Top 10 motorhome restoration tips

Top 10 Motorhome Restoration Tips

MMM Interchange Editor Peter Rosenthal lists his top 10 tips for restoring or renovating a motorhome...


1. Size up the challenge

Before you lift up a spanner in anger, be brutally realistic about the renovation work, you abilities and the financial logic in doing it. If the motorhome you’re considering working on is rusty, has suffered water ingress and needs the interior totally renovating is it really worth doing?

Find out what it would be worth in restored condition and cost everything up as carefully as you can. Eg If the Talbot coachbuilt you’re looking at needs a full overhaul at a cost of around £6,000, but will only be worth £3,000 in restored condition, walk away – it’s not worth it.

It’s very easy to get all misty-eyed over a treasured vehicle that you’ve owned for years. But before you go down the renovation route, cost your options. Would it be cheaper or easier to buy a more modern vehicle?
If it’s a unique vehicle, or one you’ve fallen in love with, then that’s a different argument.


2. Price up the labour

Some motorhome tasks are relatively easy for even the most ham-fisted novice to tackle, but some tasks may need specialist kit or professional labour. You need to cost this up. Certain tasks are so specialist – eg paint spraying – that I’d never suggest an amateur attempt it. Get several quotes on any professional work you need carried out (and don’t forget to add on the 20 per cent VAT – easy to forget).

Equally, don’t be put off attempting a renovation job. The only way you learn how to do any restoration task is not from a manual, or a magazine, it’s by rolling up your sleeves and having a go. Motorhomes are largely handbuilt by people like you and can be restored by you.


3. Stock up on specialist tools & fixings

Motorhomes are large, heavy beasts and if you’re planning on doing certain tasks it’s essential you have the correct tools. A good socket set is essential, as are a range of spanners, screwdrivers and basic metalworking tools. A workbench equipped with a vice, a pillar drill and basic metalworking tools (hacksaws, files in different profiles) are also wise investments. If you’ve already done some basic DIY, you’ll have most of what you need already.

Do not cut corners on socket sets in particular – a Happy Shopper £5.99 socket set may seem good value initially, but won’t last. Brands such as Stanley, Bahco, Teng, Snap On, Facom and Wera are good items to look for. Equally Halfords Professional do some good value all-in-one sets, as do Machine Mart. Top tip here is to avoid the large DIY stores, such as B&Q, Wickes amd Homebase – they are very expensive for most tools.
In terms of power tools, a power drill (a decent cordless is best) and an angle grinder with cutting discs, are two essential items of kit.

Although you could wait until you actually need a certain length or type of fixing, it’s far cheaper and easier to stock up on some basic fixings before you get stuck into the restoration work. You know you’ll need a selection of wood screws for any interior restoration so buy a bulk pack: Screwfix sell large cases of various sizes of screws for around the £30 mark. This will save you time and money, over buying 10 packs of woodscrews for £3 a bag from your local DIY store.

The same goes for nuts and bolts – for low stress applications you can buy these in handy box sets. For anything related to the base vehicle it must be the original manufacturers fixing of the correct tensile strength.
A handy source of fixings, spares and tools, has to be a motorhome show. As well as being able to get most things you’re likely to need, you’ll also find a wealth of enthusiasm and knowledge, there, too.


4. Rusty bodywork

Rust is the most expensive, time-consuming and difficult thing to tackle on any restoration and the first thing to assess is how bad it is. In the case of really old vehicles (I’m thinking mainly of early Volkswagens here) it may be a combination of rot and rust that you have to deal with.

Unless you’re an enthusiast for that particular brand of vehicle, or it’s especially valuable (eg like a 23-window VW Split-screen), then walk away from any rot or serious rust.

On motorhomes, the critical areas for rust and rot are around all the suspension mounting points and around the seatbelt mounting points, as well as the chassis legs at the front. These are key structural areas and any rust around these points will be very expensive to sort.

Anything near the wheelarches spends its life getting pebble-dashed with stones and sprayed with rain (or salt in winter) so check around the wheelarches with care.

Rust on a bolt-on panel is relatively easy to fix (provided the panels are available – check first).

Bolt-on panels on most motorhomes tend to be the bonnet, front wings, cab doors, front valance and any other panel attached to the main structure via a hinge. The cheapest solution is usually to find a panel off a similarly-aged vehicle – nine times out of ten it will be white, so may not even need spraying to match. Search your local breaker’s yards in the Yellow Pages (or Google ‘breakers yards’ online) to find them.

If you can’t find any secondhand rust-free panels you may need to buy new. Main dealers, or firms such as Euro Car Parts, or local motorfactors are a good source of these.

For new panels you will also need to budget for spraying them to match the body colour and applying rust-proofing treatment. You’ll also need to obtain new panel fixings, so budget for these: if the panel has rusted, the fixings usually have, too.


5. Mechanical repair

Before even thinking about doing any mechanical repairs, it’s essential to have the right kit. You need a minimum of wheel chocks (truck or motorhome rated, car items are unsuitable), three-tonne axle stands and a three-tonne trolley jack (or higher, depending on your vehicle’s weight.

Compared to a car, everything on a motorhome tends to be larger and heavier. Even simply removing the wheels is a very physical task, so if you’re not in good health or suffer from back problems, pay someone else to do the work.

Assuming you’re fit and strong, then most mechanical tasks such as suspension and brakes are easily doable on a DIY basis.

Engine and gearbox work will usually involve either lifting the vehicle up on ramps, or using an engine lift – the ease of this depends on the vehicle. More modern vehicles have more emissions electronics around the engine and are slightly more complex to work on.

Common servicing tasks, such as a cambelt replacement on a diesel engine, are only recommended for experienced mechanics with the correct belt locking tools. Never skip a cambelt swap and make sure the tensioners (and water pump – if belt driven) are replaced at the same time. Cambelts fail irrespective of low mileage, so the age is the critical point. If in doubt, swap.

6. Interior & soft furnishings

Unless you have an expensive damp meter (we’re talking £300 plus, here), your nose is the best instrument for assessing the interior condition. Anything that smells of ‘wet dog’, or musty or damp should raise suspicions of a water ingress problem. Even young vehicles can suffer from damp issues – I’ve seen budget Italian four-year-old vans being repaired in service centres – so always check for this.

Coachbuilts and A-class models are generally more prone to water ingress issues than panel vans, but always check. Bulging wall panels (as the laminates expand with moisture) and discoloured wall boards near seams are sure signs of problems.

Bad water ingress on a coachbuilt panel is tricky to fix on a DIY basis and in extreme cases may need an entire exterior panel replacing – this is a massive task and will easily give you a four-figure bill.
Interior trim, carpeting, soft furnishings and trim can all be sorted on a DIY basis (though a professional upholstery trimmer will always give the best results). Many firms will cut memory foam to shape to remake seat bases, while a good machinest can sew up some fabric covers. Go for easy to find material (in case of future replacement), hold it on with Velcro and treat it with some form of fabric protection. Buy a few metres of extra material, just in case anything gets ripped in the future.

Common interior items that fail, such as door handles, locker hinges, washroom and kitchen taps, are all readily available from most caravan shops (or motorhome shows).


7. Electrics -12V and 240V

Unlike a car, motorhomes differ in that as well as having 12V DC circuits, they also have 240V AC electrical circuits. Unless you’re familiar with 240V electrics, you’re best leaving this to professionals. If you’ve fitted the odd extra socket in your house and know the basics, you’ll have little issue with a motorhome’s 240V circuit, they tend to be pretty rudimentary.

Before starting on any electrical work, make sure the mains hook-up is disconnected and the battery leads (on both the habitation and engine battery) are removed. Use an electrical screwdriver on any of the mains circuits and make sure every circuit is protected by a correctly-rated circuit breaker in the consumer unit. If you have an older vehicle it is wise to upgrade all the 240V components to modern items with circuit breakers and RCD protection.

For old 12V wiring, poor earths and broken wires (as the insulation hardens with age and the copper inside goes green) are your biggest headaches.

In the case of endless wiring faults it might be best to start from scratch with a new power supply unit and fresh wiring throughout. 12V wiring bought in bulk, together with electrical connectors (from firms such as Vehicle Wiring Products) can work out quite cost effective.

8. Gas

Older motorhomes tend to run on either Propane (orange cylinders) or Butane (blue cylinders). These run at different regulator pressures and in the case of older vehicles, certain appliances will only tolerate certain pressures. Anything involving gas plumbing or fitting an appliance – beyond simply swapping the flexible hoses at the gas cylinder end – are best entrusted to an NCC Approved Workshop Scheme service centre with up to date gas certificate.

Gas services need an annual check as part of habitation servicing and any flame that burns with anything other than an even blue hue, needs investigating. Flickering flames on the hob, orange or yellow flames or smoking all needs immediate investigation.

Buy a new smoke detector and CO detector as a matter of course. Mount these permanently following the manufacturers instructions to the letter.


9. Engineers report / MoT

When you’re finally recommissioned or restored your vehicle, it’s wise to get it freshly MoT’d as a minimum check. Just having a second pair of eyes check over your handiwork is a worthwhile step for peace of mind.
In some cases, usually in the case of significant alterations from the original specification, or in the case of a DIY van conversion, you may need to also supply your insurance company with an engineer’s report. Most MoT centres will be able to do this sort of work and it’s basically a more involved safety check, backed up by a written report. These vary in their thoroughness and cost depending on the company involved.


10. Snagging

For the first few weeks after getting a restored or renovated vehicle back on the road you’ll probably be quite paranoid over strange noises and rattles. This is the time where you’ll find out how good your handiwork has been. Or if you remembered to tighten up every last bolt…

For this reason, it’s wise to carry a decent selection of spares and a basic toolkit. Emergency repair tape, Duck tape and cable ties are all essential things to carry, while a selection of nuts, bolts, screws and general fixings may also be handy.

Finally, if you’re not a member of a breakdown organisation such as the RAC or AA, join one – I have lost count of the number of times they’ve saved me when my latest project vehicle failed. Make sure you check that they can cope with your length and weight of vehicle, before you sign up on the dotted line.

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