Thought it was time to post some photos of our little project - purchased last spring after we fell in love with the Winnebagos and discovered this beautiful ol' money pit. We nicknamed her 'Serenity' after the awesome western/sci-fi movie of that name that we love.
My brothers were always the grease monkeys in the family - I was more into cameras and computers. I've not had much experience working on older vehicles, but pretty handy with my hands and this has been a fantastic challenge. Always been a tenter, so totally a RV virgin and having to learn how camper systems work too.
The Dodge 440-3 only had a little over 41,000 miles on it when key exchanged hands. Both exterior and interior are in amazing shape, so trying to keep it as original as possible. There have certainly been some hiccups here and there, both mechanical and electrical, but working through the list. So far we have put into it: new tires; new carburetor; new battery, plugs, wires etc.; new fuel pump (replacing faulty electric, which had replaced original faulty mechanical); new headlight switch; new neutral safety switch (that left us stranded at the in-laws).
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Nice and clean interior (well, after we purged it of the myriad of mouse houses). There was obviously a roof leak at some point in its history - I'm guessing from a sagging AC unit - but was repaired and seems to be fairly water tight. I'd still like to replace it at some point in the near future.
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We are in the process of getting all of the cushions replaced - captain's chairs were in pretty sad shape from sun exposure, and a couple of mice unfortunately made a bunch of tunnels throughout the dinette and gaucho... The plan is to fire up the sewing machine and use remanants of the original fabric to create some throw pillows. At the same time, we also need to make some new curtains to help protect the reupholstered stuff (hated the venetians that the PO installed - they banged around something awful).
New shoes:
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New lungs:
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Ready to run!
One of the recent changes I am really happy with was replacing the old, problematic tail lights with something new.
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For this task, I chose to use school bus lights as I felt they better reflected the rounded lights used elsewhere on the rig. I'm going to add the round backup lights that are common to this era too.
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I love how it looks with the original round clearance lights. Unfortunately the fronts were replaced with the oval bullseye style, so will likely have to do the same to the back when it comes time to replace (yeah, I'm super-picky).
Holyeeeeee COW! That is one of the sweetest looking Winnies I've seen in years. Nice score.
Nice just needs a badge
Thanks LJ-TJ - we had been looking at a couple Braves, then stumbled across this rare beauty... Loved the floorplan over the Brave, and well, everything else about her... Still working through the various systems. Fridge and AC work on 120. Hope to get propane up and running this summer to see what else works - the regulator and hoses were original. Water system needs some help too as holding tanks are both leaking, as is the fresh water storage tank. It has a newer Onan genny, but haven't successfully fired it up yet.
Ha - haven't seen those before! On the subtle side, but already got these for her:
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Gonna put the one right above the Winnebago placard by the door.
Very nice! Old ones are a lot of work, but worth it. At least that is what I keep telling myself.
You really scored big on this one! Not many around in that condition ,hope to see it out on the road some day.....Ken
So cool! Love the flower wallpaper! Its so 70s its cool!!
Good looking rig
It's a kindness what you've done to her!
A pox on the narrow minded people that killed Firefly!!! $@!#@!
You are a "Leaf on the wind" when you pilot her. :)
Skloon, where did you get that?
C&T Should be able to find new tanks easy, lots of places with drawings going by size. Most people went to a pump water system instead of the pressurized (assuming yours has that)
Nice to see some fellow Browncoats here! ;)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/236912154/firefly-serenity-geeky-metal-car-emblem (https://www.etsy.com/listing/236912154/firefly-serenity-geeky-metal-car-emblem)
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/256866856/firefly-serenity-edition-car-emblem (https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/256866856/firefly-serenity-edition-car-emblem)
But I digress...
WinnebagoParts.com can thankfully get me a new grey water tank, and I'm going to see what I can do about fixing our fibreglass black water tank - it's just leaking where the ABS pipe joins... Needs new dump valves as well, as the original Thetfords are toast and getting terribly expensive to replace. Once we have holding tanks that we can dump into, I will turn my attention to the other side of the plumbing.
While I haven't played with it much, I do believe the system is still the pressurized system (two steel tanks and a small compressor?). Started to fill them up last spring, only to end up with a small flood in the back. Not sure where leaking from, but will pull the tanks and see what's what - likely replace them with a HDPE storage tank. Haven't decided yet whether I should replace the copper with Pex or not...
You may want to consider contacting Rick at
http://www.dupreeproducts.com/
He is a long time member here and obviously knowledgeable.