Our model of Viking came with glass windows (not including the curved corner ones); plastic windows were not introduced until years after ours was built. At the time of purchase, the front centre window was cracked, and we had read that getting it fixed could be difficult. Many glaziers believe they have to fit toughened glass, which is too thick for the frame, despite this age of caravan not requiring it. However, we struck lucky with the first glazier we phoned (http://surreyglazing.co.uk/) who understood exactly what we wanted and was more than happy to help.
All the seals on our Viking were well past their sell-by date, so we downloaded the complete catalogue from C O H Baines and got browsing. Five of our windows open, and their rubber seals are held in place with a T-section that slides into the keyway in the frame. I was unable to find a seal from Baines or Seals Direct that was the same. The closest I could find was part number IRS 1015N from Baines. Having ordered two metres of this to test on one window, it soon became apparent it would not form a tight seal. We struck lucky again in March 2019 when another restorer called Mitch from Aberdeen was having the same problem. He commissioned a short production run of new rubber with the correct profile, and was selling it via a Facebook group for Viking owners. We bought 10 metres from him.
Mitch had warned me that he had trouble sliding the rubber T-section over a couple of screw heads located inside the keyway. We had exactly the same problem. We sprayed silicone lubricant into the keyway and slid the T-section in from the second screw hole, using a butter knife to tuck in any of the 'T' that required it. Gradually, the rubber was fed around the window until all three sides were done. The first window took us over an hour. We deliberately left a little excess seal as with all the pushing and pulling, we expected the rubber to have stretched. After a few days it appeared there was no shrinkage so the excess was trimmed off.
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Mitch had warned me that he had trouble sliding the rubber T-section over a couple of screw heads located inside the keyway. We had exactly the same problem. We sprayed silicone lubricant into the keyway and slid the T-section in from the second screw hole, using a butter knife to tuck in any of the 'T' that required it. Gradually, the rubber was fed around the window until all three sides were done. The first window took us over an hour. We deliberately left a little excess seal as with all the pushing and pulling, we expected the rubber to have stretched. After a few days it appeared there was no shrinkage so the excess was trimmed off.
As we worked our way through all the windows, we got faster, with 23 minutes being our best time. We found that tucking the T section into the keyway on the frame side somehow resulted in the other side (nearest the caravan body) going in on its own.
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| All five opening windows with new rubber seals. |
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