BUILD STAGE III: WINDOWS & SEALS
Olivia and I love the look of the untinted windows on the Troopy. With nine large openings, we get tons of natural light, and visibility is exceptional. All that sun is a little overwhelming in the summer though and we wanted to minimize the amount of heat buildup in the vehicle. The application of the Lizard Skin insulation had made quite a large improvement, but it didn’t address the sunburns Olivia would get on sunny days. Our solution was to use Lexen 70% GEN II KoolMax Supreme Ceramic window tint. The 70% is nearly imperceptible while still blocking significant amounts of IR radiation.
This part of the build was an incredibly frustrating process. Tinting the windows and replacing the seals was something I had initially been excited about, but it quickly turned into a slog that lasted about a month. We spent ~$330 for the window film and a few tools to complete a job that would have easily been over $1,000 to have a shop do. Saving over $700 allowed us to purchase new seals for every window, the doors, and a few other odds and ends. With a total of 12 panes of glass being tinted, it was a ton of work. Every window was supremely dirty, had scratches, and what appeared to be tiny chips.
This rough surface resulted in tiny bubbles even after thoroughly cleaning each window. There was only one application that went well, the rest were a bit of a nightmare. I spent the majority of the month in a bad mood as I stressed about the windows and difficult math/electronics courses I was taking for work. Each time I started a new window, all I could think about was how terribly the last one had gone. I spent a significant amount of time fixated on the flaws.
As I was tinting the windows, I was also replacing door and window seals and refurbishing the frames for the cargo windows. It was obvious I had far too much on my plate, but with the Troopy torn apart and a trip on the horizon, I had to push forward. The door seals were simple to replace and prevented significant amounts of dust from entering the vehicle. They were an easy fix with a big return on investment. The cargo window frames were a different story.
After removing the frames, each one was sanded, treated for rust prevention, and then spray painted. I chose an enamel paint and clear coat because the price of having them powder coated would likely have been more expensive than buying new frames. In general, I feel that spray paint is a poor choice for projects like this, but these frames have plenty of life left in them.
The seals for these windows really sent me for a loop. The stress of work and tinting was getting to me and when I accidentally installed the wrong seal in a frame I started to feel like I was loosing my mind. The part numbers were nearly identical and the part names made no sense. I shuffled the seals between each frame multiple times, unable to figure out how the damn things were supposed to line up with the latches and drain holes.
Eventually I was able to sort the seals out and finish the tinting. Gluing the windows back in finally allowed me to decompress and see where I had started to go wrong. I had become fixated on perfection and forgot what I love so much about classic 4x4s like this. These vehicles are a canvas and as they age, they tell a story. The patched body panels, broken antenna, and dented rear door hold decades of stories. It’s not the ultra polished vehicles that remain imprinted in my mind. It’s the faded red Series Land Rover with large sections of visible aluminum, rivets holding accessories to the hood, and broken tail lights.
This is the type of character that initially drew us to a vehicle like the Troopy, and it is ultimately what sold Olivia and I on this particular one. Coming back to our original reason for buying this vehicle provided clarity and helped me move forward with the build process. We don’t need a perfect vehicle with professional repairs and a full restoration. We need a simple system that is going to stand up to high milage over rough terrain. I may not be thrilled about the small bubbles in the window tint, but there hasn’t been a single time they have caught my attention while driving. Owning a vehicle this old isn’t about a frustrating pursuit of perfection. It’s about continuing a story that provides happiness and fulfillment.
