Today’s plan is to get out to the housebus and start the long process of sealing up all the windows.

I’ve known since I first picked up the bus that it had moisture problems – the musty smell was unmistakable, and the thin layer of mildew on all the seats was unpleasant at the least. I thought I took care of the biggest leaks early on, and maybe I did, but I know that at least a few of the windows are still a bit leaky. And knowing how prone the seals around bus windows are to cracks and gaps even straight from the factory, I figured I’d be re-sealing all the windows sooner or later.

So, I think today’s the day. I’m kind of at a stand-still with the floors for the moment until I can get more paint to keep going. As I was pulling the rubber floor up it was clear that there was fresh water on the floor from a window leak in the back, and the rust on the metal floor confirmed that it had been a problem for quite a while. So, I definitely want to tackle those windows asap.

I’ve watched enough videos and read enough threads to have a basic plan in place:

• Pull out the window
• Scrape off the black-goop that’s ‘sealing’ them currently
• wipe the frames and clean with alcohol
• apply fresh butyl tape, filling any gaps in the bus frame
• add weather-stripping at the top to fill the air-gap that’s there
• reinstall window, screw in brackets to hold it in place

I’ve got a couple rolls of butyl tape and a pack of weather stripping, so hopefully that should get me a quick start on at least a few of the worst windows. I may also want to run a bead of urethane-based automotive seam sealant on the outside, but that can wait. Probably also going to need more weather-stripping than I currently have—I wasn’t planning on putting some on each window, but one thread I read today talked about what a difference it made for insulation and sound-dampening, so…

Reference threads from Skoolie.net:

https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f13/how-to-seal-leaking-windows-20199.html

https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f13/resealing-windows-on-a-collins-bus-39506.html

I’ll try to take pictures of this process today, if I can keep my hands clean enough to pick up my phone!

Update!

Okay, I just got cleaned up from sealing a window. One Window. One whole window. And I’m not sure if it will even work the way it’s supposed to. Here’s the deal:

Turns out there’s a bit of a lip where the window makes contact with the bus frame. This was filled with black goo and weatherstripping, which I had to totally scrape out. But! Because of that little lip, the window frame couldn’t make direct contact with the butyl tape I used. Like, the tape wasn’t thick enough to be proud of the lip at all. The only way it would have worked was if I applied the tape just right on top of the lip, and I’m sure it would have just gotten chopped through once I pressed the window into place.

Luckily (for today, at least) I had bought a small package of weather stripping also, so I went ahead and applied that directly to the window, so that it ended up getting pressed against the butyl tape when I pushed it into place. I really don’t know how well this mess is going to actually seal against rain, I expect to be able to tell in the next 24 hours or so, though.

If it didn’t work, then I’m back to square one on getting the windows sealed – I’ve got like 90 feet of butyl tape that isn’t going to cut it. If it DOES work, then I’m still kind of at square one, since I don’t have enough of the weather stripping to do even one more window entirely. I might be able to double-up the butyl tape, but I’d rather not have to go that route… though it might still be less expensive than adding weatherstripping to all the windows…

So, that’s where it’s at right now. But I did learn One Important Thing™:

When removing the black goo, I spent way too long using my putty knife/scraper to get as much of it off as I could. Near the end, I decided to switch tacks. I noticed that the stuff pulled up from the metal okay, almost like rubber cement. Remembering the trick I learned as a kid for removing tape residue, I grabbed the roll of duct tape and made a tube of it, sticky-side-out. Patting the tape against the goo, it grabbed on really well and was able to pull itself off in big clean glops! I’ll take pictures next time so it’s easier for other folks to understand. But it should save me a ton of time once I know I have a good method for re-sealing the windows.