Restoration addiction gone large: fixing up a 1979 motor hom
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 8:45 am
I've been wanting a Motor home for the last several years, every since we got rid of our travel trailer. I got tired of hauling 30ft of trailer down small lanes or backing into tight camp site's.
So, not having enough money to buy one of the later model diesel "pusher's" (engine in the rear), I decided to buy something older that was mechanically sound just in need of cosmetic touch-up.
In a couple of weeks I found a 1979 Dodge Swinger 440ci with 60,000 miles on it. Best thing about it was being sold by one of the local mechanics of a reputable repair shop where I've had good work done on my trucks. It was his teenage son's and if he was willing to sell it at the shop they must have checked it over mechanically. The Interior was in nice shape---all 70's dark wood paneling--- except the carpet, which was thrashed from said son's muddy boots (he was a logger) and the two German Shepperd's he had living with him.
I paid $800 for it and drove it to a gas station, where I was offered $1000 for the engine and transmission as the guy wanted to put it in his 1970's Dodge Charger. Well, feeling better about the deal (at least I could get my money back if wanted to abandon the project). It ran like a loud top. I got it home and took a look at what I had:
Over the next two months I worked on tearing out the carpet and taking off the hideous orange and brown decal or vinyl strip that runs the length of both sides:
The carpet was pure drudgery; down on you hands and knees pulling hundreds of little staples the person that installed the capet had used, when it had been replaced before.
But the vinyl strip was something else, after 30+ years of sun and weather it was so tough I thought it was paint; so I threw every kind of paint remove and solvents and other goop on it to no avail, till I happened to talk to a RV repair shop about redoing the upholstering, that it was VINYL. Then tried hair dryer and vinyl remover. All that did was turn it into a kind of pasty glue that spread all over the side of the M.H.--- ruined the rest of the paint on that side--- which wasn't that bad, now I'll have to repaint the whole side of the rig.
Anybody got an easier way to get vinyl stickers off painted aluminum?
Thanks for any help.
Clarence
So, not having enough money to buy one of the later model diesel "pusher's" (engine in the rear), I decided to buy something older that was mechanically sound just in need of cosmetic touch-up.
In a couple of weeks I found a 1979 Dodge Swinger 440ci with 60,000 miles on it. Best thing about it was being sold by one of the local mechanics of a reputable repair shop where I've had good work done on my trucks. It was his teenage son's and if he was willing to sell it at the shop they must have checked it over mechanically. The Interior was in nice shape---all 70's dark wood paneling--- except the carpet, which was thrashed from said son's muddy boots (he was a logger) and the two German Shepperd's he had living with him.
I paid $800 for it and drove it to a gas station, where I was offered $1000 for the engine and transmission as the guy wanted to put it in his 1970's Dodge Charger. Well, feeling better about the deal (at least I could get my money back if wanted to abandon the project). It ran like a loud top. I got it home and took a look at what I had:
Over the next two months I worked on tearing out the carpet and taking off the hideous orange and brown decal or vinyl strip that runs the length of both sides:
The carpet was pure drudgery; down on you hands and knees pulling hundreds of little staples the person that installed the capet had used, when it had been replaced before.
But the vinyl strip was something else, after 30+ years of sun and weather it was so tough I thought it was paint; so I threw every kind of paint remove and solvents and other goop on it to no avail, till I happened to talk to a RV repair shop about redoing the upholstering, that it was VINYL. Then tried hair dryer and vinyl remover. All that did was turn it into a kind of pasty glue that spread all over the side of the M.H.--- ruined the rest of the paint on that side--- which wasn't that bad, now I'll have to repaint the whole side of the rig.
Anybody got an easier way to get vinyl stickers off painted aluminum?
Thanks for any help.
Clarence