Rust on '78 Newell

[Brent Coursey]

We are looking at buying an older Newell in the '78 - '82 year range. We looked at one that had alot of the metal panels underneath the coach rusted out and this caused some rot on the plywood panels above the metal. I also noticed a crack on the external skin about 4-5 inches long above the entry door. My question is, when you see rust like this, how hard is it to fix? Could the crack above the entry door be signs of some internal structural problem. The coach has 475K miles on it. As a general question, what should we be looking for in a coach of this age.

Thanks In Advance

[67 Goat]

I am restoring a 78 Newell. On my coach the steel floors under the holding tanks had rusted badly from 25 years of moisture accumulating there. I removed the tanks and the flooring down to the frame, sandblasted the frame, put a new floor in and reworked the tanks. Most of these things can be rebuilt if you haven't got too much money into the coach. The crack above the door is something I have never seen but if you sight down the side of the coach and the rivets are straight with no diagonal wrinkles in the siding it should be straight. Just some thoughts from a newbie!

[TechTalk]

Rust on '78 Newell - With an owner willing to perform the required maintenance and repairs, a Newell will last virtually forever. However, at 23 years of age and 475,000 miles, the challenge is obviously the cost to repair and restore versus value of the restored coach, modified by the "hobby enjoyment" and pride of accomplishment of the restoration project. A major variable is how much of the labor an owner can perform rather than have contract out at retail labor rates.