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'90 Odyssey Parts Or Repair, Haven't Decided


ChrisInVT

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Hey guys! I signed up for this place a while back because I own an '89 Toyota U-Haul and there was some good info on here that applied to my truck since it's somewhat related to the campers being a 1-ton and all.

Well, I recently bought a 1990 Toyota Odyssey for parts from a friend for a steal. I haven't moved it yet actually because the thing barely runs. I recently replaced the battery and the next step is to drain the gas tank and put some fresh juice in it. Gotta take it for a test drive and see how road worthy it is, and make it drivable again. It's amazing how much a fuel injected vehicle hates 4 year old gas! I purchased it with the intent of ripping the camper shell off and turning the cab/chassis/drivetrain into several shelves of parts for my x-U-Haul. Get me some nice chrome wheels and a new fender and grill for my box truck :D

Well after going and taking a look at my recent purchase, I've been weighing the option of possibly fixing it. The guy I purchased it from bought it as a fixer-upper and started tearing stuff out to replace - and then got deployed to Iraq for several years (so far). The camper needed to be moved from my girlfriend's parents house since it's been sitting for three years

Anyway here's some pictures, I figured I should stop lurking and ask your opinion. Think it's worth fixing or should I stick to my original plan? I know right off hand it needs the bathroom re-done, a stove, a fridge, a water pump - and I don't know if the roof A/C does heat or not; but I didn't see a heater. I haven't priced anything out yet, and I suppose I can't make a solid decision until I experience the driveability and get it up on a lift to check out the chassis.

The U-Haul:

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The Odyssey:

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Edited by ChrisInVT
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Hi Chris. Where are you in Vermont? I'm just over the border in Quebec.

I've got to say that you've picked up quite a project. A lot of work to do, for sure. That said, I'd hate to see it not stripped and destroyed. The Americana is a pretty rare beast and quite honestly, I think I'd love to own one, though I've never set foot in one. Sort of my imagined ideal Toyota, though not my preferred layout! Let me know if I can rescue it from you!! :help:

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If you put some air in the tires I'll come get it and I'll bring $500!

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haha, you guys are too much :D

I've considered taking the shell off and turning it into a flatbed, but then I'd need a new cab too so that's not happening. I edited my first post, like I said in my edit what I do with this guy depends heavily on the driveability of this thing. Gotta go and drain the gas and put some fresh fuel in and drive it around, see if there's any issues with it. Once I get it to my house I'm going to put it up on the lift and check out the chassis. If she's mechanically sound, I'll want to fix it up instead of stripping it; I already know that :ThumbUp:

Edited by ChrisInVT
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Is there water damage inside, I see a rear vent that looks bad. Refer and stove are easy to replace. I would keep it if the thing does not have real bad water damage. Once fixed up and running that year and model will fetch a good price!

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Is there water damage inside, I see a rear vent that looks bad. Refer and stove are easy to replace. I would keep it if the thing does not have real bad water damage. Once fixed up and running that year and model will fetch a good price!

Water damage in the bathroom, but it's all torn apart anyway. The bathroom vent is busted and it's been sitting that way for 3-4 years now. The other vents seem to be in-tact and there' no "smell" or sight of water damage, but I didn't check it out thoroughly.

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The Americanas are rare, I have only seen one in pictures, never in person.

If it helps any, I would not worry about the A/C unit unless you plan on using it

in a lot of hot weather, a power fan would probably meet most of your cooling needs.

Also, put on MaxxAir vent covers, the really help let the heat and mosture escape.

Regarding the floor, skip replacing the carpet and put down composite wood flooring.

All the other parts that you need can be found on ebay or one of several RV salvage

yards. Where abouts are you located?

Dennis...

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The Americanas are rare, I have only seen one in pictures, never in person.

So maybe it's something worth restoring...

If it helps any, I would not worry about the A/C unit unless you plan on using it

in a lot of hot weather, a power fan would probably meet most of your cooling needs.

Also, put on MaxxAir vent covers, the really help let the heat and mosture escape.

Regarding the floor, skip replacing the carpet and put down composite wood flooring.

All the other parts that you need can be found on ebay or one of several RV salvage

yards. Where abouts are you located?

Dennis...

I haven't messed with the A/C unit at all, so I'm not too worried about it yet.

IIRC the carpeting in the camper isn't bad, but that's definitely what I'd do. My neighbor has a camper and the carpeting was replaced with composite flooring and it looked 1,000x better.

I live in North-Eastern VT, not much for salvage yards around here. I know I'm going to have to get all the parts online, which worries me when ti comes to shipping (ie, getting a fridge, stove, etc shipped - that can't be light).

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I say put down on the floor that feels best for you. I am putting carpet back but a short nap motel type. Tried lino in our previous MH. (did I say all this all ready?) The dog hated it, it was always cold on the feet and throw rugs were always needing adjusting. Our new MH has the orig carpet, dog loves it and so do our feet. Got a 12 volt dust buster when needed. Personal preference of course.

We bought a stove for our last MH through camping world, I don't remember what shipping was but they are not heavy. Refers are light also. Because your refer is missing consider putting in a taller model if you can as the extra space is nice. I know someone who has an Americana, I think he said it was built by Odyssey.

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Your nearest Camping World is in Concord NH. The appliances are all generic, so don't have to come from a Toyota MH. Trailer, slide-ins and other homes will often have the same or similar. I don't know how much cooking you do, but in my case I'd just install a 2 burner stove and a combo microwave/convection oven. If you figure you'll rarely boondock, you could also consider getting a 110v dorm fridge, too.

D Richards salvage yard in Colchester VT had a Dolphin earlier this year, but unfortunately they pretty much removed the engine, transmission and rear axle and put the rest in the dumpster.

Heck, it never gets hot enough in the NEK for A/C!!

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I've been browsing Craigslist for people parting out campers to see what's out there. There's a few people out there, so I might look into finding some "gently used" parts if I restore this.

And what drugs are you on that it never gets hot enough for A/C up here?! :omg::lol:

August and September I feel like I'm going to melt, low-to-mid 80's and 80-100% humidity is a killer. Couple weeks ago it was in the mid 80's with 80-90% humidity and I just about felt like I was going to die. Then, it was 35* at night and everything frosted over. Since then it's been 45-65* and raining. The weather up here is crazy.

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I've nothing against buying used. I would be concerned with the ability of a private individual's ability to properly package a refrigerator for safe shipping.

It might be worthwhile putting out the word to local RV dealers that you're looking for a used one in case they have a customer who's looking to upgrade. The only one's I know of in Vt is Pete's in South Burlington and TC's in St Albans.

http://www.petesrv.com/

http://www.tcsrvs.com/

You might also keep your eye on Craigslist, Kijiji and www.lespac.com in Sherbrooke.

BTW, it's going to a bit complicated having 'vtchris' and 'Chris in VT'! Brings to mind Larry, Darryl and Darryl!

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I'm in Maine if you need a stove/oven I have one, sink and some other stuff that would have been there. I'm Maybe 2 hours from the North East Kingdom.

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Wow! Nice ride. Is that fiberglass? If you want to do a flatbed, I have your ride, maybe we could swap "WINK WINK"

I would restore it... HANDS DOWN

Please do not destroy it!

If you get to that point, give me a ring! I'd much rather be restoring what you have than my 1990 winny!

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Well, you'll all be happy to know that now you've made me want to restore this thing now (as if I needed another project! :)).

I went and took it for a spin on Saturday. Drained the gas and put some fresh fuel in and she fired up and idled nice and smooth. Exhaust is rotten out and hanging, but I have a tendency to install Flowmaster 40 series on everything I own anyway. That little 3.0 sounds pretty mean dumping right after the cat!

Brakes are a bit spongy, but the more I used them the better they got (no surprise). It has a slight misfire under load, but if I downshift the misfire will go away. Has some getup and go to her, more so than my box truck (or so it seems).

So the bad is none of the lights are working. I have my headlights, front parking lights and one blinker in the bumper. Other side is probably the bulb. None of the lights on the camper shell are working, maybe one front clearance light and the RH tail light - other than that nadda. I thought it was a ground and climbed underneath to check the wiring and WOW what a rats nest of a hackjob for the wires! I also noticed someone cut out several large sections of the frame to fit a larger waste tank in the back, and it's severely rotted. I'm going back this weekend to fix my wiring and then I'll get a better look at it when I bring her home. Didn't get to see all that much because it was 9pm when I was tinkering with it.

I'll keep everyone updated.

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  • 2 months later...

Alright gentlemen, for some not-so-good news... I just spent the past several hours trying to make this thing road-worthy enough to drive it home. All the wiring from the rear axle back needs to be replaces, I'm talking about butt connectors connected to butt connectors connected to splices connected to more splices connected to some more butt connectors... Seriously, every time I touched a wire it would fall apart in my hands.

After several hours of trying to un-hack the hackjob wiring harness, I found out the fuel lines were so rotted out that they drained the 10 gallons of gas I put in the tank out. I put a few gallons in to move the camper so I could work on it, and as soon as the pump kicked on fuel was spraying everywhere. So that's another thing on the have to replace to make it roadworthy list. And the fun part is it's the fuel lines that run from the pump hanger, through the frame and across to the other side of the truck - so i have to drop the tank to replace them.

Another issue is the exhaust rotted itself off the truck (like I mentioned in my last post), BUT THE GREAT NEWS is that it's held on by a series of coat hangers! The nightmare doesn't end there... To add to these issues, the back of the frame is severely rotted out, and the whole bathroom floor was cut out of the truck with a sawzall. The frame will need to be replaced from about the rear axle back if I want to keep it, because it'll never pass inspection.

And as for the last thing, the whole entire shell seems to be sagging and tweaked. None of the cabinets open or close properly, the bathroom door only opens a couple inches, to open it any more then that you have to push the roof up with your hands so it doesn't hit... The more I look at this thing, the less I want to fix it.

What do you guys think, still worth restoring? As of now it looks like I'm going to have to get it towed to my house, because I don't want to deal with dropping a gas tank in the dirt and trying to replace the lines where it is.

Edited by ChrisInVT
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  • 2 weeks later...

If I do, I'll keep you in mind. I think I may just pull the engine/trans, remove the rear axle and wheels and scrap the whole thing. I really only bought it for those anyway... Would've been nice to have in working order - but it seems like it's going to be nothing but one problem after another. I may be renting a tow dolly in the next few days so I can tow it home (behind the box truck - THAT is going to be interesting!)

Edited by ChrisInVT
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Doing it at night wasn't exactly the plan, but it worked out OK because there was less traffic (I did 20MPH most of the way, but did 30 on the interstate). My girlfriend followed behind me in her car to make sure nothing fell off and in case anything happened like it fell off the dolly and rocketed across the interstate on it's side :lips-sealed:

Now that I've got it home and looked at the undercarrage closer, HOLY oooo this motor coach company is a bunch of hackjobs!!! I've never seen such horrible frame work. It looks like they cut the frame up with an oxy-acetylene torch, then welded hacked up angle iron and tube that was also cut with an acetylene torch with no edges ground down or good welds - nothing. The welds on the frame are so bad, that the spring perch they welded on to their "frame" on the rear sheered right off. They also didn't paint any of the frame or coat it with anything so it's rusted pretty badly.

So now on the to-fix list:

  1. Spring perch needs to be welded on correctly
  2. Exhaust system needs repair
  3. Needs new fuel lines
  4. Needs new wiring harness from axle back
  5. Bathroom needs complete remodel as floor has been cut out
  6. Vents in the roof need replacement
  7. Roof seems to be sagging near the air conditioner, bathroom door doesn't open unless you push up on the roof, and cabinets in the area are noticeably leaning.
  8. Needs a Fridge, stove, battery isolator & tires

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I'm glad to hear that you're still thinking terms of saving it, since I think the Americana is my 'dream' Toyhome. (Even without ever having actually seen/been in one!)

Are you set up to do the major work (i.e. rebuilding the rear frame and bathroom floor?). The wiring and fuel lines are minor, really. Just rip out the old up to where it's solid and start with new fresh wire and lines.

Wish you were a bit closer, as I'd love to have a look at it and lend a hand. I assume you're somewhere near St. Johnsbury/Newport.

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Yeah, I have a shop with a lift, I have a welder, and everything I need to repair the frame rot, and the hack-job damage Odyssey did. I was working on repairing the wiring harness until I found the fuel leak and gave up. I don't know if I can get this on the lift to do the work that's needed since the rear frame is made out of tube, angle and what looks like random scrap. I really need to powerwash the outside since someone decided to use it as a paintball target. <br><br>What worries me the most is the roof, it doesn't leak, but it majorly sags. You can see in these following two pictures what I'm talking about. Look at the roof line in front of the bathroom door by the air conditioner and look at the cabinet door next to the microwave. You can see how it's all slanted. There's no frame damage underneath that would cause this, so I'm worried what the problem might be.<br><br><img src="http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff19/ChrisInVT/odyssey/IMG_3697.jpg"><br><br><img src="http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff19/ChrisInVT/odyssey/IMG_3702.jpg"><br><br><br><br>I'll see if I can get some better pictures sometime today. And yeah, I'm about 5 minutes from St Johnsbury town.<br>

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As a side note, I REALLY hate this forum software!!!! Every time I make a post it gives me this error:

An Error Occurred

Sorry, an error occurred. If you are unsure on how to use a feature, or don't know why you got this error message, try looking through the help files for more information.

[#20310] Your secure key, used to verify you are posting the topic, did not match the one submitted. Please go back, reload the form, and try again.

Then I have to copy down the HTML code, log out and log back in and then paste it. I've had to do this with EVERY post so far (the one with a list was a HUGE pain in the behind to fix). I'm not fixing the above post, I'm sick of having to re-do every single post on this forum

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I'd remove the roof a/c (at least temporarily) and get a couple of jack posts in there to see how easily the roof will resume it's original profile (presumably flat or slightly convex). Then see what you could improvise to brace/reinforce the roof to keep it there. Maybe relocate the heavy roof a/c to a different vent?

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I have a '90 Odyssey also, although it ain't an americana.

the thing that bothers me the most is the OSB garbage they use for a floor. And there are joints with nothing beneath them. somebody figured some bigass staples would hold it together fine.

they were wrong.

on the plus side, it is cavernous on the inside with about 6'3" of headroom. maybe they figured they'd give some extra room so the owners could lay another layer of flooring. i have screwed down some 5/8 plywood and am part way done putting laminate over that. you can dribble a basketball on it now! still better than 6 ft headroom.

i had to do some cabover plywood replacing. fortunately, my roof is solid as a rock.

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chris, what do you think of the cabinet doors? looks like you have the same as mine, with the godawful looking (IMO) plastigold trim.

first thing i did was rip that wretched looking stuff out. i have done a little table saw/belt sander surgery on them and experimented a bit with paint schemes. i will put up some pics soon.

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Well I messed with it some today. Hooked it up to the 110 in my garage and started messing with things. All the interior lights work. The A/C doesn't work correctly, the fan works but when the compressor tries to kick on it dims the lights in the camper AND my house, then stops trying to run. Selecting heat does absolutely nothing. Fan runs but that's it. Upon further inspection I do have a working water pump, but there's no hot water heater. The microwave also does absolutely nothing, like it isn't getting any power.

I climbed onto the roof to disassemble the AC unit, and noticed that the roof is concave, bit in the wrong direction! I'm going to remove the AC/heat unit and see if there's anything I can do about the roof.

The cabinets don't bother me all that much, right now they're the least of my worries :)

Edited by ChrisInVT
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I don't know where they're getting the shorter claim from, because I was in another Odyssey the other day and it was smaller than this Americana.

And yeah, there's a bunch of headroom.

I was messing around inside it again today, and I don't think it's worth fixing. The whole shell is leaning to one side, it looks as if it's caving in and falling off. I'll get some pictures of what I'm talking about - it's pretty bad.

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I don't know where they're getting the shorter claim from, because I was in another Odyssey the other day and it was smaller than this Americana.

And yeah, there's a bunch of headroom.

I was messing around inside it again today, and I don't think it's worth fixing. The whole shell is leaning to one side, it looks as if it's caving in and falling off. I'll get some pictures of what I'm talking about - it's pretty bad.

Sorry to hear it may have terminal structural damage. If this is the case, I might be interested in a few parts. My Odyssey has 2 swivel buckets rather than the dinette as you appear to have. Does the dinette look like it could be ripped out more or less intact and installed in place of the buckets? Also interested in a few of those cabinet doors I was bad mouthing in my last post. A few of mine are pretty badly warped.

Been looking for an excuse to drive the Sunrader up to the NEK. Maybe this could be it.

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Yeah, it disappoints me because I would have liked to restore it. If I do end up parting it out (or repairing it), I won't be doing anything to it until the spring because I currently have WAY too many projects. Only thing I want to get done before spring is get the leaf spring perch re-welded to the "frame" and steal the good tires for my box truck :)

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Hopefully you have a cover for it for the fall/winter...otherwise it may become more terminal with water damage :omg:

I fixed the vents several weeks back (and by fixed I mean covered with several bags and duct taped the everliving oooo out of them).

So now - onto the pictures....

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Overall, you can see how the corner is sagging. Note the angles, especially where the stove used to be.

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That's not sitting right.

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Ouch. This shows the extent of structural instability...

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Not good....

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Slight sagging throughout.

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Here you can really see some problems.

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Overall view where you can see how messed up it is.

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Door has been hitting the roof for some time now.

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It must have had a generator somewhere????

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Not sure where that goes, there's no spot for it.

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Bathroom, in serious need of repair.

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