Sooo, I left you last time, having decided that I would take Nina to Malc and Jon to have the frame fixed, then it was just a matter of getting Dave from Five Valleys to come and fit the new windows.
Ok, what happened was......
I took Nina in to Bedford Street Motors that Monday afternoon, must be about three weeks ago now. Left it with the guys, and didnt hear anything until I went to work on the Wednesday morning, happily minding my own business, when I noticed a Renault Master parked across the road, and believe it or not, had a gaping hole in the side, just like Nina ! Slowly, it dawned on me that I was looking at Nina, on the opposite side of Gloucester to where she should be !
Of course, I couldnt help taking the above photo to send to Jon and tease them about using Nina for 'other' duties !
Apparently she was being used to get some new welding gas.
Anyway, I didnt get a clear look as I drove by, but the window frame looked completely white, which is better than the black and brown it was when I dropped her off !
I called Jon and asked if she was now ready to collect, and was told to come later that afternoon.
This is where things start to slide a little. When I got to Bedford Street and saw the window frame, the tiny feeling in the pit of the stomach that just seems to expand at a rate of knots, was happening. Where the bubbled up rust had been, was now flatter, but, still rough, and the whole frame was Hammerite White, including the dried drips and the splashes on the internal window sill and the surrounding bodywork.
Now here is the thing, Malc and Jon have been friends for years, since I worked with them, and I was actually Malc's apprentice back when I was 17 when we both worked for Julian Rogers Autoservices in Gloucester. I trust them implicitly, and they always do me and Jen a good deal on mechanical work, sort whatever problem we throw at them, quickly, at a moments notice sometimes, well most of the time. They got Nina on the road for me and through two MOT's since I got her.
I will continue to go to them for their excellent mechanical service, and would recommend anyone else to use them too.
But bodywork technicians, they are not.
I paid my money, and in my mind told myself it was to make up for all the times when they knew I was short, and charged well under their normal prices. Then drew a line under it.
I was going to have to be brave, and redo it all myself.
I haven't taken a closer photo of how it was, it wouldnt be fair on the guys, so literally went out, bought some flexible grinding disks, aluminium body filler, primer spray, renault white spray, sand paper, and wet or dry paper.
I ground all the hammerite off, re-ground all the frame, and part of the body around the frame, sanded the layers evenly, then started filling the rusty holes and metal with the body filler. I have barely done any bodywork in my lifetime, so it was never going to be perfect, but hopefully better than it was, and good enough for Dave to fit the window that side.
This is a reminder of how bad it was originally -
This is of it all ground out and the filler starting to go on, ready for sanding.
This is with the frame sanded to something close to its original shape, and the primer spray on.
You can see its starting to look half decent now, hard to tell where the original rust actually was. This is only the primer coat, so is a different white to the van paint. Each colour, incidentally, is from a spray can from Halfords. Around £6.50 a can.
This is with the Renault Top Coat Spray, which went on very easily, I used a handle that clips on top of the spray cans to make it more like a spray gun, which helps you spray more evenly, I bought mine in What ! for £1.00.
It was when I got to this point, last Friday, 2nd November, 2012, that I texted Dave and said that he could come when it suited after the weekend, which would give the paint time to harden sufficiently.
Now all through these few weeks, we have had pretty much constant rain, which has hampered progress. I have had to recover the aperatures a couple of times as the wind and rain have saturated the duct tape and made it start to peel away letting the water in.
So luckily, when Dave rang on Monday afternoon to say he would be here the following morning, the weather forecast was for clear skies to start, turning to rain later.
So Tuesday morning, (today), at 10.15, Dave turned up and for the last time, I peeled off the tarps and duct tape, to have the new windows FINALLY fitted :).
It was a crisp morning, the frost had well and truly started to defrost, perfect weather for fitting windows - apparently :).
Tarps off, first window (NS) prepared....
Dave starts applying the bonding glue to the 'good' side (passenger).
Then with Dave on one side of the window, and me on the other, we offered it up to the frame, then quickly stuck some Duct Tape down to stop it sliding downwards on the glue.
Yay ! I've finally got my first new bonded window fitted ! Once fitted though, we noticed this window had a manufacturing fault, a kind of ripple from the centre top, down, so have emailed Leisure Vehicle Windows just to let them know, in case anything happens with it.
View through the drivers side frame, looking gooooood :).
Its also odd, seeing a window in there without the vents at the top.
Then it was the drivers side turn, time to see if all my hard work on reforming the frame was good enough to receive the window.
Weirdly, this side, the frame seemed bigger, or the window looked smaller in it. The window was stacked against the window on the other side, and was exactly the same size, so it wasnt that, and the frame, although had been ground out and filled, hadnt had the actual size changed, so anyway, the window went in great, although much to Dave's disgust, once we had lifted the window on to the bonding glue, I decided in my head there was too big a gap at the front and promptly started to slide the window over on the glue while Dave frantically tried to stop me ! Result, one very stuck on window, but a little bit of a gooey gluey mess inside the rear gap. Only viewable if you look into the gap, but all the same, I learned my lesson ! Sorry Dave ! Will listen properly to you next time !
As you can see in the above photo, Dave taped up all four edges on both sides, just while the bonding glue went off and had the windows stuck on properly.
So Dave went, and I went off to work for the rest of the day, and left the windows to it. Dave advised to leave them taped up until 4.30pm at least.
I got home after 5, it had been raining a couple of hours before I got there, so I gently pulled the tape off in the dark, and checked for signs that rain had leaked inside. Guess what ? Dry !!!!!! :).
And they look great ! :)
The bonded windows look so much better than the rubber sealed ones, cant wait until I get the other four done now :).
Got one more decision to make with these windows now, and that is whether to privacy tint them from the inside, or, cover them in White vinyl on the outside, as the back is going to be storage, and the white will reflect the sun away making the back slightly cooler for whatever is stored in there, like the dogs in the dog cage !
Incidentally, if any of you are converting a Renault Master panel van, which still needs holes cut in the metal, I am selling the perfectly good windows that came out, which are vented. Just use 'S' type rubber and bead to fit them in. Bottom privacy tinted, top sliding vent has a clear green tint on both windows.
£40 each or £70 for the two. Ideal to fit on the same wall that you put the hob/cooker for ventilation. Message me at Damon(at)damoncannard.com if interested ! :)
Thanks for reading, come back soon ! :)
Location:Gloucester
