I found this camper on Craigslist. 1992 Four Winns 29ft motorhome. 27,000 miles, rebuilt transmission, new fridge.
Quote:
1992 Ford E350 Four Winds Motorhome 29ft. $6,500
460hp motor.
Less than 30,000 miles.
Completely rebuilt transmission comes with 3 year, 36k mile warranty.
Good tires, A/C, Furnace (squeals), awning, generator all work.
Everything works and runs.
Call or email with questions. Would consider trade possibilities that include guns or reliable vehicles (post 2001 model year).
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That wasn't what it looked like after I took the 5 hour drive to go look at it.
Apparently, the owner had tried to sell it previously, the previous "buyer" didn't give him any money for it and left with the camper. Apparently the "buyer" was a "goth or vampire" or was dating a "goth or vampiree" and said "goth or vampiree" went to town on the camper with a bucket of black paint and a roller. No, no paintbrush. Cutting in edges was beneath the "gothic vampire".
The outside is relatively clean, the 460 purrs and runs like a top. I ran down the road at 72mph and it felt like I was driving an old Continental. The captains chairs are ugly mauve, but oh-so-comfy! The new tranny felt great, and it drops into overdrive at about 62mph, so for most roads and hills, it just stayed in OD and ran down the road smooth, and none of that annoying bouncing in and out of OD.
The inside is straight, the paint just looks awful.
So, the plan is to do relatively little to the exterior or mechanically. This is kind of going to be a "pimp my RV" for the interior. If you have an older RV and want to make it look nice for your wifey, I hope this build gives you some ideas. I also realize that while my needs have changed now, my needs will probably change in the future. I want to build this nice enough that my mods also help this vehicle's resale in the future, and as my better half said, "this better not look like a redneck race rig!"
I will replace all the incandescent light fixtures with LED's and add 12v cigarette lighter plugs and USB plugs throughout. Gotta charge the kids' toys on the road, and I have to keep my GoPros charged up! I plan to add a medium sized invertor and a flat screen (20-25") TV so the kids can watch movies or play the Wii on the road.
The lounge chair is going bye-bye along with the Altar of the Iron Cross Candles. My original plan was to find a jackknife sofa (RV sofabed) and put it in place of the lounge chair and Altar. I started looking around and they're not easy to find locally. It would add more seating and a bed, but if you have a bunch of people who want to eat, a 2nd dinette would be easy enough for me to fabricate, and would allow for seating and sleeping, as well as another spot for dining.
I hit Google for upholstery remnants and found newtoto.com. They seem to have a lot of remnant fabric for heavy commercial interiors--transit buses, airline terminals, etc. Super heavy wear and decent colors.
My mother was a home economics teacher. She had no daughters, so she taught her two sons to cook and sew. The skills have come in handy again and again!
-New dinette upholstery--back/bolsters:
-New dinette upholstery - seat bottom cushions:
-Existing dinette:
-Rendering of what I want the dinette to look like:
The cab of the van chassis is the nice Ford gray. I plan to color match it with a semi-gloss paint and repaint all the cabinets. They will get new satin or brushed chrome/platinum pulls.
This is a pic I found on the internet...same dash color. My seats are the original taupe color. Color is awful, but DAMN, are the seats comfy!!!
This is kind of the look we're going for in the kitchen:
The existing flooring was a combination of glued-down cheapo vinyl tiles from Home Depot, a stapled-down ugly gray entry rug, and the existing mauve carpet in the bedroom.
I went with Allure (hickory) in most of the coach and a nice dark grey berber indoor-outdoor carpet in the bedroom. Here are renderings how it looked at first and how I wanted it to turn out:
It was hideous. Many of incense sticks lost their lives on the Altar of the Iron Cross.
and found a bonus under the fridge!
A previous owner had removed the RV fridge. I assume it stopped working and they didn't want to spend the $$$$ for a replacement/repair so they went with more batteries/invertor/apartment fridge.
I'm not a serious boondocker. I don't see myself sitting in one location for 3 weeks. I'll frequently sit in one place for a weekend, but still have some driving around, and a few hours of EU2000i time isn't a nuisance. I'm excited about the larger fridge and having the invertor since it can power the TV!
I'm really excited about how good the Allure looks. I am a commercial GC by trade, but it did not take a ton of skills to put the click-lock Allure in.
I then converted all the interior lights to LED. I'll have to add photos later. Instead of the $20/ea bayonet base ones, I bought a couple of strings of LED's from Dealextreme.com and soldered them to the switches in the housings. I left the bayonet bases hot so I could always add a 18W bulb back in if I needed to either for more light or an LED failure (unlikely).
I got the upholstery fabric delivered about 3 days into the build. Did I mention that I took my daughters on a 1,400 mile round trip road trip to Moab, Utah for their spring break....only 10 days after taking possession of the motorhome? ;D
Upholstery fabric is EXPENSIVE, but that newtoto site really had some nice, HEAVY commercial upholstery fabrics. We definitely got our money's worth...this stuff will wear like iron. Pic of my daughter unrolling the fabric over the indoor-outdoor berber carpet.
I precut the carpet for the back bedroom so I could use the scrap from the piece cut under the bed to line the dinettes.
It's just in place loose. I was planning to unscrew the bed and drop the edges under the bed and screw it back down. It looks like the bed was framed in place, then covered with paneling. I will probably end up cutting the carpet tight, then installing a quarter round. The pink "bolster" on the sides covers the water line. I'll pull that later and cover it with the gray carpet.
And the long-awaited (ha ha!) 2nd dinette. Framed it with CDX plywood and 1x2's I ripped from the "altar top". Primed with exterior enamel and painted with the same exterior latex I color matched to the cab dash/door panels.
With these in place, I was able to mark, cut, and install the rest of the Allure floor.
Interior upholstery panels. Was mauve velour over 1/4" foam, held in place by paneling scraps. Goth Decorator painted them black. Just covering them with scraps of our new fabric.
Found out my stapler is too short. Hopefully a brad nailer holds the paneling backers.