(first posted 10/1/2011) Once upon a long time ago, when men didn’t spend all their spare time on the web, facebook, yoga classes or sharing household chores, they had the time and energy to think big; really big. On very manly ideas: building a ferro-cement sailboat or trimaran in the driveway with which to cruise to Tahiti and other exotic ports were all-too common. Never mind how many actually were finished or ever made it to salt water.
Another popular undertaking was the homebuilt RV; repeated articles in Popular Mechanix made it sound so straight-forward, and factory built RVs then were mostly unaffordable to the typical one-wage family. How hard can it be? Just find a wrecked donor-mobile, and use those skills you acquired when you built that addition to the house. If you were manly enough, and had a supportive enough wife to not just put up with it, but even pitch in with the upholstery, the result might well be like this one, and even end up in front of a museum.
I’m already struggling with self-recrimination for not stopping to shoot the many Curbside Classics I saw from the window of our RV on our recent trip, including a whole storage lot of nothing but Firebirds, and another one full of forties and fifties iron that looked like they were dragged from the CC Graveyard. We had lots of ground to cover, and if I’d stopped for them all, we wouldn’t be home yet. Idaho is famous for more than potatoes. But how could I not stop at the America’s Miracle Museum in Polson, Montana, when this was sitting out front, not to mention a few other gems we’ll take a look at soon. And it was well worth the time, even if it had just been this “hybrid” home-built RV.
The first thing that caught my eye was the ’68 Pontiac grille, of course. Where the extensions to it came from, I’ll leave to you. But there was something very familiar about the shape of the windshield and the whole rest of the front end, even if it had been widened with that plug of glass in the middle.
Yes, here it is, right down to the (widened) vent in the middle. The Chevrolet (and GMC) steel tilt cab.
Once I got past the front end, it was also clear that this one is clearly pretty ambitious, as I’ve shot one or two others in more modest scale. It was almost instantly obvious from the general configuration that this rig had front wheel drive, and two trailing axles. A quick glance under the back confirmed that: two identical ones, that might just be from a Toronado or Eldorado. Anybody out there familiar with them?
Given the ’68 vintage Pontiac grille, I assumed that an early wrecked Toronado or Eldorado had given its front end and drive train for this. Since I normally keep the flash off in my camera, this shot won’t be of much help. But it was clear to me that the front subframe of one of those GM fwd pioneers was at work here. As well as an incredibly wide bias-ply 15″ tire (not from the car). Forgot about those.
A glance into the cockpit makes it clear: unless I’m wrong, that looks like a Caddy steering wheel. Looks like a lumber 2×4 is showing where wifey’s upholstery job is coming off. And who can tell us the source of that driver’s side “door” panel. That wasn’t home-built.
Here’s shot of the interior. Very 1968 decor indeed. And very well done, for home-built.
But there’s something wrong with the rear end. Well, not the eclectic styling touches and that “continental” spare. It’s the general rounded shape; that is so not 1968. I’m pretty sure this rig is actually built out of an old forties’ house trailer. In fact, that rear end looks almost familiar, but sorry; I’m not going to spend half an hour googling to find the make. Update: It’s a Spartan trailer.
But it’s hard to argue with the logic of it; in fact this whole rig is really very similar to one I have spent way too many hours MMing on: a vintage Airstream trailer self-propelled with a Toronado nose, or a rear engine, like the UltraVan. I’m sure there’s one or more out there somewhere.
Well, the homemade RV era is pretty much over. Used ones are so cheap, why bother? But that used Winnebago will never have tail lights like this. Isn’t that reason enough to head to the junk yard?
Let’s give tribute to Polly and Marshal Sanders, who created this hybrid. I hope they had many happy trips in it. Fitting too, that it ended up at America’s Miracle Museum too. I suspect that the home-built RV era was one mostly unique to the North American continent. Think Big, while you can.
I agree that they used some sort of older trailer for the bulk of the body. The rear axle does look like an Eldo/Toro unit being of the flat piece of steel folded into a “C”. It also appears to still have the mounting pads for the springs on top of the axle suggesting they aren’t the donor trailer’s axles. I do think that the springs and possibly a portion of the trailers frame were used.
Edit:
Personally I think that it was built in the mid 70’s or later. The hood ornament appears to be the spring loaded variety and since the door panel and steering column appear to be Eldo sourced I’m betting they came from the same donor rig. Also I’m betting this was inspired by the GMC Motor-home and it’s use of the Eldo/Toro unitized power package with tandem single wheel axles out back, which didn’t show up until 1973. For those not familiar with those beasts check out the link in my reply to Bryce.
To my eye, the roofline/rear-end appears not to be from a trailer, but from an older intercity transit bus, such as one of the “old look” GM buses made from the late ’30’s through 1958. Superior made one with that curve on the back all the way into the 1970’s… A number of California School districts used them…
Wow I am fairly certain I wouldn’t want to be stuck infront of or behind this monstrosity on the highway.
This could be a bus body remounted and recabbed.Home built house trucks were a popular Kiwi thing and still are though converted buses are more the thing now regulations having been tightened on what is allowed on the roads. This is a huge vehicle to be front drive but thats what points to a front extension on a bus body/chassis as the quality of the body seams is way better than the bits obviously hung on it
GM made motorhomes sold here in the US I bet was the inspiration of the drive set up and axle arrangement of this home built job.
Here is a page with the original brochure from a website for enthusiasts of that unique motor-home, they were the Cadillac of motor-homes so quite a high percentage have survived.
http://www.gmcmotorhome.com/faq/73brochure.html
This preceded the GM Motorhome by some years. More like the other way around.
Update: Check the recent comment further down.
Ironic that now the whole vehicle is visible we still dont know for sure what it is. This must be a first.
Lordy, what that thing must weigh….
It’s a kind of Family Truckster version of the GMC Motorhome, also based on the Toro/Eldo FWD drivetrain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMC_motorhome
Good grief, I go on vacation for a week and come home to relax after flying all day, open the computer to CC and I get this!
Oh well, it is for this I have come (and keep coming back).
Question: How many parts fall off this thing whenever it gets driven and can I get an alert when it comes through Cincinnati? Shade-tree modification at its best!
The door panel is from a 1969 Mustang, Mach-1, Grande or Interior Decor Group. Looks like it has been modified with extra switches.
I remember seeing this rig before. It was in Cars and Parts magazine back in the ’80s sometime. They also featured it again in the Cars and Parts Salvage Yard Treasures special that they put out circa 1990 or so.
They interviewed the guy who made it, he was an old geezer even then. I don’t remember if his name was the same as on the placard, but he claimed that G.M. had approached him to inspect his rig as they were having torque steer issues with the ones they were designing. As I recall, he used the powertrain from a Toronado, but I can’t remember the year.
The only reason it sticks out is because of that modified front bumper; I can’t imagine two people would have done it the same way. I just spent the last hour looking for my copies of Salvage Yard Treasures with no luck (God knows I’ve got 80-odd boxes of car magazines that are only loosely sorted) but maybe someone on here has a copy and can reference it?
Yes!!!! Found the magazine!! There are two photos on page 59 of American Salvage Yard Treasures. Same guy as in the placard photos here. He was 72 years old when the article was written, and was a retired Ford engineer. It says the body was a “original 1946 aluminum trailer home” and that the grille is from a 68 Bonneville; it also says his build predates GMs introduction by a couple of years. Missing is the “A Dream” custom plate it had originally, but it looks like the same paint scheme as best I can tell in the b&w pictures.
The description doesn’t state the year, but it had Toronado power. Another quote: “Capable of cruising at 90 plus, this unique bit of engineering brought GM out to study how he overcame torque steer and other steering anomalies with which they were stumped.”
Glad to see it has survived all these years, but sure wouldn’t want to test that top speed…
Excellent! I was sure it was a forties’ trailer, and it obviously preceded the GM motorhome, which came out in the early seventies. Thanks for taking the time to find it. It’s always nice to know the background.
I’m not sure I believe the bit about the GM engineers studying it to see how he overcame the torque steer issue with which they were stumped. Torque steer is primarily caused by differing axle lengths which the original set up did not have. It looks like the basic front half of the donor frame was used as it so it shouldn’t have been any different than it was on the donor. Yes there would have been serious issues with Ackerman due to the dramatically increased wheel base. Also knowing how smug GM was in general at that time and working with aerospace engineers on a regular basis (see comment below) most have a serious case of not invented here, so I doubt they would take lessons from a guy that built it himself. Sure they might have wanted to examine it to see how things were holding up to the increased weight in the real world, but again many engineers don’t have a grasp on the real world nor do they seem to care about it.
Wow.. That is impressive. Most “projects” never get halfway to that point.
Paul, you are dead on with the Popular Mechanics. I had a nice collection of them at one point and their projects were pretty interesting.
Redwood patio furniture? You can do it!
Home built metal lathe? No problem!
Rings and bearings for your Ford V8 in a day? Why not?
I could easily see project plans for a homebuilt RV.
A Frankenstein even…:)
They came close once that I know of. Convert your Corvan/Econoline/Microbus into a camper.
http://books.google.com/books?id=uSADAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA118&dq=corvan%20camper&pg=PA121#v=onepage&q=corvan%20camper&f=false
Damn, I hate shit like this, it makes me feel so lazy!
Sigh…. Oh well, back to sitting on my ass and thinking about all the cool stuff I could build, but won’t.
This vehicle is the perfect embodiment of what made our country great – that devil-may-care can-do attitude that is so looked down upon now. Half of my neighborhood would be on the phone with city code compliance in five minutes if they saw me working on anything like this or even if it was parked in the driveway. My city now bans RVs from neighborhoods altogether unless they are hidden behind a fence or parked inside a garage.
Sure, that’s progress in a way, if all we care about is having perfect looking neighborhoods, but gone are the days when kids and their parents were building a TV or radio from a kit – what can kids today build? They can’t make their own video game, or smart phone, and maybe a tiny percentage of them may actually end up knowing how to program one someday.
So to me, this vehicle represents what we used to be in a lot of ways, and I’m not sure I like how we have turned out. I love the rear styling of that rig, especially the continental kit and the taillights (the ugly box on the top which I’m guessing is an air conditioning condenser could have been done differently).
Well spoken!
The building spirit damn near died until lately. Kids and grownups are building again. This year’s NYC Maker Faire drew over 50K people. Big Maker Faires every year in Detroit and the Bay Area and smaller groups are happening all over. With lots of shared designs and tools on the web, cheap 3D printers and laser cutters, little $25 computer boards, people are making their own robot airplanes, welding up bikes, converting cars. Heathkit’s even starting up again. Check out Instructables, the Make blog, Hack a Day. There is hope. Go out there and cut some metal or sniff some solder smoke.
I agree; the desire to create is not so readily snuffed out. And the scale and application is often more appropriate to today’s world. Too many of those ferro-cement sailboats never got finished; occasionally, you can still see a hull in a back yard.
Yes this represents a era when America was great and people did things for themselves, something that has been largely lost today. One of the reasons is the fact that shop classes have all but disappeared from today’s schools. In some cases that is changing the governor of that state of tree huggers and hippies to our south that Paul and some of the other contributors call home has vowed to put shop classes back in every high school in Oregon!! Unfortunately in my own school district when the previous shop teacher retired the replacement didn’t know anything about wood working and surplussed all of the metal working equipment. With falling interest in the construction trades and woodworking classes he is now part time and this will be the last school year that there will be woodworking classes at our high school. For me and my colleagues it is a bitter sweet moment as we have taken over what was the metal shop portion for our FIRST Robotics Team and the room will be modified next summer, a portion of which will become 2 classrooms and the rest will be left to our needs.
However there are kids of the high school age making their own video games and apps for smart phones. 3 years ago my son took a video game programming class offered by a partner school district (ours is quite small 1 jr high 1 sr high school) and Digipen institute. There are also a number of smart phone apps that have been written by kids participating in FIRST for use in conjunction with First. At age 14 my son has worked on a number of open source projects and actually got a job offer from Red Hat, that of course was retracted when he said I’m only 14, though he does keep in contact, still does unpaid work on some of their projects, takes part in confrence calls and has been told he has a standing job offer once he gets a degree.
So I’ve mentioned FIRST a couple of times and many of you may be wondering what in the world is he talking about. FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. It is an orginzation founded by Dean Kamen the inventor of the Segway to promote Science and Technology among students for 6 to 18, and is actually moving in to colleges too. USFIRST.org will give you lots of info.
If you don’t like what the country has become, like far behind the rest of the world in our kids abilities in math and science you need to be the change and get involved, either as a Mentor for a local team, getting a local team started in your local school, FFA, Cub/Boy/Girl Scouts, or church group, donating funds, materials or other support to your local existing teams, or just attending your local competition and lending moral support to the teams and volunteers that make it possible. If we don’t do it the politicians other than a few like Ted, certainly aren’t going to.
Our club participates in the organization’s “major” league FRC, FIRST Robotics Competition, which will have the season kick off come Jan 7. So you likely won’t see much from me in the weeks following that as we have a 6 week build season, 1 week off, 6 weeks of competitions, 2 weeks off and then the World championships in St Louis, which as the name implies is attended by teams from all the different leagues from around the world.
As a mechanic and business owner by trade a lot of my time is spent proving those high paid aerospace engineers wrong and making them cry by showing them a “dumb” grease monkey knows how to engineer things that actually work in the real world and can be serviced and repaired in the few minutes between matches.
Sorry for the long post but it is something I feel strongly about, so strongly that I am willing to forgo a lot of work, pretty much only working 1/4 to 1/2 the time for 3-4 months of the year, forgoing a noticeable chunk of income, by being one of the mentors that is always there when we are working.
For those of you in OR and WA when the time comes for the competitions in Portland and Seattle that we attended I’ll give you a heads up and hopefully we can meet up. If you are not in the area you can find the events in your area at the FIRST website.
Thanks for your comment, and kudos for your involvement! I’m very familiar with how the system (apprenticeships, etc.) works in Austria and Germany, and have always been a bit skeptical of the the American approach, especially in more recent decades. Better not get me started on the educational system!
But I do hope that the opportunities for kids to learn with their hands and heads returns. I see too many kids (tenants) with college degrees that have no real interest or passion for what they study or studied.
Thanks Paul, I hope you nor any of the rest of the OR CC’er took offense to me perpetuating the stereotype that you are all a bunch of tree hugging hippies, it was meant in jest. I sincerely hope that some of you guys can come to the Autodesk Oregon regional in Portland, March 8-10, 2012, and you WA guys can come out for the Seattle regional, March 22-24.
It’s a compliment, dude! Three cheers for FIRST! A teacher I know has built her curriculum around FIRST and they went to the Nationals. FIRST gets kids hands-on, problem-solving, tool-using, craft-learning, and it’s cool. A FIRST robot is a lot like a car, it works or it doesn’t work, and no amount of BS or spin or bullying or argument can change that. It’s the greatest lesson a kid can learn.
What league are they in FRC, FTC, FLL, or FLL jr? What is their team number? I’m with FRC 2046 and we made it to the world champs last season, the first time since I’ve been involved with the program, it was quite a blast for all of us involved. The big thing is that it makes a difference in kids lives and the direction they are heading. The most recent graduates from our school are studying to be engineers at Harvey Mudd, and Kettering to name a few. A number of our kids have received some of the scholorships only available to FIRST participants and many of the speakers from the companies that sponsor FIRST and FIRST teams say that any kid that comes to them with a background in FIRST and a College degree has a job waiting for them. Assuming it is somewhat related to the fields they are in, IE you are not going to be hired as an engineer if your degree is in veterinary medicine.
One of the things the founders always stress, “it’s not about the robot, the robot is just a vehicle” (pun intended) and it is a vehicle to get kids excited about science, engineering, and technology. Its also a great way for kids that aren’t the sporty types (although we’ve many atheletes and a couple of cheerleaders) team work and how to objectively make decisions, but not give up on your own ideas. And Paul teaching kids how to have passion for what they are going to do with their life. As the director for WA and I have discussed there are about a dozen different awards at each event and only 1 of them is for the robot.
Again sorry to take this thread so far off track, hope you can make it to the Portland regional so we can meet and KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD!!
Kauaibots FRC Team 2465, they went to Atlanta in 2010.
“Keep Portland Weird”! Or as I like to say it:
Not familiar with that team, there are usually 50ish teams at an event.
Mark your calender cause now you’ve got 2 teams to see and a CC’er to meet.
Watch that with that sign, it’s us Seattleites that are wired, from drinking all the coffee, lol. Seriously, great take on your local unofficial slogan for your local, for you crazy people that like playing with high voltage. I’ll take 12v thank you very much, I’d rather not end up looking like your avitar Mr Red-e-volt, IIRC.
A couple of my wife’s cousins have been involved in FIRST robotics. A first rate learning experience.
I went to the same high school as my father, and during the 1980’s worked with the same WW1 surplus metal lathes that he had used in the 1950’s. Now the school is torn down, who knows what became of the lathes and I just realized now that my son will probably never take metal or wood shop.
totaly agree with you. when i was a kid i thought that you could build anything (and my grandad could ! ) today theres nothing.
That tire on the back reminds me of the old illustrations from tire flyers that exaggerated the width-What size is it and for what application could it have been?
The profile looks more passenger car than truck, but how many cars would this even fit?
big old cross ply tyre probably light truck rims on this monstrosity
I wish I had taken a picture of one; I did look at one closely. Very wide indeed, but on a 15″ rim, that was probably a widened Toro wheel. Yes, that front tire totally had a passenger car profile. It’s somehow ringing a bell from that era, but I can’t put my finger on it.
Maybe that’s why they parked it: couldn’t find replacement tires that size anymore!
I wish I could un-see that creepy interior.
What’s so creepy about it – many RVs still share that basic design inside.
Really impressive project and I too hope they had much fun with it; few things feel as good as making use of something you built with your own hands. By the way, coincidentally I came by this picture of an Airstream/Toronado (68/69?) based RV just this week.
Very nice! I prefer the ’66/’67 front end, but otherwise that would do quite nicely.
Just an aside: Today I was crossing central Wisconsin, on a freeway…and in the opposite lane, here comes this Ford L-Series truck…with an Airstream trailer grafted onto the payload frame.
No mistake; he’d skirted it and had a little car (three-pot?) in tow. I only had it in view for about two seconds, and I was driving…not enough time to snap off a pic.
Obviously there’s interest in what can be done with iconic Airstreams…
Thats cool
69 based on the grill pattern.
And here is a recent update. It was recently purchased by Mav from YouTube. He posted two videos including a tour of the inside and a long road trip home in this same rig.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pIoUffo3sM
Wouldn’t it be easier to convert a school bus? It would seem to me that it would be a more reliable and serviceable vehicle without that funky shadetree welding snapping in the middle of a blizzard.
Sure but where is the fun in that. You pull up to a camp site or gas pump and you’d attract zero attention. Pull up in one of the homebuilt creations that are turning out to be the feature this weekend and everyone will be wanting to know, “what is it”, “did you build it yourself, or was it F’ed-up like that when you bought it” ect.
Not to mention that some campgrounds won’t allow converted school buses.
Why is that?
Yeah, why is that?
I’d wonder why you’d go to all the trouble of using a FWD car. Since pickup trucks were “for farmers only”, wouldn’t it be easier to buy one of those and build onto it. Stretching the frame could be difficult, but it’s not like cutting a Toronado in half wouldn’t have obstacles, either.
The attraction of using a FWD car like the Toronado as a base meant there was no finagling with a driveshaft or rear axle(s), as well as (possibly) better space efficiency/a lower body. Same reasoning GM used when they made their own Toronado-based motorhome.
This could be a modification of a 1960-1971 Ultra Van motor home. The first 350 or so were powered by Corvair drive-trains in the rear. When Corvair production ended the manufacturers tried Toronado drive-trains in front and rear as well as small block Chevy Corvette drive-trains operating through a marine V-drive.
I had a Corvair powered 1968 for 16 years and still maintain the website.
http://www.corvair.org/chapters/ultravan/
The front windshields came from Chevy panel trucks of around 1960-62. The rear from a Spartan trailer. Much information on the website.
Ken Wildman
The rear end is from a Spartan trailer. The profile of the Ultra Van was made to match the Spartan, but it was made out of a single sheet of fiberglass. The Spartan is made of formed aluminum, and as you can see in the pictures has horizontal seams.
I’ve always wondered if the Spartan panels could be grafted onto an Ultra Van and polished to a mirror finish…
Sorry, Owen. Close but no cigar.
David Peterson, the originator of the Ultra Van made a mold of one side of the Spartan tail end with all the compound curves. For some strange reason he then made another mold from the same side and before it cured completely, he pulled it off, and “popped” it to the reverse curvature. He used those two molds to make the rear quarters and filled in-between with aluminum .
Ken
ex Ultra Van # 338
current ’96 Safari Diesel Pusher
By the way…
Here’s a picture of the 1960 Chevy Step Van that provided the windshields for the Ultra Vans. I think it also is the windshield for the Watchamacallit.
Ken
I’m quite certain the windshield for this homemade RV is from that Chevy/GMC COE truck that gave its whole front end body to this project (see picture in article). It’s windshield is a bit different.
Here’s a picture of the 1960 Chevy Step Van.
The rear end is from a late 40s to early 50s Spartan. Spartan Manor or Spartan Mansion (depending on length). Spartan was owned by J. Paul Getty, and was Spartan Aircraft, during WW2. The construction techniques are taken directly from aircraft. The first trailers were made in 1946. Here’s a shot of my unrestored 1946 Spartan Manor sitting next to my restored ’65 Airstream Sovereign. Sorry! No handy shots of the rear end of the trailer: you’ll have to trust me 🙂
I think Owen is right, as soon as I saw the rear end I thought it was a Spartan.
http://www.vintagetrailerlove.com/2013/01/1949-spartan-in-texas/
Very cool project. Today people convert buses, same spirit, less work.
The trailer is a spartan manor
Kind of looks like that Maltese bread van from a month ago!
It’s a ‘Beaut! Love the styling of this home made RV. All the thought and skill that went into making it, and so much character. Hope the museum keeps it water tight as part of its maintenance and upkeep.
Yeah, I can’t really be hard on it, since I couldn’t come close to building anything like it.
What’s that Studebaker hub cap (or rather, the center from a full-wheel cover) hiding on the rear quarter panel?
This gigantic beastie has only a single door halfway down the passenger side of the thing?
Oy.
RE : Road WHALE =
GAH !
Hey , that’s kinda cool ! =8-) .
GAH ! (retching sounds)
The interior is really well finished…
GAH ! .
Etc…….
Why the hell not ? .
Where’s Cousin Eddiie’s Spartan Manor Motor Home ? .
BTW : I was in Death Valley last weekend and there must have been a meeting of those GMC Motor homes , I counted TWELVE in the Stovepipe Wells Campground , even blue and red ones ! .
-Nate
Well, It’s a ’49, ’50, ’51, ’52, ’53, ’54, ’55, ’56
’57, ’58’ 59′ automobile
It’s a ’60, ’61, ’62, ’63, ’64, ’65, ’66, ’67
’68, ’69, ’70 automobile.
From the front, this beast kind of looks like it rear-ended a ’68 Pontiac while doing 75 on the interstate, and just kept going.
And to think, I was all proud of myself for converting a PWC trailer into a one-man camper. This is fascinating.
Great photos. Great comments. Now that you mention it, it’s gotten a lot less common to see home-built curiosities like that. Back in the ’90s, when I lived in WA State, it wasn’t so abnormal. One time I came out of a restaurant near Olympia and parked out front was a sort of hotrod motorhome: a short school bus with a ’30s truck front end (and frame?), a beautiful paint job and “Yosemite Sam” painted on the back. Just another cool sighting back then. In general, lots of my neighbors in Tacoma were skilled tradespeople, owned all sorts of tools and could seemingly fix or build anything. I even read up about ferrocement sailboat construction but came to my senses. Good day.
Damn shame it’s rotting away.
I like the 1968 Pontiac grille on the front of the motorhome.
I like the look of the later 60s Dodge taillights.
The tail lights are 1959 Dodge
Finally, a ’68 Pontiac-looking thing that’s as wide as Art Fitzpatrick made them look in the ads…
Did we ever track down what those grille extensions came from?
I think that the extensions were made from the back bumper from a 68 Olds Cutlass.
Personally, I think it would have come off much better if they’d have been able to stick with the grille/headlights of the ’60 Chevy cabover.