Gimme some skin

Today we worked on getting the windows skinned. Originally I had the idea of taking .080 aluminium in large sheets and covering the windows. As I read of other projects I found it better to skin each individual window. This last week I took two 4' by 12' sheets of aluminum to Complex Fab and had the window blanks cut out.

I prepped all the aluminium with primer and put one coat of Rustoleum Hammered Brown. The hammered look will be great for hiding some of the imperfections.

My helper today was my daughter and I could not have done all this without her. Riley helped me take the aluminum blanks and use 1/16" aluminium angle to secure each one in place of the old windows.

The last part of my day was getting the back of the bus painted so I can install the Voyager rear view camera. I am using Black Jack 10 Year White Siliconized Elastomeric Roof Coating. This is after three coats so I will definitely be using a primer when I get to the rest of the roof. You can see the corner of the back where I rolled some of the hammered brown to see how it looks. I am really pleased with the Rustoleum paint.

Something intersting we found out. Each window weighs over 15 pounds and the window skin with the brackets to secure it to the window frame weighs just under 6 pounds. By changing out the 10 windows we will be saving over 100 pounds when you consider two emergency exit windows.

Not that this big girl is watching her weight, I'm just saying...