1984 Itasca Sunflyer ICN22RC Restoration

[FLynes]

Hi everyone, I got this Sunflyer from my next door neighbors last month, and the price was right.......free. But, as we all know, no RV ends up being truly free. This one had been sitting since about 2011. My neighbors were getting ready to go on a trip, and the wife wanted to be proactive and fill the fresh water tank, except she accidentally filled the fuel tank, instead. Thankfully, the engine was never started, and the water was drained from the fuel tank. They never went on their trip and the Sunflyer sat ever since, under an elm tree. Sadly, my neighbor's husband passed away in 2018.

In May, we had a terrible windstorm and a couple of branches fell on the motorhome. Miraculously, there was no damage done. My neighbor's son lives with and takes care of her, as she now elderly. The son is a nice guy and we get along well. He asked me if I would help him clear the branches off of the Sunflyer, so I brought over my chainsaw and got it done for him. I then asked him what he was planning to do with it, and he asked me if I wanted it. Given I got divorced last year and the ex got the Monaco motorhome and then promptly sold it for less than half of what I put into it, I quickly said yes, not really caring about its condition. We hooked it up to the son's dually and towed it next door to my place.

It took me four hours to pressure wash 14 years of dirt and crud from the exterior and another four hours to do a precursory vacuuming of the inside. I have since been working to get the electrical systems back online. Again, miraculously, the original Coleman TSR Mach 3 A/C still works, despite a cracked-to-**** shroud that allowed a bunch of leaves and dirt to accumulate. The only electrical that doesn't work is the bathroom ceiling light, probably due to water intrusion on the roof, as well as the aisle lights.

The roof will need to be completely rebuilt, which I've done before on a previous slide-in camper I used to own. The interior will be carefully gutted and the carpeting will be replaced with LVP, except for the driver's/passenger area, which will be replaced with new carpet. The original Audiovox SPS radio works, however the quartz clock burned out about an hour after I put power to it, and the cassette player doesn't work. I was able to find a NOS Audiovox electronic tuner cassette player on eBay, which will work for now, until I'm able to get a Sony CarPlay system for it, but that'll be down the road.

For now, here are pics of the coach as I got it and after cleaning it. This will be a project that I'm taking my time to do. I'm retired, so I'll do a little bit at a time and then post the progress.

 

[FLynes]

I wanted to add that the email address that KirbyRVA posted in his "Service Tips" thread in 2008 is still 100% valid. I sent an email off to Winnebago and received all of the diagrams, wiring, plumbing and layup (construction) that they had for the 1984 Sunflyer. With the exception of a couple of minor running changes, everything is spot-on accurate.

 

[Morich]

Oh MY! Shades of the old days when I was interested in that sort of project! My first few RV were of that sort and it looks like you have the right start to getting it done!

Finding info is a biggie, so that brings some questions as I am also retired (kind of?) and that leaves me doing lots of weird things while I wait for other things!

So did you get lots of electrical drawings on the those light problems?
I tend to like the electrical questions and volunteer to help sort them if needed?
But I don't even pretend to know the whole story, so especially like drawings to give me a guide!

Sounds like a good plan for a good project at the price!

 

[FLynes]

Hi Richard, the gal from Winnebago was kind enough to get me every single electrical, plumbing and layup diagram available for the W/ICN22RC, which I am attaching for everyone's use.

 

[FLynes]

Happy Sunday everyone. This weekend was very productive. Yesterday I got the battery compartment cleaned up and looking tidy. I also took the time to wire wheel the connections, and this made a big difference in how the electrical responded. This morning FedEx showed up with the new Coleman Mach replacement shroud, which I installed, but you can definitely tell that the roof is sagging from the water damage. I then turned my focus to the engine.

Today was the day to kick this pig and get her going, and I can say that the result was, as I say in the video, very anticlimactic. I got the plugs out yesterday and put Marvel Mystery Oil in the cylinders. This morning I turned it over by hand, and it spun over three times with zero effort, so I put the plugs back into it and disconnected the leads to the dizzy. I cranked it and the oil pressure came right up to around 50 psi, which really surprised me.

I then reconnected the dizzy, poured some 128:1 2-stroke fuel in the Quadrajet bowl, through the vent tube, and turned the key.....and it fired on the first try. There was no smoke coming out of the dual exhaust, and the high idle kicked down, although because of open vacuum ports, it idled a bit high. I was also able to put it in all the gears, and the TH400 shifted firmly but smoothly and it moved a few feet each way.

Here are pictures of the battery compartment, as well as the two videos I took this morning:

 

[Morich]

OH my! A bit of corrosion?
Looks like you know what to do for that, so I thought to mention a common issue on some of the older RV.
This solenoid (or relay?) had a bad habit due to the mounting screw or bolt getting loose or corroded!
This is a big thing still but they have made it somewhat better by adding a second wire to bring ground as well as battery to operate this relay.
But it is still a common problem, so good to keep in mind, maybe?

It does two different things for us. One is that it has a couple different places in front to pick up 12VDC . First one might be what they call ignition hot. When we have the key on that point sends 12V down to go through the coil in this solenoid and to ground through the metal case and mounting. Operating this closes contacts to connect the chassis battery and alternator on one big lug through to the coach batteries on the other big lug.
That lets us get some charge back into the coach side as we drive!

The other use is when we push a dash switch when we need a "jump start' without getting out jumper cables! There should be a momentary switch somewhere near the driver that operates this solenoid while we hold it as we start the engine!
They sometime called this an isolator as it also cut (isolated?) the connection when we are not pushing the switch or engine running! That lets you connect them when wanted but isolate them when we don't want to run both batteries down while camped!

A recent post about this part of a newer RV:

Battery isolation soleniod location 2004 Itasca Sunova 27C

Hello, I have a 2004 Itasca Sunova 27C P32 Workhorse chassis with the GM 4L80e transmission. I need to replace a battery isolation soleniod, but the soleniod location on the P32 workhorse chassis is almost impossible to access. They are located in the small compartment (passenger side) forward...

www.winnieowners.com

But this might be a good time while cleaning to make sure there is a good solid ground at the mounting screw as this stops working if that ground is lost!
Good looking job of cleaning most connections but don't overlook that one where it mounts!

Carry on with the project and enjoy the new tricks!

 

[FLynes]

Hi Richard, I am quite familiar with the Trombetta solenoids. I know this one may look like it's spent a few decades at the bottom of the lake, but I did remove it from its mounting location, and the metal still looks good, so I reinstalled for now. It will receive a new one down the road, and the battery compartment is going to be wire wheeled and will receive a coat of POR-15, and the all of the heavy gauge wires will be replaced with new red and black wires. I've seen people ask why the wires are all black, and the only answer I can come up with is cost. My main goal was to ensure I had good contacts, to see what works and what doesn't...before I had no life from the ignition, and after it fired right up, and so far, only the bathroom ceiling light is non-op, probably from corroded contacts, due to water intrusion, but all of the lights are getting replaced with LED, so it's a moot point.

 

[FLynes]

According to the original Itasca brochure, the Sunflyer 22RC interior height is supposed to be 77"...the areas of the interior that are still intact and not rotted or sagging are actually 77.5". The worst sagging area is where the A/C lives, and the lowest point is 75-7/8".


As much as I don't want to, I think I'm going to be better off keeping all of the interior appointments in place, as I restore the roof, because I know I'm going to have to rebuild several trusses, in order to get the arch correct. If the interior is completely gutted, there is a chance that the walls will be unsupported, and the entire structure could collapse, depending on how bad they're water-damaged...keeping the interior in place will keep the rigidity I need, to prevent any unnecessary warping and keep things as square as possible.


I'll post pictures, as soon as I start. We had a really bad thunderstorm yesterday, but the next week and half is supposed to be dry, so a trip to Home Depot is in order first, to get a tarp, for that just in case moment.

 

[FLynes]

My uncle is in town visiting for a week, so no updates. Next week I start taking all of the roof components apart, and hopefully the one-piece aluminum skin comes off with no issues.

Does anyone know if the roof trusses are wood or metal? The reason I ask is because the 1984 brochure doesn't mention it, but the 1985 brochure discusses aluminum frames.

 

[FLynes]

Just a quick update, nothing new to report, we've had some good rain storms, since my uncle's visit; I don't want to damage more than what's already damaged, so I need to come up with a good, cheap way to prevent more water intrusion, once the A/C is removed. There's another issue, involving my health, two blood tests came back "Abnormal", so I'm waiting on a referral to a specialist...trying to not worry is proving easier said than done. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

 

[Eagle5]

Hi Fred,
It is a very interesting project you have hear.
I pray that your abnormal blood tests are quickly resolved for the better.
Eagle5

 

[Morich]

Always something getting it the way when we make a plan!
Best of luck on both that issue and the RV plan??
For what to expect, I'm not sure of the date when they starte3d making the switch from wood to metal but I might guess there is a metal frame with the top outer as well as inner layers bonded to foam in between them. Part of the idea was that the combo of outer, foam, and then inner, bonded together made a "unit" rather than acting as separate items.
It seemed to have worked well for them and new are fully made that way id I understand things correctly.
But there is a pretty wide gap in my ceiling work from late 70' s, so what I remember about the top may be pretty shaky!
What I first dealt with was metal outer bonded top wooden frame and inner bonded to that and it had rotted! Peeling the inner left me with a space to rebuild but a terrible job.
Next I had one that had met a tree at the front, so going in through the damaged metal seemed right but turned out to be a real drama. Getting the metal turned loose from the foam was not a good idea as the foam tended to rip, tear or melt on any method I tried top use! I think that one eventually became a form of "kennel" for a person who raised small dogs! Apparently dogs don't care what the interior looks like!
My thought might be to go carefully on expecting things to come apart in any given way and give some thought to whether the outside metal can be lifted and moved or is it possible to work from the inside and simply layer over any damage done as neither may come loose from the bond as well as we might like?

Doing one now that the frame may be metal. I might suggest leaving the outside alone and only replace/repair the sealers/caulk. Reason for that thought is how difficult I found it was to work the metal roof without something getting bent and putting a permanent crimp in it! If it's not bent, I tend to try to leave it alone!

But that is pure guessing and needs a close look at the overall picture! Easy to make suggestions that are hard to carry out!

 

[FLynes]

I finally felt well enough to start with A/C removal. Instead of removing old caulking and properly resealing, the dreaded P.O. (whichever of the previous four it was) piled more caulk on top. It took the better part of two hours to remove all of the silicone and self-leveling caulk, but I was finally able to lift the A/C off from its hole, and what I saw is par for the course....there doesn't appear to be any roof truss system whatsoever, Winnebago slapped some 3/4" plywood on there and called it good. I would say that I'm extremely surprised, but given how many "top of the line" RV brands I've owned, but I'm not. What DOES surprise me is that Winnebago was content with a flat board as a roof...I would have expected some curve, even a slight one, to be present, to help direct water off of the roof.

Here are the pics of the progress so far. Now the fun part is going to be getting the A/C unit off of the roof by myself.

 

[Morich]

Yes, pretty much what I remember finding. the main difference seems to be that I had wood passing for rafter that were in the range of 11/2 X 11/2 inch and they were pretty well gone from rot! First thought was that I might treat to kill fungus creep and double them. But as I got into trying to find spots strong enough to double, I decided total rebuild was the only way.

Not much I can add for what to do as it takes looking and considering when you finally get a good look at what you have.

This may be late for this one spot but you most likely will have lots more caulk to remove, so an idea to consider?
I now have a new favorite tool when dealing with any caulk or sealer. An oscillating tool from Harbor Freight is now my first thought when I need to remove anything like caulk as it not only makes the job much quicker but it also makes it much less likely to nick the surface if I use the right end tool attachment/blade!

I' m not a huge fan of cheap tools but this one fits what I needed and has lasted far longer than some of the name brands I have had!

2 Amp Variable-Speed Oscillating Multi-Tool

Amazing deals on this 2A Variable Oscillating Multi Tool at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

Depending on outlook, I am fine if this never works another day as it has saved me so much trouble and effort. Lots of different tools for the end but what fully sold me was using it to cut the bond between metal storm windows and brick. If you think about the rough surface of brick and how caulk snuggles down in those grooves you can imagine the fun of trying to get it off brick to a point it didn't show.
But with the blade making super small but super fast little nicks, it was a winner.
I now find getting caulk off fiberglass is much better when I use a thin flexible blade so that I can lay it down nearly flat to the surface and let it just take a really thin layer off the fiberglass and still not gouge a hunk out like I do when trying to manually force a putty knife in and under! I can take caulk off old dirty fiberglass and get down to just where it is removing the mildew without actually scraping the surface!
A bit like when we try to use a really sharp knife versus a dull one?
It is definitely a work and time saver for the small price!
If you ever want to cut a bad spot out of trim, you may need a blade with saw teeth as you can cut trim without taking it off the wall!
Works great if you lay flooring and want to bob the bottom off door trim to slide the flooring under instead of cutting to fit around?

Use all the cheat methods as you do certainly have a job to fight!