caravelle recessed sliding windows

[wolfsbitz]

I felt sure this subject has been covered before, but i have done search and not found anything, so i am putting a sliding caravelle window in to the off side of my panel van, i have the correct window, the correct rubber and the correct recess panel which has been chopped out of the van the window came from, before i start cutting out the side of my panel van and welding away i was wondering if anyone has done this and what i should look for/ problems i will encounter, pictures would be awesome, cheers

[jimpainter]

Did the same to mine. Had to split the inner and outer panels to fit it.
I also kept all the flanges on so i could just spot weld the new panel in and hey presto.
Just be careful when you cut etc.

I know the pics dont really show a lot but its what i have.

jim

[wolfsbitz]

Nice one Jim, did you cut out your panel van to the two vertical lines or just cut a hole slightly bigger than the recess and joggle it in? Also which lines did you cut it to top and bottom? cheers

[jimpainter]

I removed the panel all the way around. i.e. I drilled out all spot welds and fitted the new panel as per original. The lower bit just below the window recess was butt welded to the panel that was still fitted. The white part in the pic is the window frame and the blue is the original panel still in the van.

[wolfsbitz]

Ok, so if i look inside my panel van i should see the spot welds, right? I thought i would have to split the inner and outer panels of the recessed panel, did you find any difficulties? how long did it take? cheers.

[jimpainter]

Yeah if you look inside the panel you will see the spots going up both sides and along the top. Really easy to see them when you get in there.
I had to split my panel as well. Weld the outer in first then the inner panel just spots onto it.
Nothing really difficult about it, its just more time consuming drilling out all the spot welds.

[wolfsbitz]

How did you go about filling the holes made by drilling out the spot welds in the frame? Or did you do fresh spot welds and let the rubber cover the old holes? cheers

[jimpainter]

When you drill the spot welds out dont go all the way through both panels. You only need to just go through the first panel then they should split, but they may need a little puersuasion to seperate. Then when the spots are drilled you have the holes ready to be rewelded.