What Year am I?

[Robert W.]

Do they make something that removes silicone type caulking? The window is encased in it, so it won't open. He sealed the whole thing in silicone? Still leaks. I think the problem is the lock seal has shrunk up, pulling away from corners and such.

[Raya]

Do they make something that removes silicone type caulking? The window is encased in it, so it won't open. He sealed the whole thing in silicone? Still leaks. I think the problem is the lock seal has shrunk up, pulling away from corners and such.

Well you are now dealing with what I call the "Agent of the Devil," silicone. It doesn't work that well when you want it to, yet when you try to remove it, it's..... horrible (note I refrained from swearing).

Even when you DO get it off, a semi-permanent oil contamination remains, that will foil efforts to paint. Yes, my rant is on. *roll

The best you can probably do is to physically scrape off what you can, trying not to scrape the skin of the trailer. People use sharp plastic scrapers, shaped dowels - whatever they can get to work. After that, there are some chemicals that are supposed to remove the oil residue, although I don't think any of them are magic bullets. It's kind of a sucky project, so you just have to muddle through. Then use something more appropriate for any future sealing.

On the other hand, since silicone often doesn't bond well to fiberglass, especially poorly prepped, it might peel right off that and just stick to the window frame, if you're lucky.

One good thing is that if you already have a lock seal, your window opening must have the appropriate shape to take a new one (no odd lip or anything).

Raya

[Robert W.]

Well, when I said lock seal, I was talking about the thin rubber seal that goes around outside and inside of these windows. Its gray, slim; and like a seal goes around the window? Between the plexi and aluminum frame. Flat on one side, like a wedge on the other. It has shrunk, so pulling away from corners and not meeting any more.

[Raya]

Okay, that's different from what I call "lock seal." The inoperable plexi windows that come in the front and rear of the Bolers and many Scamps have a thick black rubber gasket around the outside that has a little trough in it. The way it works is that you install this gasket and the window, and then you put a "lock strip," which is a smaller rubber strip, into the aforementioned trough. This spreads the larger gasket and "locks" it in place. This gasket goes directly from the fiberglass to the plexi of the window.

I can't see your window, but if it were me I would see about saving it rather than going to the fixed window. Many of those grey strips were bought from common suppliers and are still available today. www.vintagetrailersupply.com is one source, and there are others mentioned in various threads here. But vintage's photos should give you an idea.

It sounds like you should first of all remove your window and clean up the trailer opening. You'll have to do that no matter what. Then you can take a look at your window (when it's out), and see if it might be worth rebuilding and saving. If you do save it and re-use it, I would put a rock gaurd (lifting panel of fiberglass) over the front to protect it and provide some relief from gross rain while you're going 60 mph.

For the best input from us, you're going to have to break down and figure out how to get photos posted here. I did respond to you some time back when you asked about how to do this in a photo thread -- if you could take a look at that thread and get back to us we might be able to point you in the right direction for that.

Right now we're all kind of shooting in the dark, with no visuals and only a short description. Picture = 1,000 words

Raya

[Donna D.]

If you'd like to give up the front opening window, I'd LOVE to have it! My Scamp has the standard non-opening solid plexiglass front window and having the ability to open a front window for ventilation would be huge. If you think I'm kidding, send me a PM and we can discuss price and shipping.

[Frederick L. Simson]

Well, when I said lock seal, I was talking about the thin rubber seal that goes around outside and inside of these windows. Its gray, slim; and like a seal goes around the window? Between the plexi and aluminum frame. Flat on one side, like a wedge on the other. [b]It has shrunk, so pulling away from corners and not meeting any more.

The gaskets in my Fiber Stream's window assemblies did the same thing. I did a quick, cheap fix.
All I had to do was squirt some bathtub caulk into the gap, and shape it with my finger, making sure it stuck to both edges of the gap in the rubber gasket and the glass. Much easier than totally dismantling the window glass, gasket, and aluminum frame.



Look at the corners of the window on the left. (Click on the thumbnail photo to make it big enough to see the detail)
The gasket is black and the caulk is white.

I did pull the whole window assembly out of the wall and replaced the butyl "tape" between the aluminum frame and the fiberglass wall. After I did those 2 fixes, no more leaks!