Fitting side windows, any advice?

[2Smoke]

First off, hello all! My name is Paul and I live on Anglesey, North Wales. I own an 'L' registered LWB 2.5 transit that I use for transporting bikes around, going to parties in and as a daily vehicle.

Anyway, There is a crewcab behind the front seats, with carpet and a 3 seat setup. I have just stripped a transit minibus of its windows, interior lights etc to fit to mine.

Has anyone here fitted windows to their van before? The windows I have are the type that are usually fitted to these vans, one for the sliding door and one opposite. Could anyone supply me with the dimensions of the hole I need to cut? I could guess it by tracing round the window with it against the door but would rather do it properly!

Thanks in advance!
Paul

[phil g]

Hi paul and welcome, do you still have access to the bus you striped if you have i would make a template from it -you only get one chance

[Gunslinger]

i assume the side of your van that you are going to cut out is single skin .... sorry to suggest this after you already have your windows etc, but you might have wanted to consider what i did with my mk2 ... robbed the windows out of an LDV 400 ... as these have 2 piece frames fastened around the glass, and then those frames complete with installed glass are riveted into the van, much easier to mark up and cut !!

ok, back to your problem, did you take more windows than you needed from the minibus ?? .... if yes then get a rubber of the same size from your spares, and cut it in half .... this will give you a profile view of it, then use the glass as a template and draw around it, then measure the thickness of the rubber section that would be between metal and glass, this will give you a guide as to how much outside of the glass template line to cut,

as for cutting, be careful not to over heat the metal and cause it to warp, use the thinnest cutting discs you can get for your grinder (preferably 0.8 or 1.0mm stainless steel cutting discs) if your going to use an air saw, be careful it doesn't snag, an air nibbler might not be the obvious choice for cutting out a window, but might actually make a neat job of it, or if you have someone with a plasma cutter then that is an opinion, however test that as i am not sure how clean a finish this will produce

if your sacred, do this first on a spare piece of steel and then when you have it right use that as a template

[2Smoke]

i assume the side of your van that you are going to cut out is single skin .... sorry to suggest this after you already have your windows etc, but you might have wanted to consider what i did with my mk2 ... robbed the windows out of an LDV 400 ... as these have 2 piece frames fastened around the glass, and then those frames complete with installed glass are riveted into the van, much easier to mark up and cut !!

ok, back to your problem, did you take more windows than you needed from the minibus ?? .... if yes then get a rubber of the same size from your spares, and cut it in half .... this will give you a profile view of it, then use the glass as a template and draw around it, then measure the thickness of the rubber section that would be between metal and glass, this will give you a guide as to how much outside of the glass template line to cut,

as for cutting, be careful not to over heat the metal and cause it to warp, use the thinnest cutting discs you can get for your grinder (preferably 0.8 or 1.0mm stainless steel cutting discs) if your going to use an air saw, be careful it doesn't snag, an air nibbler might not be the obvious choice for cutting out a window, but might actually make a neat job of it, or if you have someone with a plasma cutter then that is an opinion, however test that as i am not sure how clean a finish this will produce

if your sacred, do this first on a spare piece of steel and then when you have it right use that as a template

Thanks, no the van got scrapped the same day!

GS, the seal has one end cut anyway so you have answered the Q for me, all I need to do is measure the gap. Thanks!

Paul

[intimatewipe]

Hi Paul,got very limited knowledge but this might help.Recently bought two windows for my swb tranny,lost my nerve so I asked a local window fitter(vehicle) to do it,it took him about 2 and a half hours for both.He used a punch all round the inside to get an outline outside then just cut from the outside using a jigsaw,he simply used the double skin edge on the inside for a measurement and the windows where supplied by "marine and leisure windows" so they weren't even ford ones.He charged 40 pounds a window,did one behind the drivers seat(double) and one full size back door(high top).I been told that I could have got them done for 30 pounds each if I'd looked around.Next time I'll do it myself,it looked
do'able
good luck with it mate

[Neil]

vandalism

[Gunslinger]

LMAO ... don't mind Neil .... he gets a nervous twitch when some one mentions wind*ws

that reminds me ... must send that conservatory salesman around to your place

[FredTransit]

LMAO ... don't mind Neil .... he gets a nervous twitch when some one mentions wind*ws

that reminds me ... must send that conservatory salesman around to your place

We knew that was going to happen didn't we GS?

[2Smoke]

Thanks everyone! I'll have a go at it this week once I get a chance. Not worried about tackling it myself!

Cheers!
Paul

[2Smoke]

Christ, I aint attempting that again!! Got it all in but took a lot longer than planned and it leaks

[Valsheda]

DID YOU PUMP PLENTY OF SEALER IN WHEN YOU FITTED IT ?????

[sidspop]

if your sacred, do this first on a spare piece of steel

Is this a stained glass window? LOL

[2Smoke]

DID YOU PUMP PLENTY OF SEALER IN WHEN YOU FITTED IT ?????

Nah mate but judging by the amount of water in the footstep I should have!

[Valsheda]

I THINK SEALER IS THE WAY FORWARD THEN

[Gunslinger]

oops

which part gave you the biggest problem ?
and what do you think went wrong and caused it to leak ?