One chapter ends so another can begin

[vegestar]

Hi all!  A while back I introduced you to this rare (I've never seen one and neither had anyone here) class A made by the Astro Manufacturing company.  She's a '73, 22 feet, built on an International Harvester chassis (also rare) with a 392 V8 and a 727 trans.  I found the old girl on Craigslist with a simple posting "Free Old Motorhome", once I found out it was an IHC chassis the deal was as good as done in my mind.  In my previous introduction I intended to tell the story of getting her home then go into the details of making it inhabitable for my 3 month summer job.  Well things got a little out of hand and I literally had to finish the repair work while living in the rig with 2 dogs.  And that 3 months has now turned into a 9 month fulltiming adventure!  However and unfortunately she's a bit too far gone to consider spending any more time and money on further improvements and I started the search for a replacement as the mold is set in much deeper than anticipated and its making me sick.  So I will now tell the story and include all the pics I have of the complete roof replacement I managed to accomplish in 4 days and thus close the chapter on my first and most beloved motorhome.

[vegestar]

Well I wrote part 1 of the story only for it to get erased with a wrong stroke of the keyboard so I'll just leave ya'll with some more pics.

[legomybago]

Theres got to be a way to get rid of the mold Hm?

[Mr. T]

Denatured alcohol works for me.


Don T.

[Stripe]

The only sure way I ever saw of removing mold was dehumidifying and heat..
Mold loves moisture and warmth but not dryness and heat..

[vegestar]

I appreciate the tips.  The moisture has been an issue lately, just had a full week of rain in Oakland.  But mold isn't the only major issue here,  dry rot has a major foothold as well.  She's literally crumbling apart on long drives.  I've had to reattach everything from marker lights to mirrors, heck even one of the headlight assemblies fell out once.  It was dangling by the wires when I reached my destination, luckily it was only about a 20 mile trip! haha

So here's a sneak peek at the solution to my mold and rot issues then back to the story!

[vegestar]

Ok, so here's how this all got started.  I went up to meet the family and see what it would take to get it running.  Mom and Dad bought this rig from Dad's co-worker 20 years prior.  They intended take their foster kids camping more but after fixing up the inside a bit they decided it was too big for them to drive.  So there it sat never to be driven from that spot.  Apparently the engine had been replaced sometime in the 80's at the International dealer it was serviced at.  Said dealer coincidentally used to be around the corner from where I was living at the time.  And the RV was originally sold from an RV dealer in my home town!  Two very interesting coincidences indeed.

So I poked around and a couple of guys hanging around fumbled one of the rear tires back on.  Dad had removed it years ago to drop and repair the rear fuel tank.  I informed them that I would like to pull the carburetor and take it with me to rebuild.  After many assurances that I would indeed be back with it they allowed me to do so.  Now let's fast forward to the following week.  I return with a rebuilt carb, a freshly charged battery, an outboard motor fuel tank and some new fuel hose, some new oil and a filter and of course all the other tools and supplies one would need to revive a sleeping beast.  International Harvester engines are very prone to ruining camshaft bearings if the proper pre-oiling procedure is not strictly adhered to before attempting to start the engine.  So this was my first plan of attack.  Then bolt on the carb, hook up the battery and start checking for power.  I can see the gauges move and getting power to the coil with the key on but no starter action at all.  I check NSS circuit and ensure I'm getting power to the solenoid, all good.  Hmm, well it's getting late and I'm tired so I pull the starter and head back home.

Now as soon as I dropped the starter at my rebuilder that Monday I realized what the problem was but I went ahead and had them freshen it up while it was out.  Then the following weekend went back up with some new GROUND CABLES and put the starter back in.  Took about 20 seconds of cranking to get fuel up to the carb and she fired right up!  Yay!!  So this is when I popped open the glove box and found receipts (from 20 years ago of course) for a radiator re-core along with all new hoses and belts and a complete tune up to make it pass smog for the transfer of title.  There was an additional 20 miles on the odometer from the mileage on the receipts, unbelievable...  The only thing wrong now is I noticed the fuel pump leaking.  No problem, quick trip to local Napa for a new pump and that's solved.  Now this next part is where you all get to learn how crazy I am.  Despite my bleeding attempts I couldn't get the brakes to pump up but I was running out of time on my temp moving permit and really couldn't spare another weekend away from other projects.  So despite my best judgement I opted to drive it 30 miles home with only the parking brake and 30 year old tires.   N:(   I have my friend in tow in a chase vehicle of course but still...

Well believe it or not the drive went pretty well.  I almost said smoothly but that would have been a terrible lie!  The tires were so square it was anything but smooth!  hahaha  Stopped once about halfway to refill the 6 gallon boat tank and that was it.  So now she's home and we can move on with the renovation.  Stay tuned for the next installment of the adventure starting with brakes! lol

[legomybago]

Gotta love the "rescue" missions!!

[vegestar]

So on with the story...  Brakes were first.  Not much of a story here.  Had absolutely no trouble locating replacement parts which shocked the hell out of me for a 40 year old machine and the IHC chassis is a pretty rare bird to boot.  Brakes are one place I never leave to chance so when I located the one wheel cylinder that was leaking I opted to replace all of them.  All 4 cylinders, a brand new master and brake fluid all together cost less than $90 and I had the parts in hand the following day.  Also cleaned and re-packed the front bearings while I was in there along with new grease seals.  And replaced one of the rear axle seals that was leaking as well.  All the shoes had plenty of meat left and the hardware was in great shape.  That 10,000 lb brick stops on a dime now.  I was rather impressed.  Also greased all the steering and suspension joints while I was under there.  All of the leaf spring shackles also have grease fittings which I thought was a brilliant idea.  One of the reasons I'm a big fan of IHC products.  Very well built and engineered machines.


With stopping taken care of I turned my attention to the drivetrain.  I'm an automotive machinist by trade (well, I was at one time) so a well running and aesthetically appealing engine are a must for me.  There wasn't a whole lot needed here, the engine runs amazingly well.  I pulled the valve covers for cleaning and painting, got a little creative with accenting the "International" logo on them.  I had trouble finding a gasket for the oil fill tube and ended up cutting my own from a sheet of cork. Next I went after the badly leaking exhaust manifolds.  Somehow managed not to break off any rusted fasteners or bust too many knuckles in the process.  The manifold gaskets had almost disappeared completely and manifolds themselves were rather warped.  I blasted and surfaced them then went to work trying to find a new heat riser.  The original had been gutted at some point and was now broken in half.  I would have been inclined to leave it off but the exhaust pipe on that side had been welded to its bracket and would have required considerable modification to take up the extra inch of space.  After my search for a new part turned up nothing usable my exhaust guy came up with header pipe flange with exact bolt spacing and thickness I needed.  Got all that put back together and now had a nice quiet engine that wasn't leaking oil anymore.

[vegestar]

The next necessary step was replacement of the entry step.  The roof leaks were more concentrated near the front of the coach.  The pull down bunk and the entire floor from the entry around to the bathroom took all the damage.  The door had to be removed in order to get at the rotten wood under the threshold.  Managed to sew some of the rot together with some 2x6 scraps, a healthy smattering of construction adhesive and plenty of screws.  Drilling the holes to mount the outdoor step proved a bit challenging without a long enough drill but could have been worse.  Then back in with the door.  Sealed it with some silicone and used the next size larger screws.  Unfortunately I didn't take pics of this process as I was racing to beat some on-coming weather.  Not that this really mattered much as the roof still needed attention. 


Speaking of the roof, at the time I had decided it would be best to tackle that after the rainy season so I set about tearing out what used to be a gaucho bunk in the rear.  One of the reasons I took on this project was the appeal of being able to slightly reconfigure the layout to suit my needs.  It seemed to me the original appointments were a terrible waste of space and I drew up plans for a full (or double to clarify) size bed and to move the dresser into the closet area after trimming it down a bit.  Not much progressed after the tear-out stage as things got busy with work.  In the meantime I re-wired the dash.  This is another place I feel requires attention to detail.  Bad grounds drive me nuts!  The original wiring was far past scary, I don't know how a fire didn't occur under that dash.  The heater blower, windshield wipers and cig lighter were all on one ugly little 16 ga wire riddled with wire taps.  Same deal with the grounds, absolutely hideous.  I could go on and on about the horrors I found in there but I won't bore you all with my ranting.  Point is all that got repaired and upgraded.  I also added an acc fuse box powered by a 75 amp relay that gets energized when the key is on. Next I went about cleaning up things on the battery end.  All new cables, a new battery isolator and of course 2 new batteries.  Also upgraded the alternator to a higher amperage unit and upgraded the wiring accordingly along with installing a shunt to not burn up the ammeter.  Everything works flawlessly now and I can rest my mind knowing its all ship-shape.

[legomybago]

sounds great

Your about ready to burn some fuel

[Stripe]

Pfft! (there it is again Mike!)... 
No pics on account of a little rain...  HA!



That pic is from this post.. 
http://www.classicwinnebagos.com/forum/index.php/topic,7759.msg36431.html#msg36431

[M & J]

I remember that day.....

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Entertaining post!  Reminds my of our first rig, The Ark, a 72 Futura.

Kev

[Stripe]

I remember that day.....

I'll never forget it.. 

Is the IH engine a 392cid??