fitting caravelle windows to panel van

[trentjim]

well, I've searched high and low and googled till my fingers bled & i just cannot find a "how to" covering fitting factory windows to a panel van, Ive bumped into a few posts saying its been covered before, but still no gravy... and my google fu is usually pretty undefeatable.

If anyone can point me in the right direction I would be most grateful, otherwise any pics of the relevent panels, access and spot welds would be helpful for me to get my head around what i'll be taking on if (when!?) I get a van rather than a camper.

I'm naively guessing one way is just chop out the caravelle windows with a bit to spare and then butt weld into an appropriately sized hole with a billion tacks - however I'm hoping there is a relatively straightforward way of drilling out the spot welds and doing a more elegant "panel replacement", or partial panel replacement instead.

cheers in advance,
James

[Plasticman]

there is but heck I hvent the time to try explain it, but yep you need the inner and outer as a unit cut out of the donor, then wether you butt seam or replace as original (Imy prefered method) is up to your abilities,
did you get a number of our man yet
cheers mm

[CovKid]

Heck, thats a major undertaking! Not sure I'd bother and no doubt why you've found nothing on the internet. For the time/money involved it'd be easier (and probably cheaper) to buy one with them already in.

[Seamus]

It is possible but be prepared for lots of web searching for panels and windows. We had ours done during the restoration... the key is to know someone (or have the skills to yourself) who has the expertise to fit chopped window surrounds from a factory fitted van into a panel van. We had the fortune of knowing Doug Harwood of Doug's VW Werks who was also local to us down here in Sussex and as two of our three existing panel van window panels were rotten he replaced all three window panels for us with factory fitted variants. I found all these on ebay and it cost next to nothing to buy them, the cost will be in the labour to get them into your van properly.
You then have the f/fitted windows to source too along with a sliding door which did prove difficult, take a look at my thread of our resto on our bus and you'll see the work that was involved and the result thanks to Doug.

Dont be put off though as our bus looks sooooo much better off having the 'proper' windows now and was in my opinion worth all the effort and expense!

Best of luck!

[Plasticman]

As has been said Jim, Im not aware of any photodocs of the job ?I will do a very detailed one when I next fit some.
mm

[jimpainter]

I have done it before although I didnt do detailed pics.
From this

To this





Fairly easy to do if a little time consuming, although no more leaky conversion rubbers.
I managed to get a body cut from a van with a piece of the gutters/roof and cut beyond the seams into the next panels. This allowed me to get access to all the spot welds and drill them out so it could be fitted as per factory. You do need to seperate the inner and outer panels around the window frame so it can be fitted. Again no big deal just lots of spot welds. You would need to remove your interior and headlining to do it right (and not damage anything). If you use all the original returns you can also be sure your panel will be straight. If you need to know more give me a shout i will help where I can.

[trentjim]

Thanks for that guys...
Though the guy with the nice panel van I was after stopped returning mails this week after a couple of weeks of stalling, so maybe figuring this bit out will ultimately prove to be redundant in the end...
the search continues.. plenty more fish in the sea and all that,
James

[Plasticman]

Jim, did that van turn out to have too mmany faults to be fixed? probably why you werent able to view it
mm