Hi Ian,
I have a 1990 Itaska Suncruiser 32' and love it!!! This coach was very well built and lucky for me, well maintained by her previous three owners. It has a Ford 460 engine and nearly every upgrade available for the year. It drives like a dream!! Better than my car, in fact.
It did take me going through a LOT of used RV's over 14 months to find this one. The only reason I got her was due to a divorce of the owners, he had never planned on selling her. They had to sell at a loss.
I lived in it for a month, after I bought her and was more comfortable than in my stix 'n brix.
The oak cabinets were very dry (not cracked) and (after cleaning) a girl friend & I put on two coats of tung oil and one coat of lemon oil (her hubby checked out my engine for me
). The image below: right is the restored cabinet, left the dry one.
The previous owner smoked and I do not, so had to get that odor out of the coach. I used bowls of baking soda, set around the coach, along with bowls of charcoal (the kind w/out firestarter
).
I had a professional cleaner come in and clean the carpets, sofa, dinette seats, all chairs and the matresses.
The headliner was the worst. First we cleaned that with white vinegar. Once that was completely dry, the next day we went back over it with peroxide (that is antibacterial and antiviral). I let it air dry. The combination took out all of the nicotine stains and removed the odor completely. That was in October and the coach does not have a smoke smell to this day. I have friends, who are also non smokers and they said that they had no idea it was ever smoked in- there is no smell nor stains. It can be done, it just takes work.
As you can see by the above photo, there is material around all of the windows that can not be removed for cleaning. On those, I used white vinegar. Test a small, out of the way, area before doing this. My material had no change so I used a clean cloth, soaked in white vinegar, to clean any material that could not be taken down and washed. I dabbed the vinegar into the material, so as not to wear it, but also to get into the batting below as that will hold odor too.
The 'curtains' in the bathroom can not be removed, so I put the vinegar in a bucket and dipped the curtains into that. The curtains did not look dirty but, wow, were they!!! After dipping both curtains, repeatedly, I had to throw out the vinegar. Was too filthy to do anything else with.
The vinegar was also used on all of the walls, glass, shower stall, counter tops, appliances and both sides of the mini blinds. Literally every square inch, inside, was washed.
I left the baking soda and charcoal in for about a week, then removed those.
Just went into the coach, yesterday, and she is still sweet smelling
I hope that this helps you when you get your own, vintage, coach. You sound like you can do much, much more- inside- than I can. I look forward to seeing before and after shots of your coach.
Sheila
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