Trade Van's windshield for Cee Bailey's?

Need some advice from the brain trust on whether or not to trade in my existing Van's windshield and rear windows in for the Cee Bailey's set.

Pros:
It looks like the CB are of higher quality and require less fitting effort. I also like the increased tint available. A bit more expensive.

Cons:
I have to try to ship back Van's windshield which sounds difficult given its size. CB only ships them freight, for example. Maybe I could try to sell it to a local builder if there's one that's interested?

Questions:
- I haven't removed the protective plastic from the existing windows. Are they clear or tinted?
- How many hours did you put into the windshield and window fitting process?

Thanks for the advice,
David

The Vans are lightly tinted gray. It will take you less than a day to fit the rear and same for the front. Since you already have the plexi, I would just use it and spend the money on something else cool!

Vans vs. CB

I went through the same thoughts as you. I have the standard Vans windows, but looked at other builders blogs that suggested that the CBs were better and easier to install. I can't speak on that since I haven't installed the Vans ones yet. However, it's my understanding that Vans "credit back" policies (even if you delete the items from your kit purchase) are designed to make sure they don't lose money when people go to aftermarket products. So my thinking is that this route costs a premium any way you look at it. Perhaps they're worth it, I don't know. I thought about sending them back and buying the CBs, but the additional costs prevented me from doing so.

I'd probably just keep what you have. I don't recall the front window being all that difficult. I spent more time triming the rear windows. I don't think I spent over thirty minutes to trim and fit the front one.

bob

As I recall the windshield has a bulge on the right corner. CB fixed that on theirs. It takes a bunch of filling because that bulge is very close to the door, so it's kind of difficult to blend it all in.

Lenny

Perhaps Van's has improved their windshields, or perhaps I did something dumb, but I had a heck of a time getting my front windshield to fit. Had about a 1/2 inch gap on the right side, which I eliminated with clips that pulled it down. Having the windshield loaded like that makes me uncomfortable, and I would not do it again.

Split decision!

I was about to just keep the Van's transparencies and then this windshield bulge emerged. Need more input!

David

I just did the trimming a couple of weeks ago, and have to agree that the job was not all that difficult or time consuming. The rear windows went quicker for me I think partly because the material is thinner. My thinking was I already have the parts, so I'll see how tough it is for me and if I screw it up or it doesn't trim to a good fit, then I'll think about spending the money on the CBs. Since they haven't been permanently mounted I may have some more trim work ahead, but I'm not sweating it. I put a 3" dremel wheel (metal with grit on the edge) on the die grinder and that greatly sped up the cutting time on both the cabin top and the windows vs the standard cutoff wheels. I logged 4.5 hours trimming all three, and that includes dressing the edges after cutting to fit - and trying various methods to best determine where the middle of the cabin top is.

Plus, when one of the rear windows blows out at 5,000 feet, I'll be glad it's not a more expensive model.

Kidding, I'm kidding...

==dave==
N102FM reserved

I bought the windows for the door and the back from Bailey and if I were to do it again I would not. The windows I got from them fit tight to the joggle and I had to trim them back. I wanted a 1/8 gap between the plexi and side of the joggle for expansion so I had to trim them. I would of had just as much time into the vans. Save your money and put it into something else. The front window and I have a 6 year old kit went really easy and didn't take a lot of time to trim. Just my two cents worth

Stay away from Baileys

The windows are pretty easy. I though about the same thing. Supposedly Baileys stuff is a better fit. I bought their wingtip lenses and not only did they ship me two of the same side, the fit was off. I sent them back and their response was basically "tough sh@&!," pretty horrible service. I had them refund me and ordered the the vans lenses for half the price.... If the windows follow this same mantra,I wouldn't waste your money......
I certainly won't buy anything from them again....

Alright, Vans it is.

Thanks to everyone for the input--- what an age it is in which one person can build an airplane with the experience of a hundred!

David

Bulge

Bringing back an old thread. ... So I kept my Van's supplied windows mostly because I already had them when I first heard there were issues with the fit. And honestly, I had very little trouble trimming them down. Took some time, but I got them to fit very nicely. The rear windows and door windows are glued in and fit really well. Last night I glued in the windscreen. As others have found there is a bulge on the lower right side. Not as bad as I think some have described, but there. I just didn't notice anything off during the fitting process.

Just forward of the passenger door it's good: nice and tight against the side. But an inch ahead of that and for a 14 inch length it gradually bulges out and then back in. At its worst it's 7/32" away from the fuse.

I had planned to do the windscreen base fairing tonight but first I'm wondering if anyone can offer advice on how to fix this. (And getting a new windscreen from Cee-Bailey isn't an option for me at this point). I know this is a well documented issue but I can't seem to find anyone describing how they fixed it.

Thanks,

Cee Bailey

I bought the Cee Bailey windows. Mine fit near perfectly. I think I spent like ten minutes lightly sanding two of the rear window corners that were a little tight.

You can't complain that they don't fit if you want an 1/8" gap all the way around. That's a deviation from the plans and the windows were not cut to provide it.

If anyone needs a stock windscreen or aft windows, let me know...

jwilbur said:

I know this is a well documented issue but I can't seem to find anyone describing how they fixed it.
Thanks,

Click to expand...

Is there anyone who used the stock windows, had the bulge, and fixed it? I'd like to know what you did to fix it.

I too am interested in the fix. I have the stock Vans windows and want to make sure I can get my finished product to my personal OCD standards...

Cee Baileys vs Vans

First off- Yes I helped with the shaping of the front windscreen only. I am local to Desser and I offered my windscreen for the satistaction that I would get a custom fit windscreen. SO in my case I have a perfect fitting windscreen. I have stock side (door and rear) from Vans and they are fine-If there is confusion about the "as is" fit, it is slightly larger to allow for custom shaping so no one should expect a perfect fit without some minor adjustments. but there is a huge difference between the CB and Vans fit. We all seem to have that bulge in the lower right windscreen, I find it hard to believe that Vans hasn't fixed that after so many people having this issue. Before I tossed my Vans and installed the CB I used a heatgun on the bulge. Using pressure to squeeze the plexi flush(er) I heated the plexi, as it gets softer it tends to move a little easier. its a slow process and eventually the plexi will flatten out.
I found the CE baileys wingtips to be better quality as well, yes there is a need to trim those as well to get it to form fit, some like more space some don't hence the extra 1/8th all around, but you wont need to cut them half to get started.
In both cases, if I didn't already own the Vans plexi(s) I would order from Cee Baileys as price is pretty much around the same, but if I owned the Vans plexi already I wouldn't return it as it isn't worth that cost. Time wise, CB will save you hours of final fitting however.
As for the lousy attitude with their products and the wingtip, that is surprising, they shipped me the same side as well and immediately shipped me the other side, told me to keep the duplicates and it was shipped same day to me.
In the end having the Vans windscreen will take more time to fit but it will work just fine, if, however, given the choice I would take the Cee Baileys version on my next build.

The plans describe three clips that are pop-riveted into place to hold the lower windscreen. I added a few more of these clips in the area of the bulge to pull it in. As I mention in the post above, it took a lot of pressure to pull it in, and I'm not happy with this fix and would not do it again....if those clips ever let go, I bet the fiberglass fairing pops off, and I don't even want to think about that. But, I had a larger bulge than you, and this fix may be appropriate for a smaller gap requiring less pressure. I guess it is really just a matter of using enough rivets....you could fabricate a long continuous clip plate to make the mechanical bond.

aturner said:

The plans describe three clips that are pop-riveted into place to hold the lower windscreen. I added a few more of these clips in the area of the bulge to pull it in. ... But, I had a larger bulge than you, and this fix may be appropriate for a smaller gap requiring less pressure. I guess it is really just a matter of using enough rivets....you could fabricate a long continuous clip plate to make the mechanical bond.

Click to expand...

I thought about doing something like this. One draw back is these rivet heads will be visible from the inside. Maybe no big deal. In the end and based on some advice I got privately I did nothing special. The bulge in my case is at its worst just under 1/4". I filled in the bulge area with epoxy/flox (dyed black) and followed the plans from there. I'm now in the process of sanding it all nice. I'm paying special attention to the right side and I'm already finding that it's not at all noticeable unless you're really looking for it while comparing to the left side. After I'm finished sanding and shaping I believe it will be hard to find there had been any issue.

If I had a do-over I'd go with the CB windscreen. No question. This has been a lot of unnecessary extra work and worry. As stated before it's very disappointing that Van's hasn't fixed this in the 10 years since it was first documented. They should simply use CB as the supplier and ditch however they're making their transparencies now.

You could...

You could force it and use more clips but would you be happy about pre stressing a piece of 1/4" acrylic?

I know I wouldn't be...just sayin'...

Perfect timing

Just about to pick up the "second half" of my fuselage kit now that the "QB" portion is completed after three weeks at Synergy.

I deleted the Van's transparencies for credit and will buy the Cee Bailey's instead.

Thanks for the positive reviews.