Can old windows ever be weather tight?

[dcburd]

Greetings: On my 57' PD-4104; the original windows appear to be designed to leak especially with wind damming action while driving through storms. I am not convinced buying a bunch of weather striping would ever really stop the water entry. I don't like a soggy bus. Show me the way to victory bus Guru's. Thanks!     

[TomC]

This is why Peninsula Glass in Wa makes direct replacements that are even in double pane (I believe). They are called Motion Windows for RV's. Well worth the cost.
I have an AMGeneral transit. We replaced with single pane Motion Windows that are single tinted. The bus is so tight, that if I have all windows and vents closed, when the front door is closed it will pop your ears. So I leave the bathroom Fantastic Vent propped open all the time. Good Luck, TomC

[lvmci]

Hi dcburd, if your windows were custom made up and dont fit the opening properly,  would be a reason the glass is leaking, but that would be one of the few reasons the windows would actually be the cause of the leak, almost always its the rubber, old, cracked, not mounted properly, are the most likely the reason and surprisingly, rust. Leaks, misfitting seals, may have corroded the window opening, creating weak, rough, misfitting and sagging spots, sometimes the corrosion builds up and  the rubber weather strip fitting moves and doesn't seal anymore, lvmci...

[Nel]

I called Peninsula Glass once, they want insane amounts of money for their windows, not to mention the insane amount to ship, ouch!
Try skim coating your existing weather stripping with a high quality black silicone sealer, it dries like rubber and looks great if tape off both sides to make a nice clean line

[luvrbus]

I called Peninsula Glass once, they want insane amounts of money for their windows, not to mention the insane amount to ship, ouch!
Try skim coating your existing weather stripping with a high quality black silicone sealer, it dries like rubber and looks great if tape off both sides to make a nice clean line

No they are not cheap I ordered a small bathroom window to match the other Peninsula windows on the bus it was almost 500 bucks,I should have used a round port hole window like LVMCI used in hind sight 

[Oonrahnjay]

Hi dcburd, if your windows were custom made up and dont fit the opening properly,  would be a reason the glass is leaking, but that would be one of the few reasons the windows would actually be the cause of the leak, almost always its the rubber, old, cracked, not mounted properly, are the most likely the reason and surprisingly, rust. Leaks, misfitting seals, may have corroded the window opening, creating weak, rough, misfitting and sagging spots, sometimes the corrosion builds up and  the rubber weather strip fitting doesn't seal, lvmci...  

    Agree with this.  I had some window leaks and was having trouble finding them.  I carefully taped over the joints where the windows slide in the frame to see if that was the trouble; found that it didn't make much difference - water was still leaking pretty badly.  Then I taped over the edge of the window frame to the body side.  On one or two, I found a big difference there so I looked very carefully and could see gaps in the sealer between the frame and the sheet metal.  Where I could see the big gaps, I removed the window frames, reapplied sealer, and reinstalled them.  On the ones where taping the frames made a difference, I removed them and found small areas where the sealer didn't completely cover.  There would be a tiny crack at the edge (usually the upper edge but not always) then you could see where the water would run down a little void, maybe 4-5" in one direction or the other, then zig back the other way, etc. until it finally found a place to drip along the inner edge of the frame into the bus.
     There were places where completely sealing all parts of the window didn't make any difference.  There, I looked at the body frame and roof line.  My bus is built with fiberglass front and rear caps and I found a number of cracks in the metal body joints and the joints between the cap and metal areas.  One was almost big enough to stick my little finger in (I had patched holes and painted about 5 years before and I'm pretty sure they weren't there then).  I did a lot of detailed sealing of body seams, body-to-roof seams, and cap-to-body seams and this made a lot of difference.
    All of these spots seemed to have made water entry areas that looked like they were leaking from windows (obviously, some were and some were not).  You gotta look everywhere around the window and above it.
    Also, I found that in heavy rain, the channels that the sliders move in would fill with water and overflow, causing leaks into the bus.  I cleaned dirt and goo out of the channels (probably a good thing anyway) and noticed that most buses had bigger drain holes to the outside than my bus had.  So I drilled some extra drain holes on the outer lips of the channels and this helped in some places.

[TomC]

Yes Penn Windows are expensive. But-they are probably the best made RV window. When my windows came for the truck (11) they were custom crated and not one was damaged. I highly recommend them. Good Luck, TomC

[Lin]

I have found this stuff to work in some cases,


http://www.captaintolley.com/

[lostagain]

My bus has Peninsula windows and they leak. Also one screen doesn't fit well and mosquitoes get in. I don't think they are as good as they should be. They are over-rated.

JC