PJ's Camper Van: DIY Window
I often take 3 or more people along on my adventures, so a comfortable, safe back seat seemed like something that would be nice to have. I sourced and installed a sweet black leather Toyota Sienna 2nd row, complete with seat belts. Problem solved, right? Wrong. My climbing buddies didn't mind the lack of windows, but my wife and adult kids refused to ride in the back without a window. As many of you know, at this time, there aren't any Transit specific aftermarket windows available. I considered installing one of the expensive and ill fitting RV windows I've seen around. I also considered buying the OEM glass and trying to install it. But neither of these options would provide a window that could open all the way. After a lot of scheming, and after suffering a fair amount of heckling from friends and family, I built and installed a custom window.
The "glass" is 1/8" abrasion resistant polycarbonate. I made a paper template and my neighborhood Tap Plastics cut it for me from the template. Just in case things go wrong, the window and the cutout are slightly undersized. The top of the window is held by a full length, stainless steel piano hinge mounted into the hollow door with nutserts. The bottom is held with latches mounted onto custom fabricated aluminum angles that are, in turn, mounted to the door with more nutserts. The rim of the cutout is edged with bulb seal. According to the bulb seal manufacture, the ideal is to compress the bulb seal 50%. I was able to do that at the hinge and I was hoping I could get 50% around most of the rest of the rim by adjusting the latch tension. Finally, to make it look a little more factory, I masked and painted a black border on the inside of the polycarbonate.
First the good news: The window looks pretty nice from inside and not so bad from outside (particularly from a distance). It doesn't vibrate/flap at high speeds and it doesn't leak - at least not when the van is sitting still - I tested it with some pretty good blasts from my garden hose.
Now the bad news: The latches don't pull the glass onto the curve of the door in the way I'd hoped. Actually, they do (enough to prevent leaks), but they also cause the front and bottom edge to pop out in an somewhat unsightly way. I have some magnets I could glue on to fix this. Using auto paint for the border was a bad idea. It turns out that there are special paints for polycarbonate. Finally, I'm getting small cracks in the polycarbonate where the hinge and latch hardware was mounted - I guess you can't put this exact type of stress onto 1/8" polycarbonate. I'm thinking I'll try 1/4" polycarbonate and going a little easier with the mounting hardware (don't try to tap threads, use rubber washers, etc.).
I often take 3 or more people along on my adventures, so a comfortable, safe back seat seemed like something that would be nice to have. I sourced and installed a sweet black leather Toyota Sienna 2nd row, complete with seat belts. Problem solved, right? Wrong. My climbing buddies didn't mind the lack of windows, but my wife and adult kids refused to ride in the back without a window. As many of you know, at this time, there aren't any Transit specific aftermarket windows available. I considered installing one of the expensive and ill fitting RV windows I've seen around. I also considered buying the OEM glass and trying to install it. But neither of these options would provide a window that could open all the way. After a lot of scheming, and after suffering a fair amount of heckling from friends and family, I built and installed a custom window.
The "glass" is 1/8" abrasion resistant polycarbonate. I made a paper template and my neighborhood Tap Plastics cut it for me from the template. Just in case things go wrong, the window and the cutout are slightly undersized. The top of the window is held by a full length, stainless steel piano hinge mounted into the hollow door with nutserts. The bottom is held with latches mounted onto custom fabricated aluminum angles that are, in turn, mounted to the door with more nutserts. The rim of the cutout is edged with bulb seal. According to the bulb seal manufacture, the ideal is to compress the bulb seal 50%. I was able to do that at the hinge and I was hoping I could get 50% around most of the rest of the rim by adjusting the latch tension. Finally, to make it look a little more factory, I masked and painted a black border on the inside of the polycarbonate.
First the good news: The window looks pretty nice from inside and not so bad from outside (particularly from a distance). It doesn't vibrate/flap at high speeds and it doesn't leak - at least not when the van is sitting still - I tested it with some pretty good blasts from my garden hose.
Now the bad news: The latches don't pull the glass onto the curve of the door in the way I'd hoped. Actually, they do (enough to prevent leaks), but they also cause the front and bottom edge to pop out in an somewhat unsightly way. I have some magnets I could glue on to fix this. Using auto paint for the border was a bad idea. It turns out that there are special paints for polycarbonate. Finally, I'm getting small cracks in the polycarbonate where the hinge and latch hardware was mounted - I guess you can't put this exact type of stress onto 1/8" polycarbonate. I'm thinking I'll try 1/4" polycarbonate and going a little easier with the mounting hardware (don't try to tap threads, use rubber washers, etc.).
