre left of the window frame to the right hand side of the caravan leaving all the screws for the near side out and the protection paper stayed in place on the mastic. The reason for this is if you screw the whole rail in place you can not get the centre window along the rail as the caravan has a slight bevel in the front and the window will jam meaning you would have to take the rail off and break the new seal. We then fitted the offside front window in place and locked it off with the grub screw. Now we carefully slid the centre window into place from the near side and locked it off, then we removed the rest of the sealant paper and screwed in the remaining screws and fitted the nearside front window and locked it off with its grub screw. (HOT TIP: when fitting the screws through the rails and mastic layer first wet the screw in your mouth to stop the mastic turning with the screw) |
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| Now that all three windows are back in place I had to fit the screw protection plastic strip,( HOT TIP: if you are using new plastic its quite flexible and fits with ease but when you are using the old stuff as we were I found if you heat it gently with a heat gun it becomes very flexible again and fits with ease) |
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| Now its back to the window fittings and catches. |
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| RE-GLAZING |
FINISHED |
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