I see these coaches for sale that have really good paint and everything is fresh and clean. But then I think about all the stuff I've done to mine, in random order:
New fuel tanks
New wheels
New engine
Freshly overhauled transmission
New 3.21 final drive
New front end
Fresh rear suspension
Rear disk brakes and reaction rods
Windshields
New windows
Aluminum radiator
Aluminum intake manifold
Springfield electronic distributor and ignition
New airbags (well, not so new any more, but they were new when I bought them)
New generator
Cruise control
Steering gearbox
Pressure hoses
Much-improved cockpit seats
Headers and (part of) the exhaust
Brake master cylinder
Many chassis electrical improvements
Many house electrical improvements, including intellipower converter/charger
Electric wipers
New furnace
Vacuum pump for power-brake preservation
All new Power Level parts--tank, leveling and control valves, pump, pressure switch, hoses, fittings
Instrumentation
None of that is easy to see in photos. Just adding it up from memory, all of that stuff cost at least $30K (at the time I bought the stuff-it would be more now) plus all the time spent installing it--time I would not want to have to spend again. Was it all necessary? Maybe not. But I wouldn't want to go backwards.
I'm not even including maintenance items like alternators, etc. I've bought at least two alternators for the coach since we've owned it, and maybe three fan clutches and a couple of water pumps. And I'm not including the money I spent on sprucing up the engine I removed, including timing chains and so forth.
Then, I look again at that pretty coach and think--I'd have to do all that again.
A new paint job would be cheaper. But I never seem to get around to that..
Rick "not including all the time and treasure spent on the Adobe Posterior and renovating the interior" Denney