[Closed] T6 bonded windows (embarrassing admission)

What's the minimum temperature the sealant can be used at?

Is the leak at the top, middle or bottom?

Starting on the door is a wise move as you can always replace a door. Side of a van.........

Sure its from the top. The sealant was at room temperature as it was kept near a radiator in the house before use but I think it may have cooled during use. The sealant has cured well I dont doubt it has done its job but I think the problem is that in my haste and in fading light the sealant was not sufficiently "proud" of the edge trim. "shoving" more sealant in all around the small gap may be my only option, other than to somehow remove the window totally.

If you've used the right bonding compound you won't be getting it off without breaking the window, just try and find the leak and fill the gap.

Don't worry about it though, from what i've heard about an awful lot of "professional" VW conversion specialists are more than adept at fitting windows and roof rails so badly they leak at the first sign of rain.

So paying somebody else to do it doesn't guarantee quality 🙂

To get the window off, they use a thin wire which is pushed through the sealant and pulled all the way round - a bit like a cheese wire. I suppose a gear cable might work.

I just had to have an opening side window refitted because the body shop that refitted it after an accident didn't know what they were doing. They weren't camper specialists and so put sealant all the way round. This meant that when it rained really hard it came in via the sliding bit. Apparently, they shouldn't have put the sealant all the way along the bottom where there are drainage holes. You probably already know that but just in case...

My side window was taken out, the sealant cleaned up and refitted for £75 by National Windscreens. That seemed a good deal to me if you don't fancy doing it yourself though mine was only one window not four.

Thanks Jerm. That sounds interesting hadnt considered them. Cheers 🙂

You might get away with running a thin sealant like Captain Tolley's into the leaks. It's worth a try - but you need to make sure there's no water in there before you apply it (guess how I know that...).

Thanks Greybeard. Did it do the job for you? once you had removed the water??

Can you pull away the interior u trim from the cut hole and inject some more sealant in that way?
Normally you’d avoid putting mastic on mastic as it can affect the cure but I was interested when reading the data sheet/instructions for the mastic that came with the windows I fitted to my Trafic that they actually say it will happily bond to existing mastic so that shouldn’t be an issue.
Needs to be above 5deg C normally, both the mastic and the surfaces to be bonded. Getting the mastic nice and warm should help you gun it in, especially as you’ll need to use a narrower nozzle to get it into the gap! A decent quality gun helps too.

It is nerve wracking fitting bonded windows though. I’ve done plenty of curtain wall glazing, fitting units that are metres long/high and costing thousands, all whilst on the ropes in awkward places but fitting 6 windows to my van was far scarier!

I did exactly what you've done on my t5. Was converting it myself from a panel van, wanted to do it all myself, etc.etc. So, fitted the windows, they leaked, messed (and stressed) for about a week trying to get them to not leak, but no joy. In the end I took them to a local auto-glazier fella who was recommended by the garage I use.

He whipped them off, refitted them, and charged me a whole £85. I could have kissed him.

TL:DR - get someone to sort them for you, it'll cost a lot less than you think.

Thanks Mattbee. Checked last night after it had rained heavily for an hour and there was just the slighest trace so I will try the Captains Tolleys next and see if that works.

Thanks everyone !