Can you believe the SportCam had nine windows? That's a lot of potential leak points. Upper and lower panes (that didn't open) in the door were fine. A small pass-through window under the loft was permanently "closed" (ahem) with silicone and plexiglass. That solution should work until an eventually more camper friendly truck motivates replacing that window. Maybe. Someday. Meanwhile, three down. Six to go.
Next tackled were the pair of small slider windows up in the loft on each side at the head and foot of the bed. Both leaked pretty bad. The rubber trim around the edges shrank and pulled away from the metal frame. Mostly in the tightest, lower front corners. But also in the mid butt joints on top and bottom.
Supposedly those rubbers are decorative not seals. Maybe. IF the weep holes stay clear enough AND drain faster than driving rain gets in. My faith wasn't that strong. Both windows were removed for rework. All the edge trim was pulled out.
Once out and sun soaked the heated rubbers got pliable. While I had them out of the way, Loretta detailed the frames. Thoroughly cleaning out the hidden weep ways helped ensure that, going forward, whatever water got in would drain out, ideally. The hard-to-find edge trim was therefore reused, making sure the corners were stuffed tight.
Of course cleaning the frames made them look all the more faded. So the glass panes were masked off with painters tape.
Once painted the frames looked better. But since the trim shrank there wasn't enough material. That left gaps where the edge trim was supposed to meet in the middle at the partition between the fixed and sliding panes.
The paint got a chance to cure during the next spell of rain. Up to that point in the project the roof and upper sides were tarped. Next the frames were masked off around each gap and filled with black caulk.
My talent to dress the caulk beads was not pretty. It was trickier than expected. The goo was so squishy. I also started peeling the tape too soon. With forced patience the caulk eventually got firmer. When the windows were re-installed their rough openings got trimmed and shimmed. For sealant I used an inner rope of butyl putty and outer bead of caulk. Fingers crossed.
After all that work I hoped those windows were dressed for success. Nope. The next time it rained they still leaked. Darn. Okay. So they didn't open far enough for much airflow anyway. The next move was permanently "closing" them with silicone. Then, when they still leaked around the edges I was so disgusted that I got even more radical. The windows were removed again. This time permanently. Throwing them in the town recycling dumpster was actually a bit satisfying. Good riddance.
Fiberglassing over the window openings in the shell was the next move. I got some coroplast (corrugated like cardboard but plastic instead of paper). That formed a makeshift mold to mimmick shell contour fore and aft of the window openings. The openings were so specifically designed for those windows that they were even recessed. Hence the need for a form with an overedge step along the bottom.
Working inside out, a couple layers of white gelcoat were first built up against the form. Then polyester resin and fiberglass cloth were used to build up structure inside. For filler I actually used some cardboard between layers of cloth and resin. Once sandwiched in place the sidewall windowhole patches got sturdy. The inside was strong enough to secure the plugs. The makeshift form was removed on the outside. That revealed a general form that followed shell countours fairly well in the middle.
The edges were then filled from the outside. First with resin as filler then gelcoat for color the last millimeter or two. Fill, cure, sand. Again and again. Yep. Tedious and time consuming. There's more bodywork elsewhere so I paused that job when it got close to done. All finish work can be combined later.
Time will tell if the over bright, fresh gelcoat mellows with age and eventually matches the color of the surrounding shell. If not, I'll deal with those cosmetics later. Meanwhile, no loft windows made the cabover darker inside. More cave like. Turns out I like that. The ceiling's too low to sit up there and read anyway. But great for sleeping (and other horizontal adult activities). Now no window treatments to deal with up there either. Moreover, the loft's dry. Almost...
