I just bought this 1988 Grand villa u280 40ft. It sat for 12 years, I just got to drive it home a few days ago after two weeks on repairs to the dash wiring and air system. I plan to bring her back to life. Looking for information to repair fiberglass on the roof and repair the taillights to operational condition.
Welcome aboard, when you get a chance add the Build Number to Your Profile and any other information that will be helpful to members trying to help you.... That unit has good "Bones" should come back to life with some work... ^.^d
Hello and Welcome to the Forum. We will happily lend our support to your effort to revive a classic coach that has obviously seen better days. This Forum is a invaluable repository of Foretravel knowledge and experience. Many of the problems you will encounter have already been solved by our members, and documented in the Forum archives. You will find the Forum SEARCH tool very useful for dredging up relevant old posts.
As to the tail lights, you are actually fortunate because it appears that the lenses are intact. Finding replacement tail light units is becoming very difficult. At least you will be spared that chore. Of course, no way to tell what your problem is until you start trouble shooting. Hopefully it will be a simple wiring defect...possibly from rodent damage?
Reading through the links below will acquaint you with the construction of the tail lights, and may aid your restoration efforts:
Tail lights 1994 Grand villa U280 (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=41050.0)
GV Tail Lights, How To Guide (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=26984.0)
Bless your heart. I'm sure the members of this great forum will provide you with a wealth of information about the various aspects of restoring your coach. The late 80's and early 90's Grand Villas were excellent coaches. Good luck!
Congrats on your purchase. I've always liked the twin stainless bumpers.
For getting the dirt, etc off, I like to use a sponge with a mix of ajax and dish soap with a nozzle and a light spray going. You can make a huge difference in an hour or two. Once dry, you can get rid of any smell inside with a very inexpensive ozone generator. The yellow "awesome" cleaner you can buy at the Dollar Tree gets stains off interior walls, seats, etc.
Pierce
Cindy's white paper on cleaning/maintaining gelcoat
Chalky Exterior and what to do about it (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=43401.msg436749#msg436749)
and in PDF format
GEL COAT - CUTTING/POLISHING COMPOUND (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=25588.msg202636#msg202636)
The circuit boards on my taillights were shot. Yours probably are too. I ended up tearing them out and just hardwiring everything from the plug to the lights. Pretty easy to do if you know how to read a multimeter and have a helper up front.
Check the frame before you spend any more time on it. Look up "bulkhead" s. Great year if is solid .
So Kev. What did you find?