broken 70 year old metal window

[LMHmedchem]

Hello,

The "newer" part of my house was built in 1950. The basement windows are steel hopper windows with 2 panes. Recently, my dog managed to break a pane of glass in one of them chasing after her ball.

It looks like the windows are just held in place with glaze. I comes out quite easily. It looks as if I could just remove the old window and glaze and replace it with a new window.

1. I can't tell if there is anything else holding the window in place other than the glaze, is there anything I should be looking for?
2. What glaze should I use when replacing the windows, keeping in mind that I think that the glaze is all that is holding it in.

Thanks,

LMHmedchem

 

[Snoonyb]

There may be a couple of spring clips, under the glazing compound, if not just use the standard glazing compound.

 

[LMHmedchem]

There may be a couple of spring clips, under the glazing compound, if not just use the standard glazing compound.

I haven't glazed windows since the dark ages. Is there some particular product that you would recommend? It would have to be painted after it cures.

LMHmedchem

 

[Snoonyb]

Just the standard any hardware store product.

 

[Steve123]

Probably nothing holding in the glass, but anyways, it will be obvious once you remove the old glass and putty.

Any brand of glazing compound will work. However, in my experience its amazing how many of the glazing compounds suck (i.e sticks to putty knife rather than window, breaks up as you pull knife). Don't know if maybe glazing putty is not used much anymore and maybe the stuff in hardware stores get old, but you would think that if we can put a man on the moon, we could come up with a good glazing compound.
Around here, everybody and his brother just sells the DAP. But I had good results with Glazol last time I did a window.
Sometimes I wet the putty knife with a bit of oil to get a smoother surface.

Follow instructions on how long to wait before painting.

 

[bud16415]

I think I would put it in with Lexel Sealant and then paint to match window.

If you wear a neoprene glove and dip your finger in paint thinner you will be able to smooth the bead out.

 

[LMHmedchem]

I think I would put it in with Lexel Sealant and then paint to match window.

I have some silicone that I will use to bed the glass and then apply a small bead on the outside. The color I have matches the exterior paint pretty well. I flush it up with lacquer thinner, which I find works better than paint thinner for 100% silicone. I like the silicone mostly because I already have it.

But I had good results with Glazol last time I did a window.
Sometimes I wet the putty knife with a bit of oil to get a smoother surface.

I have not been able to find Glazol anywhere, even to order. Sarco Dual Glaze also has a good reputation for metal windows, but the smallest size I could find was a quart for $30. I don't need it that badly.

I ended up using an oscillating saw with an old (pretty dull) wood cutting blade to get the old glaze out (after removing the broken window). That removed most of it. I followed with a couple of different wire brush attachments on a drill and then a 2" sanding disk with 60 grit. That has 99%+ of the old glazing off.

Is it necessary to get all of it out? I would expect that anything that survived the above and is still stuck in there isn't going anywhere but there is no point in not asking.

I am of a mind to paint the metal frame with a coat or so of clean metal primer before I add the new glazing. This is both to protect the old metal and help the glazing to stick. Does this make sense or is this a bad idea?

There were 4 spring clips hiding under the old glaze, so I need to order some new ones. Perhaps someone could think that they don't need to come in packs of 50!!!

I have a can of Aqua Glaze which I plan to use unless that, again, is a bad idea.

Most of the glaze is missing from the bottom edge of the window that is not broken. It looks like the rest of the glaze around the window is sound. Do I need to do anything special to replace that? Can I just remove anything that is loose and apply some new glaze?

Thanks,

LMHmedchem

 

[tomtheelder2020]

When preping to paint old windows, keep in mind that original primer was likely lead based.