And Now the Windows

I got to hang out with some new people, today. These people were all do-ers.

I have to say, though, it was a little uncomfortable being in the middle of an auto junk yard with a bunch of strangers. Mostly men, and mostly minorities or white trash looking, I felt a bit out of place. After paying my dollar admission fee, I walked about a 1/4 mile before actually getting to the salvage yard. There were shuffling, dirty and vacant looking men all around, exhausted, or just slowly scanning the yard.. It was kinda zombie-movie-esque.

The yard was huge. How the hell was I going to find flat windows here? Car windows are all curved, sometimes even compound curved. What am I looking for? I somewhat rationalized that I needed to look for older pickups and vans. Something like an old astro van as they were kinda boxy. Older cars, definitely, have flatter windows.

That didn't help too much, and I wandered like the other zombies hoping I'll catch a glimpse of my prize. I did find a bunch of conversion vans and even got one window out, but it was pointless: the window too curved and the method of installing it too specific to thin walled vehicles.

Then I spied it- an old pickup with a cap on the bed. The cap was in somewhat good condition and had 2 sets of windows on each side as well as one over the tailgate. After I crawled into the bed of the truck, I discovered that all the screwdrivers in my tool bag were straight and not phillps and I didn't have any small enough nutdrivers for the screws on this thing. It took some improvising but I got the windows off and continued searching.

These were for the end of the camper on either side of the door. The door needs a straight window, so next I needed to find that.

Boy, did I find one:

So  I think this is a  VW Rialta. The one  window in that wasn't broken in it was this. Score!

Inside, it was a little filthy, but that didn't bother me. While I was working on pulling the screws on this, a couple were working on an Explorer next to me. The woman was looking though the smashed out rear window of the RV at what I was doing.

A little rub-a-dub later and it's ready for new life.

The only template I have is the frame used on the inside of the window. I located it on the door, screwed it in and  then traced the inside. I then outlined it with a 3/8" offset for the actual cut.

All installed. The bottom part cranks open and there's a screened panel. I need to fix the screen, though.

One of the windows pulled from the truck cap

The frames of the windows placed on the camper. I did the same thing here to make the cutouts, but I need to buy some different hardware to get them fully installed. Note my sanded wood putty patch job at the door handle.

New photo showing the cutouts for the truck cap windows. I messed up the corners and they had to be redone.