My Weblog

Update on SWAN2B

Well, SWAN2B is back from the GMC Motorhome hospital. She got a complete heart-lung transplant and got treatment for her arthritis and her bad hips. She is still homely, but she gets around much better.

I had Jim Kanomata in Fremont, CA go through my coach and address issues regarding safety and reliability. So they

• Rebuilt the 455 motor and put in a roller cam kit and a rebuilt carb. 
• Rebuilt the suspension, which required a new front knuckles, a rear bearing, along with 6 new KYB shocks. 
• Did a brake job which included 80 mm calipers in front and new shoes in the rear, new master cylinder and rear wheel cylinders.  She got a vacuum pump and a new proportioning valve. She still doesn’t stop on a dime, but she might be able to land on a half-dollar.
• Rebuilt the transmission (actually, they sent it out to Manny Trovao). 
• Replaced the final drive with 3.55 gears. 
• Added Doug Thorley headers, a pair of MagnaFlow mufflers, and a 3" mandrel-bent tail pipe.
• I added 6 new Alcoa HotShot aluminum wheels and mounted 6 new BF Goodrich steel-belted, rag sidewall tires with Load range E to hold her up.
• Put a new core in the radiator.
• Replaced the alternator

As a result all this, the first two phases of this renovation (Safety and Reliability) have consumed 100% of my budget. The next four phases (Utility, Comfort, Performance, and Style) will have to limp along until more money shows up.

I drove the old girl from Fremont back to my home in the Santa Cruz mountains, and had plenty of opportunity to observe the improvements. That new motor is STOUT. Acceleration is very good, while hill climbing ability, a critical item, is outstanding. I live at the top of a 4 mile long road which gains 1250 feet in that distance, including some sections of 10% grade and switchbacks. SWAN2B took that hill like Lance Armstrong in the Pyrenees. She cruised up that road at 35-40 mph, when a lot of new cars don’t do much better. In my judgement, she passed with flying colors.

I had frightened myself several times while driving the coach back from Seattle in September. Whenever we got onto uneven pavement, she would get really squirrelly. Construction zones with half completed pavement layers were a nightmare. After the work was done, I happened to drive through the construction around the San Jose airport, and was very pleased to note that the backend tracks nice and true, and the awful road surface doesn’t seem to faze her.

I still have a lot to do. I put on a set of H2 halogen headlights, and upgraded the taillights with a Peet kit. I have Ramco mirrors to install, and a new ViaAir 450 compressor is ready to go in. I have a set of Lumina APV wiper arms to install, and I am looking for a replacement steering wheel from a later model GMC pickup. The electrics are still a mystery, but I have a battery combiner to add once the detective work is done. More to come.

 

 

 

SWAN2B

I bought a 1976 GMC 26-foot coach, model Eleganza II.  It is complete, but had a number of things that would need fixing.  First and foremost is the motor.  We attempted to drive it from the Seattle area to the Bay Area, but ran into drivability problems almost immediately.  The coach would lose power and slow down to a crawl.  With all the mountains and grades on Interstate 5, it was going to be a long 1200 miles.  Near Redding, she just stopped running.  We left it at a shop nearby, and they found the fuel filter clogged and had the fuel tanks dropped and cleaned.  A few weeks later, we drove up to complete the journey.  Needless to say, we didn't make it all the way home.  She overheated several times, and just gave up on Highway 17, trying to get to the summit.  We had her towed and the next day, I drove her home by avoiding all the hills I could.  She is going to need some serious work.

Welcome

Welcome to my weblog.  I intend to capture things as they occur, so this will have a stream of conciousness feel to it.  I will be blogging about my latest project, the renovation of a 1976 GMC motorhome, dubbed SWAN2B (for obvious reasons).  This model of motorhome was just being introduced in the early 70s when June and I were looking for a way to entertain our 5 combined kids and still retain our sanity.  We decided that camping was the way to go, but June's old Chevy Bel Aire just wasn't going to hack it.  We looked at the GMC, but it was WAY out of our price range at that time, so we settled for an Open Road C class on a Dodge van chassis.  It did the job for a few years, but I never forgot the GMC and how cool it was.  Front wheel drive (Olds Toronado), low slung, with those cool tandem rear wheels.  The Open Road had duallies, and they really rode hard.  Hit a bump and watch the stuff jump off the shelves and land on the carpet.  On one big bump, the fridge popped open and we dumped a large glass bottle of Coke and an equally large bottle of ketchup on the shag carpet.  We never got that completely clean, and ended up replacing the carpet with an indoor/outdoor variety.  I was not impressed with the quality of the Open Road construction, it was mostly cheap trailer aluminum panels over 2" by 2" wood frame.  It was never going to last and it started leaking almost immediately (due to a pine cone puncture, as it turned out).
That was then, this is now.
I am looking forward to retiring in a few years and we want to travel a bit.  We looked at renting a new motorhome for a few months and quickly determined that we could buy an older motorhome and renovate it for less than an extended rental.  So I went looking on the web. A primo GMC with many upgrades will set you back upwards of $40,000, while a newish motorhome will start at about $42,000.  You can get a GMC fixer-upper for under $10K.
Google "gmc motorhome" and you get about 5000 hits.  It turns out that there is an active market in renovating and enjoying these coaches, so I decided I could probably get information and help that would make the project more fun and increase the likelihood of success.
Prices and condition vary all over the place.  I read through a lot of postings and started to become aware of maintenance issues and aftermarket fixes for a lot of them.  I finally set a maximum price I was willing to pay and located about 20-25 candidates on the web.  I narrowed the geographic range to the West Coast and finally located several here in California and in the Pacific Northwest.  I contacted the sellers and asked some questions about condition and such.  Finally, I called a seller and chatted about the history of the vehicle.  The seller was very motivated to sell and reduced the asking price substantially, so I bought it.  I reasoned that, for what I had paid, I could afford to do some substantial repairs and still be ahead on the deal.  We'll see how true this really is.