Leaking A25 Windows

[Hobbit]

If you are having a problem with leaking window seals on an A25 (or other minor leaks) a remedy that has proven effective without the use of silicone seal and is easy and permanent.

You will need original Gorilla Glue, a pick with a bend in the end, a syringe a short piece of 1/8" ID vinyl tubing, and a short piece of 1/8" OD copper tubing. I found everything at a hardware store for less than $20.

Set up the syringe as shown. The wire wrap was not neccesary. You can just slide the tube on the syringe. I used craft syringes. They have a smaller nozzle.

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Fill the syringe with Gorilla Glue. Use the pick to lift the edge of the rubber seal and insert the copper tubing underneath the seal far enough to reach any void between the fiberglass and the window seal itself. Inject some Gorilla Glue and wipe excess. Work your way around the window where you see leaks. You may have to do the same procedure between the window glass and the seal as water has a tendancy to follow the glass around to the bottom and leak through the seal joint (mine are on the bottom.)

Gorilla Glue expands to fill the voids, is waterproof, and is actually activated by water so you dont have to have dry surfaces.

Hobbit

[nebulatech]

Reviving an old post...

Two of my windows leak in the forward accommodation. There is a 1/2" gap at the bottom where the rubber H channel either shrank or was cut to the wrong size. I slapped some duct tape over the gap as a band-aid fix before the last rain. This fixed the leak for one window, but not the forward window, which seems to be leaking under the rubber gasket and dripping down on the woodwork over the water tank.

Let me go ahead and state that I will be repainting the deck later in the year (or next spring) and will replace the H channel at that time, but I'm trying to restore the accommodation and I don't want the rain to ruin my hard work. I am considering using clear silicon to fill the 1/2" gap between the rubber H channel, and for the forward window, run a bead of silicon both between the gasket and the fiberglass and between the gasket and the glass. I found the above post while searching for what others may have done. The logic of using Gorilla Glue seems sound, but it also seems like a lot of work. The silicon approach I'm considering only has to last about a year.

I understand that window leaks have been a common issue on A27's and A25's. Can anyone with some experience in this area chime in with their thoughts? It's supposed to rain again for the next 3 days and I would really like to paint under my water tank so I can put it back in.

Touching on the H channel, I believe I found a source for a 100' roll of locking H channel for about $150 plus shipping. Seams reasonable, and probably about the right amount. If anyone has input here, I appreciate that as well!

Thanks again to all of you for your invaluable insight!

[Bob Noodat]

For car windshields where new seals are unobtainable or a cheap fix, so to speak, is desired, I have found that butyl rubber sealants applied with a caulk gun do a great job on large gaps, say between 2mm and 12mm. They are highly adhesive to almost anything and remain flexible. Duct or other tape can be used to form a chamber within which the butyl will set to a reasonable shape. Cleaning with acetone, alcohol etc beforehand is desirable.

For the tiny sort of gaps that seem to channel water miles, Captain Tolleys Creeping Crack Cure is said to be marvellous, although I have not as yet used it.

[jerridsc]

When I replaced all my A25 glass and acrylic windows, I found that the H channel I bought and used caused me to have to reduce the size of the new acrylic panels (sized by using old panels as template) by grinding them to a smaller size, a nearly 1/4 “ reduction all around. On the existing glass panels, not being able to grind them down to a smaller size as I did with the acrylic, I had to enlarge the openings by grinding the fiberglass to a larger opening size, again about 1/4 inch all around. Before realizing all of that, it was incredibly frustrating trying to get them all to fit. Something to consider when you go to replace all.

[nebulatech]

Bob thank you. I actually have a small tube of 3M butyl rubber sealant which could work for the 1/2" gaps! I had forgotten all about it.

Jerridsc, thank you for the tip! I will take extra care to check the measurements on the H channel. I won't be ordering it for a while. Perhaps I can get a sample.

[hetek]

I just replaced all my A25 windows last summer. Only one minor drip on one aft cabin side window over the past year.

I had to resize the openings slightly. Not because they were undersized but it looked like the installer that cut the window openings at Albin was drunk that day.

It was a pita, but not impossible. All windows took me a weekend, working solo.

If you PM me your address, I can send you a sample of what I have left of the gasket and locking strip. I used chrome for the locking strip. I think that's an A25 deLuxe version thing.

Found my source:

Manufacturer: CR Lawrence
AS-1456 self-sealing weatherstrip - 50' roll
Catalog #75001209

Purchased from DKHardware.com. 877-509-8040

[WillieC]

"I had to resize the openings slightly. Not because they were undersized but it looked like the installer that cut the window openings at Albin was drunk that day."

Remember the olden days when the new hire had to learn the job? When I was but a child, brand new wife, brand new kid, brand new responsibilities, I had taken a night welding class at the local community college. The instructor, in his day job, worked at a manufacturer of well known tool boxes. Of course the class was centered on stick welding, beginner's beginners. There was also available in the school shop a wire feed machine that the cool kids got to play with. The instructor said that anybody could walk in the plant, apply for a job and they would let you weld a seam on a box, just to see if you had any potential. My attempt was rough, but they said they would let me know. I thought, no way in hell.

In the week while waiting for a call, we had decided to pack it up and get back to God's Country, the PNW. My brand new wife told me years later how close she came to keeping the boy and moving back in with the parents. I got the call. Come to work. Too late, the VW was packed.

I suspect the first order of business, had I taken the job, was to grind off my earlier test chicken spatter and do it right...repeat for the next forty years. Blame it on a simple twist of fate...

Ah, the days before CAD, robots, and off-shoring where a kid could walk in a shop and apply for a job and end up feeding his family. Maybe his first window cuts were a bit rough, but you can be assured, they got better. Or he was drunk.

[hetek]

Funny, WillyC, but I too had a night class in welding. We could "pick our poison". I chose oxy-acetylene gas while the others chose stick.

The "stick kids" set fire to the classroom while I learned to weld a mean seam on a metal box!

About the drunken Albin worker... Why do I say it? Well, not one window opening was symmetrical with its counterpart on the opposite side. Not one line that was supposed to be straight was straight and there were a few deviations from the cut line where the simple solution was to just back up and try again. No worries about the cut... the window gasket will cover that.

Jeez!

There is also something known as a "minimum bending radius" with the gasket - How tight a turn can it go around. Suffice to say the Albin guy was never told this.

I had some correcting to do but all is to spec now.

[DesertAlbin736]

I suspect the first order of business, had I taken the job, was to grind off my earlier test chicken spatter and do it right...repeat for the next forty years. Blame it on a simple twist of fate...

Ah, the days before CAD, robots, and off-shoring where a kid could walk in a shop and apply for a job and end up feeding his family. Maybe his first window cuts were a bit rough, but you can be assured, they got better. Or he was drunk.

Oh yes, those were the days indeed. I suspect WillieC & I had parallel lives. Except I didn't get married & have kids of my own. Was a time back in the early 1970s after leaving the Navy (I learned some TIG & stick welding in the Navy, but that's another story), when I got a job in a Con Diesel defense plant in Schenectady, NY MIG welding aluminum subassemblies for Army amphibious mobile pontoon bridge vehicles, basically aluminum hulled DUKW vehicles on steroids, at a wage rate of $2.85/hr. Hot, nasty, dirty job with fumes & weld sparks flying. It's a wonder I don't have COPD today. The company also built jet fuel refueling tanker truck bodies for the Air Force, but I didn't work on that line. In those days $5/hr was top pay for experienced union welders.

One the mismatching size of windows, that's not surprising on boat construction.

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