Rear Windows

I have been working on the rear windows most recently.

One of the windows had a definite water leak, and the water from that leak is what ruined the street-side rear corner area of the bus.

The first picture shows the damage on the driver's side, and the second one shows how the windows are installed - the glass is held in place with a rubber gasket between the body of the bus and the window glass.  The rubber on two windows is cracked and very brittle.  On the third window, (the drivers side rear window)  the gasket is different than the other two.  It is still pliable, but is a little loose and this is where the water has seeped in.  It is obvious that someone tried to seal it with silicone sealant,  but this is not effective for this application.

I used a chisel to carefully remove the brittle rubber.

The glass all came out without breaking.

The paint on the inside has unstuck from the steel in some places.   Also,  you notice that there are an inside and an outside body panel spot-welded together.   They are not the same height!  This means that part of the body is thinner than in other parts of the window.   I am going to weld a bead along the top inside edge of the outer body panel to make it thicker.   I will grind it down since my welding leaves something to be desired.   I also plan to coat it with epoxy to make it smoother.

Here is another shot of the rear corner before removing anything - a reference for how it goes back together!


So far,  I have welded, ground,  epoxied and sanded the metal clean.  I have primed and painted both the inside and outside.    I removed the aluminum strip from the outside which was below the windows and am polishing it up before re-installing it.   Always lots of cleaning and polishing work available on Retro!

Floor patched

I have patched the big hole in the floor where the water tank drain was!

I bought a MIG welder (seems like a handy thing to have if you own a 50 year old all-steel motorhome)  from Craigslist.  It was a pretty sweet deal including the cart and a gas bottle, and a very slightly used Lincloln 140 welder.

I worked to get the steel patch as close of a match as I could to the hole, it had some pretty good gaps part of the way around, but was pretty tight in some places.

I welded carefully - not running a bead too far at a stretch so that I would not overheat the thin steel and cause it to sag.  In some parts of the circle I was filling a gap of perhaps 3/8 ".

As you can see above, it is pretty lumpy and bumpy at this point, so I got my power grinder out and spent the next hour grinding away metal that it seemed to take mere minutes to put in place - 15 minutes of welding and an hour of grinding!

At this point, the deck is smooth enough to install the wood over,  so I am done grinding.  I painted with some primer to match the rest of the floor.  I also sprayed underneath with some rust-oleum undercoat paint.

I am pretty happy with this patch - it is my first experience welding.  I have signed up for welding classes at the local community college,  I would really like to KNOW what I am doing instead of guessing.

More to follow!