It has come time to fit the window into the caravan. More than anything else this is the moment where everything changes one way or another. Either it will go in and seal or I will have failed, because to be honest I dont think that I would be bothered stripping it all down to try again. Too many other jobs around here needing done to spend any more time on it..

Having said all that I am going to try and explain in as much detail as possible how the job was done so that it may be of use to someone else in the same position. This is page is full of pictures, so give it time to load.

Ok. My window had mastic around the inner edge of the seal, the one that the "glass" sits in. I cleaned the old stuff out and now I pipe in a line of fresh non-drying mastic. Once that is done I fit the "glass" into the seal. Thats pretty straightforward. Now we get a length of thin rope and run it around the outside of the seal...in the space the window frame goes in to. Like this:

Thanks to my niece for her assistance.

Heres another shot showing the mastic peeking out of the seal.

Now present the whole assembly to the window frame and sit it on the lower edge. Centre it as well as you can. One of you has to go inside at this point which was me, leaving my younger brother to guide from the outside.

When you are ready fish out one of the ends of the rope and start to pull it into the van. Hold it at near 90 degrees and pull firmly and constantly. You will see that the inner edge of the seal starts to come through the frame and pop over the edge. Like this:

The person on the outside has to apply a firm and steady pressure to the window to make it sit into place. Gently does it, pay attention to the job and all should go smoothly enough. It may get a little harder as you near the end, just slow down and you will manage alright.

And here is the finished article. Boy was I glad to see this when I went back outside!

Now, the more observant among you will have noticed that I didn't apply any mastic between the window and the frame. We had worked out that there is enough play in the seal before you put the spacer strip in to allow us to backfill the mastic. It was simple enough to open that even my niece could do it easily...although she is a bit of a ninja kickboxer type girl and is strong as an ox really!

Then it is time to put the spacer strip in to the seal to hold it all in place. you should have noted where the ends were when you took it out so start there and feed the strip back in. By the way, pay very close attention to the shape of this strip before you haul it out, we had to work out which way it went back in and yours may be a different shape!

We popped the fat end in to the seal and used an old screwdriver to ease it in. Remember to stretch it a little as you go or else the ends may not meet.

A gentle twisting motion works

I then went around the seal with a wallpaper roller to smooth it out and persuade the mastic to spread evenly

And there you have it. There may be some mastic to wipe off here and there, but as far as we can see the window is securely in place and should be watertight. I can have a beer tonight and start the day tomorrow knowing that the worst of it is surely behind me. I might get away on holiday yet!

Jobs still to do include fitting a battery box inside the van and re-attaching the trims. Thats where I will be tomorrow.