Rookie shopper needs advice on used unit with weathered exterior

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oldryder

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 8, 2017
Posts
543
Location
Avon MN
Been shopping for almost a year.  Looked at a lot of  units.

Found one (2007 Thor Hurricane) recently that was never stored inside so exterior paint is chalky and decals are cracked and faded.  Mechanically very nice with low (25k)  miles.  I could buy it for a few thousand below the NADA low retail.  Needs rear tires but no other maint I am aware of.  Interior good but not pristine with some noticeable wear on upholstery.

what are options for refreshing the exterior?  I know I don't want to do it myself. 

Other advice or comments welcomed.

Mark in MN.
 
Be sure all the systems are working.  AC, Heat, Frig, ect.  Those things can get expensive to replace.  As far as updating, we have had some of our cushions recovered and added carpet runners with brighter colors.  I tore up the carpet in our last coach and replaced it with wood flooring.  If you've got the money there are always folks who will do it for you.

Where in Mn?
 
It's a lot of work to get rid of the chalking, basically a lot of elbow grease using either rubbing compound or an abrasive cleaner such as Barkeeper's Friend. Once you get all the chalky residue off, the surface will be clean but dull.  Several coats of a liquid wax will put some shine back on it.  ZEP Wet Look Floor Wax is popular for this. Learn some more about this process in this previous topic (one of many here):http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php?topic=96462.0

If the surface isn't too bad, you can use one of the color-restored car or boat polish products. Those won't dull the surface as much and a regular polish/wax should shine it up again.

The decals cannot be restored, so best to remove and either have some new vinyl made (your choice of design at any local sign shop or body "wrap" place) or paint some decor on. Or just leave them off altogether.

A more elegant but expensive alternative to this is to have the coach painted ($12k-$16k for 3-4 colors) or apply a full body wrap (about $8k-$12k). Frankly a 2007 Hurricane isn't worth that much investment unless you keep it for many years, but it does look really nice.
 
Concentrate on mechanicals and bones of structure for now. There are  RV salvage places such as Colaws and Visoneer that will have interior pieces for sale.
IF you do not want to do the work yourself then find another unit  because the cost of having everything you want done professionally will exceed the  few thousand you save
 
I took about 10 years off the apparent age of my coach by wiping it down with 409 cleaner and waxing it with Meguiar's Cleaner Wax.
Started out to clean the engine oil off the side after the oil cooler leak, and when I was done with that side(which happened to be the more weathered side of the coach)it looked so good I just did the rest of the coach.  That 409 took all the old wax, black marks from water run-off, bugs, oxidation and a lot of minor blemishes off with minimum elbow grease.  It even restored the gloss on the front cap above the windshield that was so dull I thought all the gel coat was gone(and that was before the wax).
The cleaner wax has a very fine grit to it and it took a lot of the dullness out of the decals and the bare parts of the coach.  All and all it was worth every bit of the month it took this 67 year old guy to do it.
Think I'm going to do a second coat of wax, using Meguiar's Ultimate when I get settled in Quartzsite in December.  Hopefully it won't take as long the second time.
 
Frankly, I'd be concerned that if the previous owner didn't have enough pride in it to keep it looking sharp, he also may not have bothered doing necessary maintenance to the roof and window seals and such.  Which will lead to water leaks which may - OR MAY NOT - be apparent on the inside.  It could have rotted wood framing and mold in the walls.

Youtube has some excellent videos showing how to inspect a used RV to discover stuff like that.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Inspecting+used+rvs
 
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