Central_Scrutinizer wrote:
Add another one here, or was I just a dreaming fool?? This past June, I stumbled upon this huge shrink-wrapped box (about 10 ft tall, 25ft long, about 10ft wide sitting in an exterior storage building on a friend's property.Had to ask what the heck that was. "Old motor home" I was told. "Huh?"
A Long one short, I bought this "Unknown" package on July 4th for $1200. (Weird side note, & by pure coincidence that I didnt realize, but the lil lady DID,was that the last 3 vehicles I have bought, This RV, My Harley, and my Dodge Intrepid, all bought,paid for ON A JULY 4th, my 2000 Intrepid=July 4th 2015, my 1989 1200 HD Sportster=July 4,2019, this '79 RV= July 4, 2021) Weird eh???
Anywho, what was in this humongous shrink-wrapped box on 6 tires?
It's a 1979 Fleetwood Southwind With an E-25 chassis/coach. M500 It's considered a 1980 Model, Coach plate even states: "Official Motor Home of The 1980 Olympics"...lol But they quit making these in '79 and then shopped out the remaining chassis to various vehicle manufacturers. (Did my homework)
Well I got lucky because I'm a Chrysler Dodge fan and this one happened to be a **** Chrysler/Dodge frame..... complete with a series 3 440CID engine, 4 barrel Rochester carb, and a A727 3 speed AT behind it..... Did I mention the 9 gas filters on it?...lol
Well I spent 2 days @ my friends just unwrapping this thing and seeing if it would run....and boy does it, although I've only driven it about 6 miles (Point of Purchase to Point B-my house)
....whoever bought this when it was new seemed to have purchased it w/ every **** option available on it, from the over-head 2 ppl pull-down bed over drivers cab to the 50 gal propane tank welded to frame, to the Onan BGA 4.0 Kv generator
in a rear compartment. What kind of shape was it in???
Well shrink wrapping an RV MAY sound like a good idea, but when moistures trapped in it, it's not good. I thought the thing was originally a "Green" color....wrong,, that's mold, it's white w/ brown tones. But the interior looked showroom new. This 43 year old RV has 35,890 original miles on it, the generator, according to meter, has under 400 hours on it. It has 3 battery's, 2 under hood, and another in drivers side compartment (under driver)
Now the rough stuff:
Somebody (pray I never find them) just simply mutilated the factory wiring that went through the front firewall & under/behind dash, I had one 12 wire harness through firewall that had 10 wires cut off completely. After procuring the complete M500 schematics for this behemoth, I have about finished it...... the wiring part anyway's
Its got a RM760 Dometic fridge (works), 4 burn gas stove/oven, 1100w microwave. galley sink, bathroom sink/tub/shower/toilet (don't like the fact that the bathroom is in the rear, and one would have to go through the "master bedroom" in order to get to it, say @ 2am....lolz
Still have to replace a couple water lines w/ Pex and get this Onan gen-set cleaned up (Carb is varnish), but overall, I think it's going to be worth it..... I'd post a pic or two, but don't see a pic upload option here.
Needless to say, I'm still plugging away on this thing, and probably be ready to go boondock it in 2022.... LMAO,
"Camping in a 1979 RV in 2022"
....just sounds weird....lol
Thanks for having me
Welcome to the forum and keep posting updates! What a great story, I’m sure you’ll enjoy that rig for years to come. Ours sits restored, waiting for my wife to take some time off from her business (Idaho Fudge Co. - shameless plug, LOL) for us to take a trip in it. I just bought an Onan Microlite 4000 for it…1998 model, IIRC, with 58 hours…Craigslist for $1500 and it runs great..
I might not respond all the time, but I do get email notifications and read every post. My old man taught me that I have two eyes, two ears and one mouth, so I should use my eyes and ears twice as much as my mouth. It’s a lesson today’s youth would benefit from learning.
