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  • Old Motorhome

    This is where a big-block Duster project, and an ill-advised '80s wood-and-fiberglass motorhome project, has led to.

    Seems that when I pulled the 383 out of a buddy's '71 Duster and found it was shot to hell, my neighbor two doors up was sure I should grab the fresh 440 out of another neighbor's grandpa's old motor coach that was sitting in the back yard, and put it in the A-body. Then that guy came over and saw my motorhome project and essentially said, "crap, my grandpa's motorhome that we're about to scrap is better than that one you're working on". Then the Duster owner bought a 520, but that's another story. Are you keeping this straight?

    So there's this old whole-different motorhome that I go over to look at although I no longer need the motor and the guy is right, it is better. Plus it's all steel, no huge expanses of plastic and wood siding that are coming apart as the adhesive decomposes, like mine. The old thing is really built pretty well. The look? Homely, to say the least. It really ain't pretty. But it has character...

    I pass this by the wife, and of all things she's good with it. She agrees with the neighbor about our present one (they're both right) and thinks the other one is kinda cute.

    So, here we go. Guess I'll junk the other one, even after all my work (much of which was fighting the adhesive problem, which was just a losing battle no matter what I did). Anybody need a buildable truck-454?

    The Superior Coach Co. was an Ohio company whose roots went back to the early days of the automobile. They built custom bodies for existing chassis, mostly hearses and ambulances at first. They eventually moved on to bigger things and built many a schoolbus from the forties-'80s. During the late sixties they tried motorhomes...but it was a tough market with lower-cost competitors using wood frames and aluminum siding. By the end of the seventies when Chrysler was in trouble and required to drop their motorhome-chassis business as a condition of getting government loan guarantees, Superior was finished.



    There are a few Superiors around, but nothing like from the other companies. I am not sure how many made it out West from Ohio, this one came from Montana and I think the neighbor's (who I am now good friends with) grandpa was the second owner.



    Those Superiors I've seen are still very structurally intact, although the plywood interiors get awful. That is the case with this one.



    So first things first...out with the old.



    This filled a dumpster and four barrels, and I'm not done yet. I will post more as things proceed, and this yet-another-project competes with all the others.
    ...

  • #2
    Re: Old Motorhome

    Sweet!

    probably can't afford to build one with as much steel as that thing has in it these days.

    You need to have a bonfire party with all that old plywood.

    Does the roof leak?

    Hopefully you dont' have any mold issues in there.

    This will be a fun one to follow. Are you going to glue up celotex then new paneling over the exterior skin?
    There's always something new to learn.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Old Motorhome

      ***Thread hi-jack***

      So what's happening with the Cherokee and the Camaro?

      ***hi-jack off**

      I like the advert, all steel - yes, and style - not so much!

      Cool porthole in the door tho

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Old Motorhome

        I don't think school-bus-derived construction techniques were competitive economically for motorhomes, but it did make for something that's still around 35 years later. There are holes in the roof...like, dozens of 3/8ths drilled ones...thanks to the inventor/previous owner who had all manner of brackets, racks, and a solar panel array up there. Not sure of best way to plug them yet, I'd rather not weld. Burning that plywood-panel interior might cause a poisonous formaldehyde cloud to drift over the neighborhood, better to just bury it! :D No mold, btw.

        RacingSnake, good to hear from you. We are -hoping- to be at the last El Mirage meet this year, with a turbo-rotary Mazda pickup.

        The Camaro has sat for a long time but I bent up the pieces for a cage recently and have been doing rust repair around the rr window this week. Ho hum, that is some time-consuming stuff. The Cherokee stopped at the point where I needed to pay to have the front D44 axles cut/splined, but the season's coming and it may get dragged out again soon. If I make any actual significant progress on those, I will update.

        Anyhow, back to the bus. Oh crap, did I just give it a name? No-no, not "bus"! We don't know what to call the thing yet. :D
        ...

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Old Motorhome

          cut the back open, put a hinged ramp door on and make a car hauler out of it!!
          67 Fairlane 434 ci/464 hp/488 tq-RIP
          05 GTO torrid red/red gut, LS2, Auto (my knees hurt!)

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Old Motorhome

            Originally posted by Loren
            Anyhow, back to the bus. Oh crap, did I just give it a name? No-no, not "bus"! We don't know what to call the thing yet. :D
            I think you just found a good name. "The Thing" works nicely....

            Of all the paths you take in life - make sure a few of them are dirt.

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            • #7
              Re: Old Motorhome

              Now that's something you don't see every day.... a motor home thread. This could get interesting! ;D

              That's one thing in the back of my head is to find an old motor home to fix up too. Especially now that I have the space to keep it...just need the money :'(
              Tom
              Overdrive is overrated


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              • #8
                Re: Old Motorhome

                Yay, home from work and can see pictures. That's a lot of crap to take out :o Any pic's of the inside with everything removed?
                Escaped on a technicality.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Old Motorhome

                  "We are -hoping- to be at the last El Mirage meet this year, with a turbo-rotary Mazda pickup."

                  Cool, I should be there too. I dig those early Mazda trucks.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Old Motorhome

                    Loren you wacky bastard....this is great!

                    That which you manifest is before you.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Old Motorhome

                      Can't you just imagine a motor home with a narly sounding cam and headers?
                      Tom
                      Overdrive is overrated


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