Update

I have not posted for a couple of weeks as I am sure you, my faithful reader, already know.  I have had to take advantage of some unseasonably warm weather in order to get some other things done.  One of those things is to clear some space in my garage (I really didn't want to park my car in the garage anyway).  I now have an area to work on some of the GMC components.  One of the first things I will be working on in my newly formed workshop, is the end-caps and the headliner between the bathroom and closet.  I plan on going to the hardware store and picking up a fiberglass shower repair kit.  There are some cracks in these pieces that will need my attention.  I have never worked in fiberglass before and thats why I am looking into the kits available at the hardware store.  I am hoping that they can make fiberglass repair idiot-proof enough  that even I can handle it.  I will take some pictures along the way so that you can have somthing to look at as I ramble on endlessly about my obsession (I mean project).

Until then...

The Criteria From Here Forward

I have decided to set some criteria for all of the design decisions, and modification going forward. They will have to prioritize in the following order:

1. Safety
2. Durability
3. Serviceability
4. Usability
5. Style - 70's "Funk" with modern materials

Now obviously certain systems will not have to meet all 5 criteria, but all will have to meet the first 4.

From the research that I have done, and from my own common sense, fire prevention, and suppression are serious concerns in a motor home, and all systems will be redone, or re-designed with this in mind. The risk of fire in an RV comes not only from household dangers (stove, furnace, electrical) but from the two engines at each end as well (the generator is in the rear on a GMC). To complicate things even more, the household dangers are increased because of the temperature extremes that an RV is exposed to during storage, and the constant vibrations from driving (which has been compared to a 3.9 earthquake). From my point of view, if you have to call the fire department in the first place, the turds have already hit the turbine so to speak. With this in mind, the effort and expense of replacing all of the 35+ year old wiring, plumbing, and propane lines doesn't seem so bad. In fact replacing all of this stuff seem more like cheap insurance and common sense.

Durability, serviceability, and usability have more to do with me being lazy than anything else. I don't want to do a restoration like this again any time soon. I want to update everything one time and one time only. I want to be able to get in and go, and know that everything will work. Outside of routine maintenance, I want vacation home, not another project. If something does break, I want to be able to get to it and fix it as easily and quickly as possible.

Style ideas and decisions will be approved by my wife. She is a fan of the retro 70's "funk" as much as I am (can you beleive we found each other?) , but has a much better sense of style than I do. Now that we are not trying to keep things completely original, we have a lot more leeway in the style department, and may not keep the same color scheme inside. There has been much talk of an orange & white theme inside while keeping the outside green. Cant get much more funky than that! I may have figured out conceptually how to mount a disco ball, not sure if it will be economically feasible though. We will see.

Original Interior

This is the idea I was going for:
























I will try to keep this feel as I redo the interior. Note that my GMC differs from this one in that mine does not have the central vacuum system, and mine has facing love seats that convert to a double bed in the rear, where the one above has a permanent bed.

Middle Aged Sagging

So next up is an issue all too close for comfort for those of us who have reached a certain age. Middle age sagging. It effects all of us, we start to get a little wider around the middle. It also effects GMC motorhomes. One of the neat features about the GMC is that it is built similar to an airplane. The sides are bowed. This also has created a problem as these coaches age. As they get older, the weight of the roof, air conditioner, storage pod (mine does not have a pod at this time) stress the side beams causing them to bow even more. Some of the symptoms of this are that the cabinets no longer fit properly, the door does not close properly, and the bathroom and closet doors cant open all the way. The picture below is sideways, so you will have to make people watching you read this smile as you crane your neck sideways to view it properly. It is a close-up of the door latch. Notice how wall behind it does not come in contact with the outer shell. That gap should not be there.


















So what to do now you ask? Fix it of course (why do you ask silly questions like that). The way to fix it is to throw a jack between the roof and floor on the inside and at the same time put a clamp on the refrigerator cabinet and the exterior shell, and squeeze them together until that gap is gone. One the cabinet is properly aligned, you fasten the cabinet to the wall beams that are sagging. I will attempt to do this next summer after the exterior has been sealed and the interior has been properly insulated.


Below is a shot of the original green that I wrote about in my last post. That original green is pretty cool, I hope I can make it work.

Decision Time

I was working on the GMC last night and came across something that may completely change the direction I take with the interior restoration. I removed an indoor thermometer that was stuck to the vacuum hose cabinet. Underneath was a bit of the original green. The original green is much brighter than the green that is showing. It looks like some previous owner went over the original green with shellac or something that has yellowed substantially. Upon further investigation it turns out the counter and cabinets in the galley received the same treatment. This means that if I want an original interior, I will have to refinish the counters and cabinets. At that point it would be easier to replace them. If I am replacing them, why not upgrade the counter. I have always been a big fan of Corian (or knock off) counter tops. I like how they are repairable, impervious, and workable. If I can find a composite counter top in a shade of green that closely resembles the original green I will proceed with my goal of keeping the interior as close to original in appearance as possible. If not, then I may do an interior that is much more modern. We will have to see how this plays out.

Next up, an issue that is a little too close for comfort, Middle Aged Spreading.

Let the Games Begin

So I started work on the GMC today. It appears that I am not the first person to go over this coach. I was told that I was the forth owner of TZE063V101511 (that's my VIN). It looks to me like the second owner (guess on my part) had the headliner redone. From the looks of it I would think that it was gone over in the 80's. I found some extra spray on foam on the ceiling. I know that it has been gone over because the original "snakebite" headliner is gone. The original headliner was cardboard and had tiny holes in pairs (hence snakebite). What I found was Masonite. When it was gone over, they didn't do a very good job on sealing the roof. The Masonite that was put up was rather easy to pull down because it was soggy. I am glad it was in bad shape because I was debating putting up Masonite, or Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP). The FRP is impervious to water (they use it for tub surrounds in cheap apartments), but goes for $27.00 for a 4'x8' sheet. The Masonite goes for $11.00 for a 4'x8' sheet. I was hoping to save some money here, but it looks like it will be well spent on the FRP in case there are any roof issues in the future. That was I wouldn't need to replace it after the leak was fixed.

So on to the pictures. Ever wonder what is underneath the ceiling of a 1973 GMC Motorhome? Well take a look.



This is looking Forward.












This is looking back.










I got the cabinets down, the wire run cover off and the ceiling down from the bedroom forward. The end cap in front (above the drivers area) will need some work. There are some small cracks in it. I am going to try to repair them with a shower repair kit that I can pick up at the hardware store.

Engine Options, Restoration Direction

I left the engine discussion pondering the possibility of a conversion to diesel. I did some research and there is a guy who took a GMC across the pond (England) and converted it to diesel. It wasn't an easy task. I don't think I have the time, tools or expertise to do a conversion like this. Their conversion ended up looking a bit like a reinvention of the wheel. I don't feel the need to chart new territory with this conversion.

I will try to go a different direction from a lot of the restorations that have been done before mine. I am trying to keep things on the interior as close to original in appearance as possible. I will be re-doing the mechanicals (electrical, plumbing, insulation) to avoid catastrophic failure due to materials that have exceeded their useful life expectancy. There is no need to keep wiring or plumbing original and risk having to re-rebuild a system because I was just being cheap or lazy to replace it with better than original. I do want the keep the funky feel of the original interior. I just love the look of those wild ass colors. They just don't decorate stuff like that anymore (most would say that is a good thing, but I am not most, and definitely not normal). I have just started to my search for a source of the original fabrics, so who know how it will end up. Most of the GMC's that have been redone used updated styles. It seems like I am a bit of an odd ball when it comes to this, so I may not be able to, but I'll sure try.

The inside:

This is the inside looking towards the rear from the cockpit










This is looking forward from the bedroom












None of this looks all that bad, until you start looking closely (more on that in future posts). The windows all need to be pulled out, the sliders all need to be re-seamed, new sealer added and replaced. The cabinets and furniture will be removed, and gone over. The interior walls and ceiling will be removed, with new insulation added, and replaced. The carpet will be removed and replaced with one that more closely matches the original (think a louder green). While the walls are down, it will be re-wired, and re-plumbed. This will all be done after the exterior has been sealed up to prevent anymore damage from taking place.

I am thinking that I will start the gutting process this winter. I will seal the outside in the spring, and replace the interior over the summer and into the fall. The engine will be pulled late fall and go in the spring after That should give me enough time to save for the engine rebuild.

Why I chose to restore a GMC

So as you can see from the pictures from the previous post, the outside the GMC needs a lot of work. The inside, as you will see soon, is even worse. So why take on a project like this? Well, when I went looking for an RV about 4 years ago, I came across a nice working, clean model of a GMC. I had looked at a bunch of class C RV's (Van front end with a sleeper over the cab) and a couple Class As' (Bus type). The GMC was the coolest motorhome I had ever seen, and I fell in love. I thought long and hard about it. We had narrowed our choice down to the GMC and a 1989 Fleetwood Bounder. The GMC was twice as much as the Bounder, which would have been tight, but we could have done. The final decision came down to the fact that we had never owned an RV before, and didn't want to screw up such a classic machine. So we bought the Bounder and got to work fixing it up. I always knew that I would take care of a GMC some day (I don't believe you own classic things like this, you take care of them for the next person to care for). After a bunch of mistakes (lessons) on how to care for an RV, I now feel like I can take care of a GMC. I found mine on E-Bay for cheap. I think there was just enough wrong with it that it scared most bidders off (or maybe I was just stupid enough to think I could fix it). So that's why.

A Rough Start

Hers Is The Outside. Original Paint left alone since 1973. I will have to repaint it (no I am not going to change the original color).

Inside Comming Next

Sorry about the poor shots of the outside. I park it in a tight spot. I have my other RV in front of it so it hard to get a straight on shot.

Engine design

I am currently doing research on modifications that I would like to make to the Oldsmobile 455 engine in the GMC. I am very interested in fuel injection. Ideally I would like to go with multi-port injection, but I may only be able to afford a throttle-body set up. I have also been reading about the Coop Kryptonite cam shaft. I am not sure if I can buy the camshaft alone or if it available only as part of the Coop engine (which is too pricey right now). It may work out to bring the torque with the multi-port (fuel rail) alone if the camshaft is too pricey. Save here- gain there. I wish I could afford both the cam and the multi-port but oh well. The current camshaft needs to go as it is a flat tappet, which will require additives in order to function that may not be around for much longer. How the hell does someone go about picking a camshaft anyway. That is why I am hoping to get my hands on the Coop model, as they seem to know what they are doing (which I don't). I would like to plan my engine as soon as possible so that I know how long I will be having to eat Kraft dinner for. I also don't want to do this again for a long time, so I want to do it right. So research, research, research!

A whole different approach would be to go diesel. I am a big fan of diesel (it makes much more sense to me). I have seen on the net that there is a least one GMC'er that has converted to diesel. I wonder how he hooked that up to a front wheel drive transmission. I was thinking that the diesel pushers motorhomes being built now must have some sort of equivalent as the drive wheels and transmission are at the same end of the vehicle. I will have to try and track down this diesel GMC and see if i can find out how he did it.

The Mean Green TZE Rebuild

I just bought a 1973 GMC Motorhome. It is all original inside. It has seen better days. The engine needs a complete rebuild, the interior needs to be gutted and rebuilt, it still has some of the original paint (what has not faded off) and all other systems need to be gone over and fixed. Other than that it in great shape. I have a garage to work in when I move the cars out, some hand tools, and lack just enough sense to think that I can do this project in two years.