Attempting to help someone out and keep a GMC motorhome active

Here is sits parked up near the back door of the house.

Last week they had some ice and snow. Paint is actually in nice shape.

When I checked the radiator it was pretty well empty.

This is after I dumped in 1 gallon.

Air cleaner was clogged.  Looks like PCV valve must of been stuck at some point.

Bad Picture,  but switches were covered up.  

Dash pretty nice.  Seats could use some help.

Nice looking paint job.

odd brake line repair.  

Some damage on back that was duck taped, where zip dee was connected on.  

had nice gas fridge.   nice floor.  Rugusa step was broke and repaired.

hard to say what happened on the back corner without pulling all tape.

again, not sure extent of rear damage.  Was no water damage noticeable inside.

I can only think they ripped the awning off.  But awning looked OK.

nice floor.  full rear bed

Claim to Fame

nice fridge

shows it was a palm beach

Lots of stuff.  needs a good cleaning

just a quick non-trip report. for those that might be interested in a couple lessons learned.

I was chasing a GMC down the past year, that started out with a co-worker hearing about a story of a GMC, from a family member. He then found out I had one and told me about the story. Basically his wife's sister in-laws claimed he was out drinking in Chicago in the 80's, and ran across Bill Murry and bought a GMC Motorhome from him that was used in the Movie "Stripes". Pretty tall tale, and I told my co-worker that would be huge news for the GMC community if it were true, and I needed pictures.

Now keep in mind, I do not see this co-worker every day, but I had harassed him about, and found out last December 29th, that the owner of the GMC had passed away. So I pressed him to find out more information on the GMC. Now fast forward to a week or more ago..

my co-worker send me an email, and gave me the number of the son's that are dealing with the estate, and that they were heading to Northern MN to haul back the GMC to their home in southeastern, MN. There was also a chevy Nova to be moved that had 7000 original miles on it as well. I made contact, and as it turned out they headed up in the blizzard we had last week, and basically said the coach does need some work, and they intend on selling it because he does not have time or resources to fix it back up, and has no place to store it. The other siblings involved want nothing to do with the motorhome or estate, and he said they used the camper for "bar hopping" after the funeral. He does not have the time to be up in northern MN dealing with the estate and the camper needs to get moved out of there so they can sell the house. He claimed it was a centennial edition, and he just said "that is it's claim to fame" when I asked him about the stripes movie. I offered any help I can, and left it at that.

I received a call back the next day, and they overestimated the amount of time, plus they lost a day to the blizzard they have, and said if I wanted to get it get it moved back to a location by me, he would leave the keys in it, and I could come get it. We can figure out if i want to buy it, or I will help him store it for the winter, and we can figure out what to do with his dad's camper in the spring.

So I loaded up early Sunday, and headed north, about 200 miles, and failed to bring the camper home. Just like most stories of others, what you find is always different then what is told. I had to leave it where it sits, and told the kids that I would come back for it, if they wanted to give it to me, but was not worth my time or energy to make a second attempt otherwise.

So here are some tibits to take with you if you ever attempt a rescue(and I know most are noted before and I know better in some cases):

1. Never try to rescue a GMC on a sunday, or evening. Simple things like needing another gallon on antifeeze can be a problem, or in my case, I would of really needed an air cleaner. There were three autoparts stores, all closed on sunday. Also most every shop in town is closed.

2. Bring an air compressor. I mean to do that, but I forgot to toss it in. Air system would not pump pressure on the coach, so I could not raise the air bags. I probably could of gotten something done locally, but being a sunday, and other problems, it was not worth my time to fight that fight.

3. Bring a really good battery. If the battery is dead, don't bother jump starting it with cables, just install your good battery. Also I learned that my optima boat battery, you should NOT hook up a starter cable to the wing nut/bolt terminal. I pulled the cable off the boost solenoid to get optimal current, and hooked it direct to the battery. It was easy to just wing nut it on, but it got hot, and the terminal popped right off. I should of bolted it to the battery terminal itself.

4. try not to do a rescue when it is freezing out(I think it was 21 degrees yesterday when i was trying to start it). that also lessens your chances of the coach actually starting.

5. probably most important one, is bring a gas tank, and some hose. and a can of carb cleaner. I would bet I could of started and drove that GMC, if I had just hooked up a tank to the fuel pump. sprayed the carb with carb cleaner. either the fuel lines were froze, it was out of gas, fuel pump bad, or some other fuel related problem. I could fire it off on starting fluid, but could never get gas to the carb. I do not see how they actually drove this gmc 11 months ago.

As it turns out this GMC may or may not have been used in stripes. Only Bill Murry and the deceased owner could verify. It was a re-painted 76 Palm beach, so it is correct year/model. so who really knows. there was an old picture of him with the gmc in a car show, and in the description on that paper it stated it was "used in the stripes" motorhome. He also had some information on the ronald Reagen GMC motorhome. That one I understand the owner has in Rochester,MN. So he was proud of where it may of come from, or it might have been his story he was sticking to for 25 years.

if It can be had cheap, and could be a really good core, but it would need front to back mechanical to really get it back on it's feet. I would take the time to market it, if they decide they need to get rid of it really bad, and give it to me for free. then after selling it, I may possibly break even. I would guess if someone put their own time into it, and about $5000-$6000 in parts, it would be a fantastic GMC.