Well it's starting sooner than planned.

Sat morning I start removing everything from the drivers platform to the rear window.

Our goal is to replace the subfloor on up to and including the ceiling. Reinsulate everything, enlarge the shower, eleminate the dinnete, reconfigure the couch/bed. Generally just update everything.

It has been remodeled once in the past, so keeping it 100% original is not realistic. We have been looking for a smaller coach that we could configure to our liking. Really it will be mostly my wife and myself so the 23' will be fine. If the kids want to come then it's tent city.

Have some chassis items that will be address and I will keep them in the Tech forum, thought I would use this area for interior upgrades.

Have a couple interior pics to post. The interior is not in bad condition. Lot of the motivation for this is that every system needs to be gone through anyway, and we really want to redo the bath. I have ran into a chassis issue that will require the removal of the shower anyway, so we decided to just jump in and go for it.

Will try to keep cost to a minimum, however I understand that when it's all said and done, I will have more into it than it's worth. I feel that even with that, if we can get several years of enjoyment from the ol-girl then it will be all worth it.

The chassis / body is strong and in good condition, We feel it's going to make a great platform for our project.

Had looked at several other brands and most where much newer. Most where 3 times the cost and where stick and staple construction. We figure that if it's lasted 34 years so far, 10 or so more are not out of the question.

Well

Let the fun begin,

will try to take photos along the way.

John

Yee Haw!! This looks like some fun stuff! The San Quentin decor in the bath will be hard to duplicate. Most of the rest looks good and shouldn't take all that much to make something of. I'll watch this post and chime in when I feel I can help, as I know a bunch of the others will. Good luck!

This one looks like it's going to be a fun project. Keep taking and posting pictures.

Day one of the Distruction.

Spent about 3 1/2 hours on this today and got almost one side ripped out.

First the boneyard



Little rust on top of the wheelwell


The Bath


Passenger side after today



Hope to get some time to do some cleanup tonight after dinner. Will try to get a few more hours on it tomorrow.

The construction on this is top notch. They just don't fall apart. Takes lots of big hammers and saws.

More tomorrow.

John

Your scrap pile looks very familiar, Just went to the dump with our pile, It filled up most of the garage and smelled like squirrel PE. A Saws-All worked great for cutting the shower in half to get it out the door. Small leather module couches with storage at Target worked great for a sectional, and you can move them around to make a full bed.

Scott,

How far down did you tear into it? I am thinking all the way to the frame even replacing the subfloor. It has a small amount of fiberglass insulation in it and would like to increase that as much as possible.

Do you have any pics of your work in progress?

thx
John

Lookin good! Well, sort of . Here's a link to keep in mind for any tank replacements you might need. They set me up with a new waste tank when noone else could help me. Good guys that know their stuff. Keep the pix and updates coming.
http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/p...s_rv_accessories.htm

I have delt with PPl before and they are top notch.

It has two tanks the one in the back is for the black and then a grey under the couch area. downside is that they are not connected and you would have to move the dump hose. I will look in to either one big tank or connecting the two.

Thanks
John

Looks alot like my 78. Great pile of "Barth Guts" are you going to gut and replace everything? Would love to get a couple of the 12v square light fixtures if your not going to reuse them.
Mark

It's going down to the frame. Have a couple soft spots in the floor so I think I am going to replace that also.

Don't think I am going to reuse the lights, but not 100% sure at the moment

PM me next week and I will know then

John

Well,

Junk pile is getting bigger and the coach is getting more and more empty.

some pics



was going to take up the subfloor, but it's really not in bad shape and it extends under the walls, so not enough reason to go there. Don't want to remove the body. Just going to patch a couple places and do some leveling.

more later

John

Now would be a good time to make a wiring diagram...

Got that rite,

was going to rewire the entire coach, but looking at the wires so far they all appear to be in great condition. The 110v is 12g and the 12v looks to be 16g, so they are not undersized. will do a closer inspection and a diagram. Will compare the wires to the blueprints that I have and see how close they are.

John

The flying Propane tank



Got the tank all the way out the other day, so today I knocked most of the coating on the tank off with a wire brush and sprayed it with an rust stopper (Ospho). It has to sit 24 hours then I will paint it. What I thought was rust pitting was the coating on the tank, kinda like a bedliner material.
Took the water heater out also so I could remove the wheel cover. Will leave the heater in and test when I get the propane system working again.

got a million more rivet heads to grind off before I start to put it back together.

Think it's torn down just about as far as I will go.



John

quote:

Originally posted by John C.:
What I thought was rust pitting was the coating on the tank, kinda like a bedliner material.


John

Since you are doing such a good job on the rust, you might want to really check out the bedliner stuff. I have seen some horrible rust damage lurking undetected underneath spray on bedliner. It rusted right through, while everything looked perfect topside.

Another thought......You could gain some space and remodeling flexibility by doing away with the heater. We got rid of both of ours.

We use a Mr Heater Portable Buddy for warmth when it is cold, but we sleep with no heat, for safety reasons. This works down into the teens.