Pretty much the first proper job on a van is the installation of windows, which means cutting some rather large holes. For my build that consists of 2 roof lights and 3 windows.
Roof lights
I started with the roof lights. First I made some frames. These helped with drawing the cutout as they gave me a rectangle to trace around once I'd made my measurements.
Front Roof light
The morning started off a bit damp, but the forecast was dry. However, it lied and the mizzle slowly came down so...
This worked out really well, but it means that a lot of the following imagery has a very green hue. I then took a heat gun to the roof to dry it up.
The instructions called for a 24mm hole on the cut-out's corners, so I measured a box and joined the corners so I'd know where to start drilling for the hole saw.
Gotta stick your head through. It's the law.
As much as I'd like to say this was by design, it was pure chance.
One good thing about the Boxer is that it has a flat bit at the front for a roof light, but it's not quite big enough for the 700x500mm Dometic Heki that I used. This means I needed to fill in the roof to make it flush.
One thing to bear in mind is that 3D prints are prone to being porous, so once the light was in I covered any exposed faces in sealant.
I had to modify the frame slightly to fit next to the structural beam. I just took about 20mm off the edge with the jigsaw. I also needed to add some height to take in to account the raised section of roof. By pure luck the bit I just cut off was exactly the size required to fill that gap!
Rear roof light
The placement of this one was a lot trickier. I want it to be central to to the bed, so it required a lot of measuring, and re measuring. I spent about 2 or 3 hours agonising over it. I then cut out some card board templates for the solar panels so I could get an idea of how it all fit together to make sure I'd fit the panels on there after it was installed.
I failed to document this one so well, but it's largely the same as the one prior. So here's a hole.
One difficulty of this install was the structural beam it would be going through. The jigsaw couldn't get through it as the blade wasn't long enough, so I had to but up to it and use the Dremel on the beam and remainder of the cut.
The beam needed to be cut back to fit the frame.
I then got another 10 of the 3D printed "roof fillers", stuck them down, stuck the roof light on top with Sikaflex, then clamped it down on the frame.
Windows
Sliding door window
I used the Dremel to remove a section of the supporting strut to allow me to hold the frame against the door for measuring. I also shaped the edge of the frame to the curvature of the van wall so I didn't flatten the panel.
This was another rather agonising measurement, as it's all based on what will be there in the future and it's super hard to find something to measure off! Thankfully there's nothing directly below or above this window, which gives a little room for error.
Driver's side window
This one had a full strut to remove which is spot welded in place. I just cut the welded bits with the Dremel and ripped it off
You can see the factory foam adhesive left behind.
I failed to document this one, but it's basically the same as before. Measurement of this one was super crucial as there's a seat going under it and a cabinet going above it.
Kitchen window
This one is better documented, and shows the process a little better.
To get a better idea of where I wanted to put the kitchen window I made a mockup of the kitchen on a piece of cardboard.
Done
