Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service/Install Just Kampers Sliding Middle Windows!

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Jivermo
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service

Post by Jivermo » Sun Jan 24, 2016 1:40 pm

Image

It is finished.
Bus Depot, how about doing your clientele a great service and print some instructions with the windows. At least mount the gaskets correctly on the windows you send out. I wasted a ton of time because of the lack of any guidance about this product, which cost a pretty good chunk of change. We deserve a bit better.

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Amskeptic
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service/Install Just Kampers Sliding Middle Windows!

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Jan 24, 2016 2:46 pm

Glad you got it in. I am not a mallet tapper kind of installer myself, the string does all of the work and the outside person just keeps the as yet-un-pulled section close enough to the pinch weld to be drawn in successfully. After it is installed, then I do a perimeter push to make sure the seal is fully seated. Did you note that a too-helpful outside pusher can actually bind the string pull action, or did you all choreograph smoothly?
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

Jivermo
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service/Install Just Kampers Sliding Middle Windows!

Post by Jivermo » Sun Jan 24, 2016 3:33 pm

It went smoothly. Except when we got the driver's side in and saw that a corner had "rolled", and we had to pull the window out which was a real bear. That was hairy, because when these things are in, they're in! I fashioned some wooden dowels as pushers from the interior, and we tapped, tapped, tapped with that mallet and finally got it free. They look pretty good, but I'm wondering how nice I can get these jalousies looking. Mine need a total rebuild. Aluminum corrosion is nasty. The rubber mallet on the frame was pretty useful, as you could see the window going in as we tapped. Pushing was not quite doing it. Much lubrication was critical, though.

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asiab3
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service/Install Just Kampers Sliding Middle Windows!

Post by asiab3 » Sun Jan 24, 2016 6:02 pm

I have found the vibrations of the mallet to be more helpful than the actual pressure from the blows. When I first installed glass, I would do a couple hundred light taps on the seal to make sure it was duly seated. I've never worked with a helper, just a suction cup with a handle from Harbor Freight. (Probably the best 9$ I've ever spent in my life.)

Nowadays I just crank my subwoofer up and blast the end of the 1812 overture. The vibrations seem to have the same effect.

Glad you got it in, thanks for letting us know what the issue was.
Robbie
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

phaedrus76
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service

Post by phaedrus76 » Sun Jan 24, 2016 9:14 pm

Amskeptic wrote:Bus Depot has been responsive to my various order ailments
. . . I did get my new emblem as promised since the old new one was rather badly peckled.

I also got two new rear reflector housings (that include the lamp sockets and pop into the rear sheet metal).
A sticker on the bag says, and I have to quote now that my camera is DEAD:
EMPI
bulb holder rr side mrk T2 EA
211-945-351A
INDIA

Legal only for racing vehicles which may never be used upon a highway. Not applicable or intended for street or highway use.
Well, that certainly is interesting.
Colin :cyclopsani:
I feel for your upcoming pain. The housing/body isn't bad, but the bases and gaskets are just wrong. Sorry to hear about your latest damage, and I wish you well in getting the rear marker back in working condition.
76 Sage Green Deluxe Westy w/ manual trans.

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Amskeptic
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Jan 24, 2016 9:32 pm

Jivermo wrote:Image

It is finished.
Bus Depot, how about doing your clientele a great service and print some instructions with the windows. At least mount the gaskets correctly on the windows you send out. I wasted a ton of time because of the lack of any guidance about this product, which cost a pretty good chunk of change. We deserve a bit better.
You know, Ian. Looking at that photograph, if that window is opening from the rear, it is in bass-ackwards.

The front pane of glass *has* to overlap the rear piece as it opens towards rear of the vehicle. Otherwise, it would take in vast quantities of water in normal rainy day travel.

The sliding door slider assy actually belongs on the left side of the car, and vice-versa, they just need to be pulled and walked around the car with "out" remaining out and "in" remaining in.
Colin

Image
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

Jivermo
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service/Install Just Kampers Sliding Middle Windows!

Post by Jivermo » Mon Jan 25, 2016 1:18 am

Great. I'll just drive in reverse now.

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asiab3
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service/Install Just Kampers Sliding Middle Windows!

Post by asiab3 » Mon Jan 25, 2016 10:38 am

Theoretically, it shouldn't be any easier or more difficult to install them the other way. So think of the bright side; you already know what you're up against, and you've got more recent practice than pretty much everyone else!

Robbie
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

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sped372
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service/Install Just Kampers Sliding Middle Windows!

Post by sped372 » Mon Jan 25, 2016 11:15 am

Yep, they're backwards. At least you know what you're doing now, though. FWIW I used round string trimmer (weed eater) line and it worked well.
1971 Karmann Ghia - 1600 DP
1984 Westfalia - 1.9 WBX

Jivermo
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service/Install Just Kampers Sliding Middle Windows!

Post by Jivermo » Mon Jan 25, 2016 11:47 am

Thanks, guys, for the positive spin on this. Yes, it's all in recent memory, especially the part about taking the one window out. That's gonna be the rough part. I may just leave them in until I have the jalousie windows refurbished, or until Colin comes down on Itinerant 2016, so he can partake of this pleasurable experience.

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sped372
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service/Install Just Kampers Sliding Middle Windows!

Post by sped372 » Mon Jan 25, 2016 4:26 pm

They'll come out easy since the rubber is new. Fix it, you'll be proud instead of cringing when you look at them.
1971 Karmann Ghia - 1600 DP
1984 Westfalia - 1.9 WBX

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asiab3
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service/Install Just Kampers Sliding Middle Windows!

Post by asiab3 » Wed May 20, 2020 10:12 pm

I can attest, that as of August 30th, 2019, no one there really has any of these busses, and they still have no one there that would be able to help us.

Are they still shipping these windows with the gaskets backwards??

Robbie
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

andrewtf
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service/Install Just Kampers Sliding Middle Windows!

Post by andrewtf » Tue Aug 04, 2020 4:47 am

Robbie,
Can you not attest first hand to this mess?

I have a heavily dimpled sliding window frame in my slider door- which we received much needed assistance with after multiple failures in installation. I am confident you can recall how much cursing, and how too few beers were involved with that. We were all fairly confident that we'd break some glass on each installation (but thankfully didn't).

Getting to do (having to do?) a second one was made easier by our former experience, but was still a bitch.

The slider in my bus is very difficult to slide open.
The one in Big Emma works much more a sit should.

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asiab3
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service/Install Just Kampers Sliding Middle Windows!

Post by asiab3 » Thu Aug 06, 2020 1:32 pm

Yes there was a good amount of cursing, and I still want to re-do Murphy's window.

Ask 70crew about the quarter windows on his truck we did… Almost broke my mallet!
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

Woodstock71
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Re: Bus Depot Complaint-Customer Service/Install Just Kampers Sliding Middle Windows!

Post by Woodstock71 » Mon Jul 24, 2023 12:24 pm

Hi Folks!
I know I'm replying to a very old thread, but I had to chime in and say that thanks to Jivermo and his observations with the Bus Depot gasket, I was able to get the slider window in my '71 Westy without TOO much hassle. Bus Depot did indeed have the gasket on backwards, and if I wouldn't have read this thread, I'd have wound up wasting a lot of time and probably busting the window. :-p So just a heads up for future folks attempting to install a window from Bus Depot: Their gaskets are on backwards! Turn 'em around! :-)

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