Newell Gurus

So we planned on doing a remodel in our coach from the getgo. That said, I did not want to have to tear into it sooner than later however with the addition of a color back up camera system, this necessitated removal of some trim. Of course, the while you're at it part suggested the T-12 fluorescent light fixtures had to go, the halogen puck lights for LED pucks, so on and so forth. In my dismantling of the interior trim, I have become very comfortable with the construction of this unit and found the elusive missing fuse panel up front behind the passenger foot wall. I found a nice clear path for the rear camera cable which led me to this discovery. Eventually, I will take Tom's offer to stop by his shop and have a "formal" education on the systems but until then, we had to remove the green shades and gold trimming. We loved gold trim in the late 90's but now we are into grey tones and muted cremes. Prefer bushed nickel over gold/brass. So anyway I was amazed at the wiring or lack of proper terminations made that were behind the curved panels (Incidentally, those curved panels are real carved curvatures of solid wood) Two of the 120v connections were sparking within their plastic crimp covers. My plan will be to solder all those connections and install new wire nuts before covering them back up. I also did not care for the 120v loose conductors being tightly stapled down to the wood trim. I guess being an electrical contractor and doing things to code is what threw me off. I get it, this is a recreational vehicle where anything goes. 

So after pulling the long rear view camera wire, I did test it to make sure it works. Nice picture too. Marie wants cat 5 wiring put in just in case since it is all open. Any suggestions for additional wiring needs?

A few pics of the mess. My framer will be in town to handle some cabinet modifications and flooring swap. I need to keep working to pay for this! (At least I need to keep my guys working, that is)

Looks good so far - I was hoping all that brass and gold would come back in style…

Yeah, some of the gold is coming back in satin tones for kitchen cabinets with today's designs. I am not ready for the comeback! I did find a reupholster guy that is about 2 miles from my house that is willing to redo the two captains chairs and the pull out couch. These three pieces are of real good quality and worth the rebuild. The upper light valances may end up being either removed or perhaps something else fabricated. Today I removed the non working 1997 Pioneer cassette deck, cd changer, xm satellite box and huge amp under the front console. It was a catastrophic wiring mess that is all cleaned up now. With that, the front of the coach is even more of a disarray.

I sourced the replacement trim on the cabinetry from a company OUTWATER. I used brushed nickel instead of the brass. Easy easy to strip off the old and install the new.

During your debrassification, if you need sources for other “Newell” stuff, shout out.

I finally finished the front console area. There was a non functioning 6 cd changer, amplifier and busted cassette deck that I removed along with blown component speakers. This took me the whole weekend. While at it, I installed a dual USB plug with volt meter and a separate on off switch. The backup camera was a time consumer running a new wire to the back. All in all, I am happy with the progress. I replaced most of the pucks with LED at 4000k color tone. We wanted to brighten up the muted creme tones for a more modern feel.