New windows

The new Port side polycarbonate windows complete with the outside covering still intact and fully sika’ed in. I started with the replacement of all eight windows last week. I totally underestimated that piece of work. Of the eight windows only two came out in a single piece and the rest had to be chiseled out piece by piece. That meant that I only had two templates to cut and shape the new windows from. As was true to form each side was slightly different so a common template couldn’t be used. That would make things far too easy. However I did visit a local craft shop and get some large sheets of brown light card and used this to copy the outline of the windows as well as the screw holes. This enabled me to make a template onto the sheet of new polycarbonate and shape trim and pre drill all of the holes for mounting. Once I had the new window ready I dry fitted it to ensure that all of the holes lined up, which some didnt and had to also allow for some screws which had broken off buried in the coach house. Once this was completed I had to strip off the old silk (with a large Chisel, Thanks roger0 and prepare the surface for the fresh Sika and the window mounting. Prior to the fitting I taped off the area around the window with the expensive blue masking tape, liberally applied the Sika and attached the window with two screws at either end of the windows to get some sort of alignment. I  then started to put in each screw loosely as there was some jiggling of the windows to get as many screws as possible to fit. Once all of the screws were in I started to tighten them down. After that I applied some more Sika to the end and shaped it to meet the edge of the coach roof. Once all of the Sika had dried up I removed the excess with a stanley knife and tidied up the seams. I am quite happy with the result however now the coachroof looks shocking. Think I”ll try some spirit of salt to tidy it up.