Winter Breeze Across My Knees

Its been a busy week, and I've neglected the blog. Sorry.

Since the first Winter, I've had breezes through the bus as I've driven. After replacing rubber seals in doors and windows (I'll post on how to do that some time), I still had wind blowing in. I worked on replacing the heat system (post on that later) and it was still freezing cold and windy. I started trying to track down where the source of the breeze was, and determined it was coming from the sliding door. I spent the $80 on a new door seal before I noticed that the breeze got stronger just after hitting bumps and that the little curtain, as stiff as it was, would ruffle. I realized that the crank-out windows (jalousie, but I call them "jealous" because I can't pronounce jalousie) were the source of the wind.

So, how to fix it?
First, I thought I'd make a plexiglass replacement for the screen. I pulled the screen out, and soon realized that fitting plexiglass between the window frame and the mechanics of the window wouldn't work. This effort did give me an idea of the dimensions for the window.
Next, I remeasured the frame with a plan of cutting a sheet of plexiglass and constructing a frame that would attach to the outside of the inner frame. The frame is 14.5" x 41", so I planned to cut the plexiglass 14"x40.5". I went to Home Depot in hopes of finding old-school plexiglass, but they had some clear resin type sheets that were supposedly stronger. Okay, fine. $20 later, and we have our glass. I cut the rectangular piece and prepared to test set it on the window.
I discovered that the cranker-handle interrupted the plan, and would require cutting out a square. As I was removing the glass from the window frame, I was distracted and dropped the plexiglass. With a resounding break, I no longer needed to cut the square to fit the cranker handle. I needed to cut a whole new sheet.
Before cutting a new sheet, I wanted to be sure this would actually work, so I did a major hack: I duct-taped the partially broken sheet to the window frame. Fortunately, the broken part of the window was only in the corner where it landed. I put that end where the cranker-handle is.

So, did it work?
Yes, it did. This past week has been pretty mild, but windy here in Portland. The windows on the drivers side pop open a little with the wind and a little air comes in, but not at all like the passenger side used to. Now, with the "storm window", there is almost no draft and I can feel the heat system working. In fact, it works so well now, I need to crack the window if I am driving for more than 40 minutes.

I don't know how safe it is for family use, but the bus is a single-person driver in the Winter at this point anyway. Once I figure out how the plexiglass would perform in a traffic accident, I'll construct the wooden frame I described. Barring that, I'll have to figure some other way of Winterizing the jalousie window.
--more next time--