Greetings from Kansas

[RvRev2]

Howdy all,
I finally found (October 2024) my 1976 Eleganza II after months and months of searching and dreaming. (I've already informed the GMCMH Registry with the VIN) The previous owner had just rebuilt the 455 with just 300 miles one, not even broken in yet! He had also replaced the old 16.5" rims with 16" Alcoa's with new Michelin rubber. With this, I figured most of the expensive mechanical upgrades have been done, and therefore this was a good buy.
One of the first things I did was replace the old rear air springs with the Sulley Air Bags. The old ones were peeling apart and quite scary. I really didn't want to drive it much until that was safely taken care of. I purchased from Applied GMC, and finished the installation yesterday. It was an easy, fun project.
I have had a lot of fun crawling all over and under the rig testing things and checking things out.
I am looking forward to refreshing the old girl to look good once again. I want to replace the carpet, but don't know if I should put in new carpet, or a hard surface flooring. I'm open to suggestions, recommendations, guidance with this.

 

[pvfjr]

Welcome, and congrats on your new ride! It looks great!

For the flooring, many of us like to sweep out the main walkway. I like to have hard floors on the lower level, with rugs that feel nicer on bare feet but can be shaken out if needed.

In the cockpit area though, some sort of sound deadening is great. Padding and carpet work wonders, but aren't sweepable of course. If you take short trips and can save the cleaning for when you get home, great. Or you can get some sort of portable vacuum. Another option is the EVA "boat flooring" stuff that looks like teak. There's the brown, but grey is getting popular as well.

 

[RvRev2]

Welcome, and congrats on your new ride! It looks great!

For the flooring, many of us like to sweep out the main walkway. I like to have hard floors on the lower level, with rugs that feel nicer on bare feet but can be shaken out if needed.

In the cockpit area though, some sort of sound deadening is great. Padding and carpet work wonders, but aren't sweepable of course. If you take short trips and can save the cleaning for when you get home, great. Or you can get some sort of portable vacuum. Another option is the EVA "boat flooring" stuff that looks like teak. There's the brown, but grey is getting popular as well.

Thanks pvfjr.
by the way, the original vacuum is still there and works

 

[pvfjr]

Thanks pvfjr.
by the way, the original vacuum is still there and works

Oh awesome! Mine is missing
That makes it easier to keep rocking shag carpet in the cockpit if desired.

 

[RvRev2]

I would love to see how you guys updated your flooring. Can any of you reply with pictures? My color scheme is brown.

 

[pvfjr]

Both of my GMCs still need a little work in the flooring department, but are both using grey vinyl plank currently. A mix of PO work and some temporary repairs...

One coach that comes to mind is Ed's '74. @74_Coach has done some tidy repairs/upgrades to his subfloor and full carpeting. Here's a thread with some pictures. Scroll to the bottom for instant gratification with the carpeting complete. Notice the hatch work, too.

My 1974 Money Pit: Mods & Updates

I have posted comments and pictures of my coach rehab on other threads but I figured it’s time to start my own thread. Front Cap Mods: As many of us have discovered, the plastic in these coaches hasn’t held up well over the past 40+ years. Both my front cap speaker/light plastic bezels were...

www.gmcmotorhome.org

 

[pvfjr]

Another excellent build thread to check out is Justin Brady's. Here's a link showing what a wood-look main floor and carpeted cockpit look like:

My 1976 Palm Beach Total Overhaul

I like the fact that one could stick their head out of them much easier than the original. If they were defective and had to be updated to correct defects then I would have to agree that charging for the updated parts is not cool. you know, I recall reading on GMCnet (while searching for...

www.gmcmotorhome.org

 

[pvfjr]

One word of caution on choosing a "hard surface" floor like vinyl planks...
Be wary of the coefficient of thermal expansion. It's essentially just a percentage of growth a material experiences for each degree of Celsius increase. Usually it's a very small number like 4.0x10^-6 for wood. Vinyl is about 10X worse! This is why floating floors must float. Not such a problem for homes that are usually kept within a few degrees of nominal. RVs are another story. They may see 0F, or they may see 130F inside depending on how they're stored. Plank flooring may pull apart or buckle, especially if run longitudinally instead of transverse.

Some products are better than others, but read the fine print. If the manufacturer only warranties the material for homes kept above 50F, that's a red flag.

 

[RvRev2]

Thanks Paul. Those were outstanding!