Day #10 Van Build – 6/1/25

In the morning, we installed the window in the van behind the driver’s door. This is the window that I prepared yesterday for today’s install. My friend John came over and my wife, Elizabeth helped as well. I reviewed the installation process with them and what I had done yesterday. We then taped the template onto the outside of the van and traced out the cut line. Once the line was traced, we used painter’s tape to cover the paint on the outside of the cut line to protect the paint. We also shielded the inside of the van with cardboard to collect most of the metal shavings and to keep them from landing inside the walls.

I drilled a small hold in the side of the van from the inside, then from the outside I used a step drill to open the hole up big enough to fit in the jigsaw blade. I started cutting with a metal blade, and made good progress at first. Then the cut went from a single sheet of metal to also a cut of the support behind the sheetmetal. When that happened, the metal blade wasn’t long enough and would catch on the support and jump out of the cut line. I also broke two blades before I realized what was happening. The only blade that I had the was long enough was a blade for wood, so I used that. It produced a wider cut and more metal filings, but it got the job done. I switched back to the metal blade to do the corners and the vertical cuts, because that was one sheet of metal to cut.

Once I finished the cut, we tried to fit in the window to make sure the hole was the correct size. The window didn’t quite fit correctly….it was close, but I needed to use the jigsaw to trim about 1/8″ off the bottom right hand corner of the hole.

The second dry fit was good and we moved on to filing the edges of the cut to remove any burs. Then we painted the exposed metal to avoid any rust forming.

While the paint was drying, we removed the panels from the rear doors and installed sound deadening into the doors.

Once the paint was dry, John and Elizabeth inserted the window into the hole from the outside of the van while I worked inside to secure the window with screws through the Trim Ring. Unfortunately, the screws that I purchased were too short to bite into the window. This was because the thickness of the sheetmetal was too much. We tried a couple of times to get my screws to work, but it wasn’t even close. So, John and I went down the street to Ace Hardware and purchased longer screws (such a blessing to have a hardware store around the corner!!). We switched out the M4 – 0.7 x12 screws for M4 – 0.7 x 20 screws. Then I was able to secure the window into the van.

I then went around the window a few times to tighten the screws until they were all a good amount. We also checked the seal of the window on the outside of the van and tried to ensure that the gasket was in contact with the van all the way around. So, I’m confident that it is good, but we’ll know after a good rain. I may also get out the hose to test it, if I get impatient.

Here is what the window looks like from the outside. The bottom of the window has two sections that will hinge up from the bottom to allow air to enter. There are screens behind these two sections, so you get air into the van, but not bugs.

That whole thing was about three hours of work, so I took everyone to lunch. When we returned, I was working alone in the afternoon and focused on putting insulation in the rear doors. Following that I started the installation of the deadbold locks on the rear doors. I got about 80% through the deadbold installation before it was time for dinner. I’ll finish those tomorrow.