Right, I thought it might be worth posting a how to on replacing window seals as I did it for the first time over the weekend and couldn't find a photo how to. So, before we start the photos, these are my findings. I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to do it and it would be good for others to post on here their ways to do it but this is how I found it easiest. 1) Get a friend to help you, many say they have done it themselves but an extra pair of hands really makes the job easier and reduces the chance of broken glass dramatically. (Cursing and tea drinking is also done better with a friend - thanks to foe for his help this weekend) 2) You will need: Good quality rubber seals (mine are from bigrich at coolair) Silicone lubricant or similar (halfords) Nylon cord or similar, (I used part of a spare washing line) Applicator tube from a tube of sealant, (see pics below) Vactan / waxoil / some other rust treatment or preventor Wire wool 3) Get a bowl of warm water and put in the seal you are about to use to loosen up a bit. 4) Cutting out the old seal Don't get sentimental here, just get a fresh blade on your stanley knife and get cutting. I found that putting the knife in like the picture below meant that I used the window as a good guide around the window and it also meant that I could just pull the old seal off, (as in the picture below shows), and the window would pop right out easily. 5) Carefully remove the window, a gentle push from the inside with your friend holding the window on the outside should be enough. Give the window itself a good clean up, vinegar seems to get rid of any old marks... 6) Clear any left over window seal from the bus, (it should just come out in one big piece of rotten rubber and take a look at your sills. MAKE A NOTE OF HOW THE SEAL IS IN / ON THE VAN AND WHAT WAY ROUND IT IS. It is pretty obvious when you look at it but if it's your first time checking how they are on currently will help avoid you wasting time putting them on the wrong way etc. If, like me (cue smug face), they are nice and clean with just a little bit of surface rust then get your wire wool and give them a good scrub to remove any rust. 7) When you are happy the window and sill are nice and clean, give your sill a good coat of vactan, or other rust treatment / preventor and let it dry. 8) Get your seal out of the bowl of warm water, shake out any excess that may have seeped into the gaps.
9) Fit the rubber to the window, we found that fitting the 4 corners first made it tight enough so that it didn't slip off. If you start at a corner and then just work your way round inevitably the bit you have just fitted will slide off as it's not under tension and you'll be forever cursing. We made sure the join in the seal was at the top, (we're retentive like that). 10) Insert the nylon cord into the groove on the rubber. There are many ways of doing this but we found, (thanks foe), that using the top part of an unused adhesive tube was a god send. So, thread the nylon through your 'nylon fitting device', or NFD as it will now be known. Give yourself about a foot extra, (or whatever you need to be able to grab and pull it later on), and put thread the nylon cable into the rubber seal where it will attach to the van. I put a knot in it just so I could see it wasn't slipping. Start at the top middle and finish in the same place, when you get all the way around the rubber overlap the two ends of cord by about 10cm. 11) Get your lubricant, here's mine from Halfords, but any will do. Mine was quick drying and claimed to have no bad effects on metal. Apparently washing up liquid has salt in it so shouldn't be used. This is probably the most important step to easy installation. Give the rubber a GENEROUS squirt of lubricant all around the part where it will meet the van and try and get a bit in where the nylon cord is. I also gave the van sills a quick squirt for good measure. 12) One person needs to be in the van the other then offers up the window to the van. We found that offering up the top first and then pushing in the bottom worked best. Make sure the person inside the van ensures the cord is on the inside.
13) So, now the fun part. Witht he window offered up to the van, the person on the outside needs to push the window in gently, (you'll quickly know what pressure to use), and the person on the inside begins to pull the cord so that as the cord come out the rubber seal, the seal lips over the van sill. 14) Go slowly, you may find the rubber doesn't want to come or the cord gets caught, just work on the amount of pressure on the outside and also the speed and angle that you pull the cord. A quick squirt of lubricant might help or if it is really stuck you can jimmy a small screwdriver gently and try to pop it out that way. Work one way until you get around the first top corner. The corners seemed to be the trickest bits, we found that the person outside could help by pushing / manipulating the rubber seal a bit. It sometimes just freed up the cord and off we went again. When you get here, start on the other side, and work around until you get to just past the bottom corner the other side. Return to the other side and then once around the bottom corner on that side, begin working both sides until they meet centre bottom, et voila...congratulations, you've just fitted a window seal. If you are wondering if yours need doing then look at the picture below, on the left is the new seal and on the right an onld one...See how much it has shrunk! And that's it, just rince and repeat for the other windows. I'd say that it took about 30 minutes a window once we got the first one out of the way. Quicker had we not been slurping tea and waiting for the vactan to dry... Hope it helps someone else.
Would highly recommend using a friend, sooooo much easier. Thanks madfrankie for the cup loads of tea
Great write up. ...but sadly, you should have pre-fitted the delux trim before fitting the window... and it doesn't look far enough in either, it shouldn't overlap the side cover...
if you fit the metal chrome inserts they go in 1st, if plastic they go in after, the side window above the door cover track is covering the track you need to remove the cover and re-fit so you can see the black filler strip not just the end of it.
