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Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:01 am

I'm trying to repair a section on my corner windows on my 52 deluxe. the bottom part of the corner window on the swage line has rotted through.
As its only a small section I didn't want to have to buy a whole Gerson panel. Was going to try one of the cheap brazilian bay corner window panels but I've been told that they are the same shape but are app. 6 mm longer in driving direction and won´t fit unless the Brazil corner window frame is reversed for app. 5 - 7 mm at its front flange to make it fit for a BD samba. And then afterwards the gap needs to be welded up :?
Does anyone know if this difference is a barndoor thing? a plexiglass thing? or just a Brazilian thing?

Unless of course someone has a lower barndoor corner window section going spare :wink:

Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:21 am

Rob,

If you eye your bus up from the back, does it appear that the corner windows drop down below the level of the rear window? They do on mine and appear to on all the pre 53 Deluxes I've seen. This is probably due to the 'handmade' parts on the early buses.

Hence I don't think the bazilian corners will work for you without some a fair bit of reworking.

Inner rear corner frames appear to be made from regular side window inners, simply bent to shape and re-profiled where they meet the rear shelf.

Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:54 am

Cheers for the info.
I've kind of gone off the Brazilian idea. Been offered a section cut from a genuine 15 window, would that be any better?

Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:29 am

early deluxe rear corners were kind of "improvised" at the factory....if you notice on the lower and upper corners of the window you seen relief cutouts, and then a piece of bent/shaped metal that has been welded on after the corner has been formed............ it does not look like they stamped the complete deluxe corner, it looks like they stamped regular corners and then they stamped the corner window section as they needed them...the inner liners are also kind of hand made/improvised, and yes, they look like modified side window liners.....

Mon Feb 25, 2013 12:58 pm

Yes, seen corner-window aperture oddities too on an early dlx. Bulbous at the corner area, & a drop-down profile here to the join with the inner panel. Temptation is to straighten out, & over-restore. Gotta maintain (recreate) those early details. I think of the pre-52s as a prototype/production crossover, with post-53s representing VW getting serious with refined T2 mass production.