[VAL] Re: VAL broken window

[David Josephson <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As reported by another reader, these windows are supposedly still 
offered by Airstream. But, in my experience the quality is awful, and 
(also when one was broken over Thanksgiving, three years ago) could not 
be made to fit the original opening, even at their very steep price. I 
ordered one from one of the helpful dealers who often posts here, and he 
did his best to get it to me quickly for a Christmas/New Year trip. It 
arrived in time, but (a) had major scratches in the glass, (b) had 
silicone sealant crudely dribbled in the mounting groove, and (c) was 
about 5/8" too small -- there was no way to make it fit unless I was 
willing to make an adapter plate out of another piece of aluminum. I 
returned it to the factory along with a detailed description of what was 
wrong, and despite several discussions with the dealer who promised to 
set things right, have never received a refund. I ended up making my own 
replacement window from polycarbonate plastic (Lexan). It was quite an 
exercise cutting it to shape, bending to fit and riveting the assembly 
back together. There is a "self-leveling" urethane caulk that made it 
all possible; I did the four edges of the window one at a time, letting 
each edge be "down" while this caulk was liquid, which nicely filled the 
mounting channel. When one edge was set, I turned the window assembly 90 
degrees and did the next. Three years later it is still watertight, but 
I would still rather have an original glass window even at almost $300, 
than to have spent two days making one. I didn't have that option 
because the replacement sent to me was junk -- perhaps the factory has 
cleaned up their act by now, but be prepared for the worst.

Lexan has its own problems, mainly a tendency to become brittle when 
exposed to some solvents such as Freon. But if treated carefully it 
works fine. Acrylic plastic (plexiglass) is also OK but not as strong. I 
opted to use thinner polycarbonate which was easier to bend; if I had 
used the thicker acrylic I would have had to heat-soften it to bend it 
and I didn't want that much of a project.

Good luck!

--
David Josephson