Maintenance & Restoration

StevenE · 09-09-2012, 05:59 PM

Hi all,
I just purchased a 76 Surfside. It has been a little neglected, but I am happy to find that it is in better shape than I first thought when I went through it and decided to buy it.

I uploaded photos in the hello section, but included them below as well for anyone that didn't see them there.

So I figured I would post my progress here as I got it ready to go and try and keep all my questions and updates in one place.

Today I took on the exterior lights. When I first plugged it into my vehicle only one of the running lights came on, no signals, no brake lights. In addition, one of the orange marker lights was completely broken. So I mounted two new marker lights (the front two) using LED lights. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to access the wiring behind them to keep things neat. I was able to get the rest working with some cleaning and a little metal bending to get them making good contact again. I'm thinking that I should change the rest over to LED's now too. I also changed the the electrical hookup back to a 7 wire. It looks like it was that way originally, but someone had changed it to a 4 wire at some time in the past. I intentionally left out the one that hooks the 12V to my car though - preventative of draining my battery.

Can anyone tell me if it had 7 because it originally came with brakes? If mine had some, they definitely aren't hooked up now.

Now that it's legal to tow I think I'm going to take it somewhere for professionals to do a first look at bearings and wheels. I'd like to do the bearing greasing myself in the future, but it seems like a good idea to have a pro look it over the first time. Can anyone recommend a place in Winnipeg?

Anyway, the next step is cleaning the inside thouroughly. At that point I could start camping in it even though there will still be lots to do.

Steve

exterior 1 by steven.erickson, on Flickr

exterior 2 by steven.erickson, on Flickr

dinette by steven.erickson, on Flickr

bench or bunks by steven.erickson, on Flickr

fridge by steven.erickson, on Flickr

sink and range by steven.erickson, on Flickr

roof interior by steven.erickson, on Flickr

original certificate by steven.erickson, on Flickr

Rick Mooyman · 09-09-2012, 07:10 PM

Congrats on your purchase. I do all my own work, so cant not recommend anyone in Winnipeg.

Your should bring it out to St Malo for the 4th Annual Fibreglass and Vintage Camper Rally the 3rd Weekend of August 2013. I will start a new thread in Janurary with all the details.

Rick

David Tilston · 09-09-2012, 10:26 PM

Your fridge is a Dometic RM211. You should shop for a spare. Not because they are un-relyable There just seems to be a glut of them at the moment. They are popular in the pop up tent trailers. Tent trailers don't last as long as a fibreglass egg. Your fridge is probably 36 years old. Having a spare is not a bad thing. It is a pain to switch to a different fridge. I bought a RM211 for $80, and another, I got for free, allong with the rest of the appliances they pulled out of the tent trailer they were converting to a flat deck quad trailer. Both the fridges work.