1976 Eleganza II

[tmsnyder]

Figured I'd start a build thread for my GMC since it's quite a bit more involved than I was hoping for when I bought it.

To recap, from my previous post: "I'm heading down a road I was hoping to avoid.

Like a scab, I couldn't help picking at the nasty interior on my GMC, and just like that the walls are off and in the dumpster, the seats are at the upholsterer and we're picking out fabric, flooring, headliner etc. The whole shebang. I should have listened to that little voice in my head screaming 'It's a TRAP!' I didn't though. Oh well.

If I were smart, I'd cut bait and sell it to find one that is fairly original and ready to use, that's what I was hoping for anyway.

Isn't this how this things usually go anyway? 'I'll just fix this one thing, ... oh wait, while I'm here let me fix this other thing....' and before you know it it's down to the studs/ribs.

30k or bust, here we come! $hit. "

More to follow. Hopefully some pictures if I can figure out how to do it.

Here's what we've done, and are planning to do.

I've removed the carpet, upper cabinets, front davo, dinette, and rear side face dinette. Removed the raised floor under the rear dinette (found some rot). Removed the headliner and wall liners. Plan is to reupholster the front furniture and ditch the rear dinette for a mattress platform with storage underneath where the rear side-face dinette footwell area used to be.

Thinking about colors and planning ahead, we've got it narrowed down to a couple options for linoleum for galley/door/davo front area. Linoleum is 12' wide, which will cover from the front steps to near the bathroom door. Will probably have to add a layer of luan to get a good surface for the linoleum. I think we're going with a light sandstone / beige random stone pattern. Old floor was dark, harvest gold, so floor will be getting lighter in color vs original, and we're staying in the family of brown colors.

We picked out fabric and put down 1/3 on reupholstering the davo and dinette. There's about a 2 month queue, so waiting to hear from them to drop off the furniture. Original was light tan wide corduroy. We are going with a brown, extremely stainproof fabric. Seats will be getting darker vs the original, similar to the dark walnut cabinets.

We got samples and picked out and ordered headliner for the ceiling and upper parts of the wall, and hull liner for the lower parts of the wall, from SailRite. The headliner is about 1/4" thick foam backed, I'm hoping/planning to glue this to panels of 'plastic cardboard' which is available at lowes/homedepot. It's about 3/16" thick, lightweight, waterproof.

I'm insulating the ceiling and walls with the mylar bubble wrap insulation stuff, taped to the ribs with aluminum tape.

Started at the rear, I've dropped the plastic headliner, washed it and painted it white with Fusion paint. Under the stickers was something close to the original color, it didn't use to be ivory colored, it was bright white at one time. It took like 6 coats to get a decent finish using rattle cans, which I hate. Took 4 cans and my finger darn near fell off from pressing the nozzle. I'm hoping to get that reinstalled tonight or soon thereafter and then work forward with the insulation and headliner.

Some time ago I bought a new drivers seat without first looking at real samples in hand, in natural light, next to the cabinets and dashboard which we be pretty much all that remains of the original interior surfaces. Based on the samples on the website, we choose Mocha. Well, it arrived and it's not really a good match to the image on their website. Damned if it doesn't have a purple hue to it, to me anyway. It's sort of a light brown, but to me all I see is that purple but I have been accused of being color blind, there's a brown chair in our house that I think looks a little bit like really dark green. Anyway, I digress. Instead of doubling down on another seat for the passenger in a color we're not super happy with, we're planning to order 2 seats this time, one for the driver and one for the passenger, after carefully looking at actual samples of the real material. Unfortunately, the samples are tiny, and dammit if Mocha doesn't look pretty good on the sample board! D'oh! I think we're going to forge ahead anyway and try a darker, brown color called Decaf. So if anyone out there is looking for a brand-new drivers seat in Mocha, which may or may not appear to be slightly purple hued, let me know, I've got a deal for you!

We picked out a brown indoor/outdoor carpet, lowes and HD both have it, for the steps and drivers front area. We'll use this also in the rear where the linoleum doesn't reach. I also bought sound deadening material for the front/steps area.

I'll probably put the old upper cabinets back in for camping this summer, but there is some water damage to most of them. I'll probably make new ones someday to get the particle board out of there.

So that's pretty much the overall plan, not really a total gut job, just replacing the old surfaces with new ones. Trying to stay in the same brown color family, some things are getting lighter while other things are getting lighter to hopefully offset. There's a reason that GMC went to Better Housekeeping (?) for picking out the colors, I think this will be easy to mess up, hoping to avoid that.

Will try to get some pictures up!

 

[Mike_H]

Figured I'd start a build thread for my GMC since it's quite a bit more involved than I was hoping for when I bought it.

To recap, from my previous post: "I'm heading down a road I was hoping to avoid.

Like a scab, I couldn't help picking at the nasty interior on my GMC, and just like that the walls are off and in the dumpster, the seats are at the upholsterer and we're picking out fabric, flooring, headliner etc. The whole shebang. I should have listened to that little voice in my head screaming 'It's a TRAP!' I didn't though. Oh well.

If I were smart, I'd cut bait and sell it to find one that is fairly original and ready to use, that's what I was hoping for anyway.

Isn't this how this things usually go anyway? 'I'll just fix this one thing, ... oh wait, while I'm here let me fix this other thing....' and before you know it it's down to the studs/ribs.

30k or bust, here we come! $hit. "

Boy does this resonate with me! Both parts...Thought I had a better coach than I really do, and I can't help but pick at the scab...and before you know it, You have a generator that you were just going to check for compression and spark, completely torn apart and awaiting a rebuild!

 

[Christo]

We were fortunate to find one that's in very good shape, yet it's still challenging to manage the restoration budget and the queue depth/order, and to remember that we want to derive more satisfaction from camping experiences than from coach improvements (though both are good). Project management skills should definitely be on the "So you wanna buy a GMC Moho?" list.

 

[tmsnyder]

I just didn't want to deal with rust, and on that I'm pretty happy. Underneath the bolts have surface rust but that's it. Everything comes apart with a little PB Blaster. Other than that I wouldn't say it's in very good shape.

 

[tmsnyder]

I finally got the rear ceiling back installed after painting Fusion white. Baby steps lol

 

[6cuda6]

I think that unless you have been down a "restoration" vehicle project road before you really cant help it. I have done a few cars in the past and im doing everything in my power not to rip into our new to us [June 2019] coach but it's so hard when your looking at it and it's just beside what your trying to repair at the time..... but luckily the PO had done a resto in 2000 so its not totally OEM.

Dont get me wrong here....everytime my wife looks at the small wet bath she says "How many gallons of water do we have? How do you expect me to use that? Can we not make it bigger?"...she's 6 feet tall with long red hair so you can appreciate her concerns....lol.

 

[tmsnyder]

Starting to insulate the ceiling, finally realized a good way to get the Reflectix insulation inside the ribs, tight and smooth, so thought I share it with the forum. Cut the piece to fit and put it in place. Rip the tape to length on all four sides. Fold the tape in half lengthwise, aluminum side 'in'. Peel back the paper side exposing half the tape adhesive and PUSH it firmly onto the Reflectix. Do all four sides, then peel the paper off one side and pull it down and stretch it onto the rib. Then do the same for the opposite side, pulling it tight and onto the rib. Then do the other two sides. Ends up nice and smooth.

 

[tmsnyder]

 

[tmsnyder]

 

[tmsnyder]

 

[tmsnyder]

 

[tmsnyder]

I'm hopeful that with the original ~1/2" of foam, ~1" of air space, Reflectix taped to the ribs forming a vapor barrier, 3/16 of plastic cardboard for headliner support, and 1/4" of foam backed vinyl headliner the coach will stay a bit cooler this summer while traveling. Also installing heat reflecting window film.

 

[tmsnyder]

Here's the headliner material from SailRite:



Cut out and glued to the plastic cardboard from HD.



And then installed the first piece. I think I should have waited for the glue to completely dry, maybe 24 hours, b/c it seems like where I pushed hard to install the headliner that the foam didn't spring back, maybe the glue is holding the foam compressed, so those spots are dimples now. It's not perfect, still pretty good though. Most of that stuff on the edge is from storing the roll of material on its end, I didnt' notice it until I had already cut off about 18" off the other edge, which didn't have that wrinkle. Live and learn. Hopefully that will relax out over time. The 2x4 is where I had to jack up the ceiling using a nearby rib to get some clearance over the closet module to slide in the headliner.

 

[Dave Stragand]

With headliner material, try spraying both the backing and the fabric with the glue and then let both dry completely. Only THEN put the two together. If you're using the glue that is like rubber cement, it'll work great, as there will be no wet glue to squish into the fabric while applying.

 

[pvfjr]

Looks good! I appreciate you sharing all your lessons learned; I find a lot of value in it.

 

[jjdebarros]

I replaced the entire headliner in my coach with 'automotive headliner'. Used the contact cement approach where I applied the glue to the fabric while my wife applied it to the roof panel. The places it looks perfect is where I had also replace the ceiling panels as they were perfectly smooth. The places where I left the old ceiling panels and there were indentations, the headliner followed/replicated those contours even though the fabric is foam and 1/4" thick. I am very pleased with the results, but then anything would have been better then the carpet tiles it had when I bought the coach.

 

[tmsnyder]

This was how I bent the panels, using a pair of calipers and a straight edge, I rubbed along the line where I wanted the crease, trying to crush the inside of the cardboard . Once the entire width was scored, I worked from one side to the other rubbing along the line and bending over the cardboard. It would give up the ghost eventually, being careful not to create an accidental fold the other way. This happened once, and made an imperfect panel, but the imperfection is going to end up behind the galley cabinet so no foul!




Eventually I realized that it was better to do the full panel with headliner before cutting out the shape needed.


This should give some insulation value imo


Finally figured out, just do the whole full panel and then cut it up. This is the headliner fabric clamped half way on the panel, folded back onto itself. I sprayed both surfaces, allowed to dry then rolled the fabric down onto the panel and pushed together to bond. Then folded the other half over onto the glued side to spray and bond:




Trim off extra headliner and then cut to size

 

[tmsnyder]

Before installing the new headliner, I drilled alongside the threaded inserts for the upper cabinets, then pop riveted with stainless steel rivets. About half of these had spun on me while trying to remove the cabinets, forcing me to cut off the bolt heads, further damaging the cabinets but they are already pretty water damaged. This, plus chasing the threads with a tap, and never-sieze while reinstalling, should prevent future problems removing the bolts.

 

[tmsnyder]

Here's the headliner pretty much finished. The end caps are painted with Krylon Fusion Gloss White paint, so even though they look a little dark it's just the lighting, they are white. I haven't painted the little trim pieces around the hook where the bunk bed hangs from, so you can see how yellow everything had gotten.

 

[tmsnyder]

Starting to put it back together on the inside, excuse the mess but there's the new captains chairs in Ultraleather (genuine hyde of the naugabeast) in Chocolate. And there's new indoor outdoor carpet in the cockpit. Underneath is sound deadening.

Sheet vinyl on the lower floor after I wood puttied and sanded the whole thing. Reflectix insulation on the walls just like the ceiling.

I'll be starting the wall panels soon using plastic cardboard and a light tan colored hull liner from SailRite.

Furniture has been reupholstered and is sitting inside my outbuilding currently, they are a deep brown color, extremely tough(very high rub count specification) and stain _proof_ cloth but it's very soft at the same time.

So overall nothing radical, just trying not to screw it up by keeping the colors complimentary as much as possible.