1981 Ford Brougham 20’

[2Goonies]

Hello all!
Just jumped into RVing with both feet and bought a 1981 Ford Brougham 20’ motor home. This thing is great, but has a few things I need to tackle. I searched the forums and struck out looking for some info and am hoping for some help.
Anyone know a good source for replacing all the window seals? Does anyone make a kit for this? Also, does anyone know where I can find any manuals for this RV (maintenance/owner)? Mine didn’t come with any. Thanks for the help!

[F76Marion]

Goonie,

Yes, you jumped in with both feet, but head first!

Ford is just the chassis builder. If you can find a chassis model, get what ever books you can find at what ever price you have to pay.

Brougham is most likely a builders model name. There was a Brougham manufacturer once, but it was before 1980 iirc. See if you can find a mention of a builder there some where.

The next thing you should do is start getting friendly with the Tin Can Tourist people. They are the biggest group of vintage and antique RV people that have any real organization.

I wish you luck.

Frank

[Old Ranger]

Hi,

We have an 83 Brougham 25' on a Ford e-350 chassis. There are two seals on the windows. The seal, bytal tape, between the window frame and the outside and the rubber seal between the glass and the window frame.

Over time both seals break down. The first is pretty easy to fix. Unscrew the inside window frame, lots of screws, remove the inner window frame and remove the window. If the bytual tape is really old the window may just fall out so be sure to have someone outside to hold the window in place. The window may also be really stuck requiring some prying from the outside around the window frame. Once the window is out clean all the old seal from both the window frame and the motorhome. I gently or not so gently scrape as much seal off as possible then clean with denatured alcohol. Then when clean and dry apply new bytual tape to the inside of the window frame and put the window back in, try to align the window with existing screw holes just to make life simpler when you attach the inner window frame. This is a once in every 10-15 year job, but check everytime it rains.

On our motorhome the previous owner used a variety of fiberglass resins, caulking and whatever was on hand and "worked" to try to short cut pulling the windows. This stuff can be really hard to remove!

The second seal is significantly harder to do. Each glass window is secured in the window frame by a rubber gasket/grommet. These get old and stiff, just like me, and leak mostly at the corners and where they join. In the short term I broke down and applied some clear caulking on the rubber to fill in any gaps. In the long term I plan to take one of the smaller window out and take it to a glass shop to figure out what size and type of rubber to redo the window. This is a once in 40+ year job.

P.S. While you have the windows out to replace the bytual tape check out the wood framing around the windows, may as well fix those while you are there...

Good Luck!

Old Ranger