IdahoDoug

Thanks for the kind words! On the other windows - absolutely not. We are blessed with the Sunrader that ALL other windows are automotive grade glass, which is impervious to UV damage and why they are crystal clear after 42 years. Other RVs used acrylic windows and they'd be in poor shape. I'm pulling them all off fairly soon as I am pulling the wall paneling down and replacing it with the same mahogany I used on the entire ceiling. They'll go back on with fresh seals (just between frame and body), and I'm all ears if anyone has successfully used something instead of the original butyl tape. I bought a caulk product from the same folks who make the amazing self leveling roof vent sealant but have not decided vs butyl, yet. Ct - yes, once I get the right wraparound window to its final shape and install it, things will be back on track and hopefully happen quickly. With the unit watertight again, I can easily heat it through the winter and work on the interior in comfort. I'll move it to a winter spot closer to the house as well. My target is to have it ready for late spring camping - end of May. The list of tasks is pages and pages long, the diagrams of various layouts and interior spaces is also pages. Next is remove wall paneling, replace the floor, then new wall insulation and paneling, then the floor. This will actually be quite tedious as I'm going to have to install "hard points" all over behind the paneling for various features I have in mind, plus prewire for these features, and recently realized my new school bus grade tail lights (bright!) mean I have to install them with the paneling out when I have access for any fiberglass work to reshape the light openings. Lots to do!

SUCCESS! I removed the braces holding the left window in while it cured. Total cure time will end tomorrow (Thurs) evening at 3 days, though it's long been cured enough it's not going anywhere. I'm really pleased. In the pictures below it looks terrible cosmetically right now, but if you zoom in you can see the actual edge of the window is neat and straight. I'm applying an inch wide black border around the window which will hide the glue edge, and of course all the body will be scraped clean of excess and it will be painted. Curious how strong it is, I pulled on it. Then pulled hard. Followed by really, really hard. No movement. So I hung my entire body weight off it, with my fingers gripping the top edge. 180lbs and zero movement. I pounded hard on it with the heel of my fist and it feels SOLID and like it would stop a pretty impressive piece of road debris at road speed. Two layers of this polycarbonate will stop a small caliber bullet. Super happy with this result. Here's a few pictures: And here's a picture to remind you all that the Chinese are still sending us junk. You will recall I bought 1/8" rubber to thicken the edge of the window holes as a last ditch effort to get the moldings and acrylic windows to work about 6 months ago. It was from Amazon and when I pulled it off today, here's what it looks like. Pure junk - not even been exposed to UV and it just broke down to absolute trash. I'd have been pretty pissed if the acrylic windows had gone in, only to have this stuff disintegrate and leak. Dodged a bullet here:

Will post up when the process is complete. Because the glue can be seen through the window, it will be sloppy looking. I'll be covering the edges with radiused trim of black 3M wrap material. This will give it a neat appearance, and is why your automobile's rear and front windows have black patterns on them also - covers the glue beneath. It also shields the glue from UV, which weakens it over time. I sprung for the pricey UV resistant version, but the 3M material will extend it's life just the same.

Alright. Cooking with gas now! Left window is glued in place. It will cure for 3 days now, and then I'll see what we've got. It was a fiasco as all these things are. The saving grace was the long working time - 45 minutes. Special primer goes on the coach wall - sloppy is OK as it's getting painted - and on the window itself after both surfaces are sanded and degreased. Then caulk a tall fin of the glue. I used pieces of "L" bracket held on with 3M adhesive tape as guides so we could simply lay the window on these little shelves and push it into final position. The wood holds some tension on to be sure the copper nubs are bottomed out on the fiberglas. I had other techniques in mind to secure it without drilling and screwing these in, but got uneasy and figured I should have a serious plan if it all went pear shaped. It did. I needed to blast these screws into the predrilled holes. If memory serves, the fit is better on the right window, so I should have less of a chinese fire drill on my hands for it next week. That's a heat lamp in position as it's evening and I'll leave that going for a few days to help cure things despite night time temps of 50 - the bottom edge of it's cure temp.

Wow, you should post a "before" picture, but your description certainly gives it the flavor of what aged plastic looked like. Nice job!

Well, of course only two tubes showed up. They're trying to get a store in the PNW to grab one off their shelf and overnight it. At least they refunded my $22 shipping upgrade for 2 day shipping. I put these small copper "nubs" in the path of where the glue will be laid down, as the coach wall is so uneven I was concerned. The glue mfr Sitka wants a minimum of 5mm tall bead, as the polycarbonate has a higher coefficient of expansion than glass. With the PC shrinking/growing more, the final bead height is critical to allowing for that movement. This allows me to clamp the new window against the body, and maintains that gap. They are/were solid copper rivets I ground down to the proper height. And yes, if you grind and then measure too quickly with plastic calipers, you will melt the edges and need to buy a new one. A circle of double sided 3M foam on the back attaches them to the window: Then, I trial fit the window with the nubs to the coach and discovered the little center piece of coach wall between the wraparound windows was warped to a degree it was ridiculous. This explained why almost all the Sunraders wraparounds (including mine) have a "bowed outward" look to their old windows. This remaining little piece simply is too weak to support things: So, I used a scrap of thick aluminum plate and epoxy to reinforce it and make it flat. This will help make my installed bead of window glue an accurate final height, and the coach front will look properly flat and square. Plus the thick polycarbonate window upgrade means the front of the cabover can handle a LOT more impact, and this space between the windows was a weak point that is now as strong as the rest of the face:

Thanks for the link. I reached out and they charge $1500 to install a pair of new windows with new seals at their place in Oregon. Obviously makes sense replacing them as a pair as anyone thinking of replacing just one would probably regret the cosmetics of leaving a 42 year old faded window in place. So, the glue arrived and it was mislabeled. They sent the wrong color labeled black, but actually white. I returned them and ordered it from West Marine. Should be here tomorrow. And of course it's supposed to rain for two days, then we leave for Canada for the weekend camping in our other vehicle. Sheesh. I can't seem to catch a break with this project. Once these windows are installed, I'm looking forward to moving it along quickly.

The left wraparound window is now done in terms of shaping and bending. Primer arrived for the polycarbonate, still waiting for the proper adhesive. Plan is to literally fully complete and glue in the left one, then size and orient the right one to match. Neither the cut holes from the factory are the same, nor are the two roughed (cut appx to size, then bent) windows identical. So best to mount one, then do the final trim of the other to match it in terms of being parallel, meeting in the middle, etc. This is necessary as they are a "floating" mount and having one in place then gives the install goal of matching it with the other as to lines, etc. Here is the left window and behind it you can see the right window in it's rough form. It's necessary to bend it as an oversize piece so you can have some room for error on exactly how the bend goes, and then trim to final shape. Recall the front surface is leaned rearward, so it's not just a simple 90 degree bend. Blue tape masked off the edges where the glue will be applied. It's been sanded with 60 grit, then 150 grit to prep for the primer. The company says max adhesion for the primer is achieved with sanding.

Cool exterior lines!

Well, the window final trimming is underway, but the glue for me to test is a week off. So I disassembled the new to me 6 bolt full floater that will go under the rig to check the bearings and replace things. The axle has 72k on it, and the bearings looked like new. This is typical for Toyota's rear axles which are overbuilt (the motorhome issues were caused not by Toyota, but by the motorhome makers cheaping out and ordering the semi-floater axles). If you've never repacked yours and want to do it, here's a quick primer: Loosen those 6 12mm nuts, but don't remove them - unscrew them until the washer is even with the tip of the stud they're on. Tap directly on the conical washers, which will be stuck in their seats until they pop out with a springy pop. That's why you left the nuts on - so you are not swearing and trying to find them in some dark corner of your shop. You can also pound briskly on the axle flange close to the stuck washers and after about 20 hits they will come off. The method I show above does not always work. For the first time ever, I distorted 2 of my conical washers and they're $6 apiece and will arrive tomorrow. These look to be undisturbed for 42 years, and when I switched back to pounding with a brass hammer, the rest came off just fine at about 20 hits. $24 lesson... Pull the axle out (you should have drained the diff, also, or it will come pouring out). Note the brown paper washer you'll also need to have on hand. Super cheap. Remove the two phillips screws in the wheel bearing retainer. The screws are soft and an impact gun helps. I keep a couple screws on hand as I've been maintaining two of these axles for a combined 540,000 miles now (two 80 series Toyota LandCruisers - they sometimes start to strip. Here's the Toyota tool (cheap) to unscrew the now unlocked bearing retainer. the massive, over engineered bearing retainer. Outer bearing just falls out when you pull the entire hub away from the axle (on newspaper) Now pull the entire hub off. In the end of the axle tube is the tiny black rubber axle seal. Use a seal puller on the hub to pull that inner wheel bearing seal and then pull out the inner bearings. Repack bearings, new axle and inner wheel bearing seal and reassemble. Do NOT overtorque those 6 12mm nuts on the tapered split washers. 26 lbs-ft no oil on threads. I ordered new shoes and new wheel cylinders (hydraulic pistons that move the drums) even though both looked good. Going down a mountain pass wondering if those 42 year old shoes are about to delaminate from their base, or if a cylinder seal is about to blow is not how I roll - especially since I am likely to be the heaviest Sunrader in history when I'm finished. Super cheap. Drums measured well within spec, and original Toyota drums are higher quality than almost anything you'll find on the market today. The drum and hub must weigh nearly 50lbs - incredible when I think of my Cruisers with their rear discs and hub that I USED to think were heavy...

Well, the sanded sample also failed in my opinion. Again, I'm no authority on how hard it should be to pull apart the samples, but here's what I learned: Sanded polycarbonate sample - definite increase in adhesion, but my judgement is it's not enough. Glass sample - better adhesion than the plain polycarbonate, but I was kind of disappointed it was not an order of magnitude better. I prepped the glass with rubbing alcohol as recommended, and this Sika P2G is designed specifically for glass with no need to prime it. And my brain cannot process how an adhesive works markedly better on glass (perfectly smooth) than on polycarbonate. Thus, proving the reason they have engineers for this stuff. Sunrader outside wall sample - holy toledo! It's on there and I cannot even come CLOSE to peeling it off with all my strength. It won't rip, either. I will have to use a razor blade and then sandpaper to get that gumdrop of P2G off there. So at least I know that side of my glueing task is going to work. So, I started all over again. I heard from the Sika automotive products tech staff again today regarding a question on P2G full cure time vs what they call "drive away time (6hrs)" This did not reassure me as in 24 hours, they told me what I'm using is fully cured, so I'm not testing it prematurely at 24 hours and there is no more strength to be gained. Done with that product. Incredibly, I did my umpteenth search on Sika and discovered they have a Marine products array. Why nobody mentioned this when I said "fiberglas to polycarbonate application" is beyond me. And there - yes right there - is a product for bonding polycarbonate windows to boat hulls, which are fiberglas. Of course Amazon and every other fast shipper was out of it, as well as the primer I need to prep the polycarbonate. So, I ordered another $150 worth of adhesives. And I bought a DeWalt electric glue gun for $200 to squirt the adhesive in a tall triangular fin as they spec it. These are going to be the most expensive windows in the Sunrader world, but nobody else will have to spend on all the rabbit holes I went down, so it will end up being a sure thing at a reasonable cost for others. Unfortunately it will be more than a week to get the stuff. So, after I trim the windows, I'll get to work servicing the new axle so at least I'm not killing time. Onward and upward!

Oh, wow - learn something new every day. Did not know there was such a Sunrader-thought I'd seen all the brochures!

Andy, I'm not convinced that's a Sunrader. I have never seen that layout, but more telling is your drawing(s) have an entry door in an end of the structure and Sunraders all have it on the side. That actually looks like a trailer, as there's no indication of the overcab sleeper all Sunraders have.

Well, I did a bonding experiment overnight with Sika's premium S2G product for mounting glass in car bodies. It was a fail, I think. I say I think because I judged that on how easily I could peel it apart. However, it may be since you can't peel a stiff window off a stiff steel body that was an unfair test. Nevertheless, I'm repeating it with the same polycarbonate samples, this time with a sanded area for better grip. I also put some on the Sunrader's fiberglas and another sample on a piece of ordinary glass, which it's designed for. If I can easily peel it off the glass (which it's made for) in the same fashion, then I guess my peeling it off polycarb does not mean it failed, just I subjected it to pealing forces which is impossible. Hmmm. Results coming.

Thanks - very kind of you to say. I'm sad this project got on hold for so long, as I expected to have a couple thousand miles on it by the end of summer so we could decide if this winter it will get lifted and 4WD. I just pulled the liners off the polycarbonate windows. I'm very pleased with the results. Only a bit of distortion in the very center of the curve where we had to use an aluminum beam to hold the hot material flat. Overall, it's WAY clearer than the plexiglas was, even though it's twice as thick. I'm liking my decision to go with clear, as our interests in the outdoors involve watching wildlife and such. Here you can see the only distortion is a band about 3/4 inch wide and I purposely lined it up with a tree and got the phone close to show it. At normal "look out the window at the moose" distances, it's a non issue: