I have been busy working on the camper van and have gotten a lot done. It is interesting, doing a little "automotive archaeology" and seeing how things were put together. The Mercedes part seems to work OK, although - typical of German Engineering - everything is over-engineered. The, there are also some odd design choices.
For example, right next to the gas pedal (diesel pedal?) is the main disconnect for the battery - right where your foot might rest. Kick that, and it disconnects the ground cable from the battery. It hasn't happened - yet - but it seems like an odd placement. Good thing I read the owner's manual and learned about it! It would be a bummer to be stuck somewhere with no electrical systems working and wondering why.
But what was really disappointing was how Winnebago "converted" the camper into a van. They seemed to prioritize glitzy add-ons that maybe made the vehicle look better, but seemed to skimp on basic construction quality techniques. For example, the Mercedes Sprinter van comes with black rubber bumpers and a black plastic band that runs along the sides of the van. Winnebago decided to paint these body color and then apply a stick-on piece of stainless steel trim to gussy it up.
Does it look better? I guess, but for my money, I could have lived with black bumpers. I noticed some of the paint was peeling off the bottom lip of the bumper. I wonder if they used the proper elastomers in the paint when applying it to the urethane bumper. There is also overspray where they painted the side bands - you can see the original black color when you open the door. Sort of a pointless exercise.
The standard wheels are painted steel - simple, inexpensive, durable and interchangeable (it has dual wheels in the rear). Winnebago decided to install chrome-plated alloy wheels to gussy it up. Problem is, this means we have to use a special lugnut adapter and the inside rear wheels are still steel, so the wheels cannot be rotated to reduce tire wear.
Modern vehicles use little chrome - it comes from Rhodesia and is expensive. Chrome today is used only to alloy steel, not to plate it. The "chrome" you see on cars today is mostly plastic covered with a mylar film (or stainless steel trim). "Chrome" wheels, such as on our old pickup truck, was polished and clear-coated aluminum. Many cars today are going to painted alloy rims, often matte black. Shiny trim in general seems to be disappearing.
Given the high cost of chromium, it is no surprise that the wheels they chose had the thinnest coating of it - coating that, at ten years, was largely peeled off, discolored, or looked like hell. We decided to paint the rims and Mark chose Rustoleum matte black wheel paint. I bought a half-case (six cans) on Amazon for cheap. From a YouTube video, Mark got the idea of using an old deck of playing cards to mask the rims. Jam the cards between the tire and the rim edge, until they cover the entire circumference of the rim. Use painters tape to hold them in place. After sanding and cleaning, the paint went on with no problems. We tossed the stupid plastic Winnebago "hub caps" that covered the center of the wheel. I think it came out good and no longer looks frightening.
But speaking of frightening, how the workers at Winnebago installed things was appalling. When you drill a hole in body sheetmetal, it is well known that one must put some paint or primer on the raw metal edge you just created. Otherwise you get rust. Well, it seems they didn't do that, and everywhere a hole was cut in the body (and there are a lot!) there was rust, sometimes through the sheetmetal. For example, they put a "courtesy outlet" on the side of the vehicle, along with a 12V outlet. Since neither hole was primed or painted, the area surrounding the openings rusted through.
I was able to patch the problem by removing the outlets, grinding away the rust and using some black paint to cover up the rust (and cover the raw metal from the holes). A simple thing, really. I only wish they put as much thought into basic construction techniques as they did into glitz and glamour.
The front seats rotate around, which is handy. But the wire - thin wire - for the seatbelt switch tends to get caught in the mechanism and shears right off. I bought a new seatbelt buckle for the driver's side and installed it and then armored the cable with plastic wire loom and then secured it with wire ties so that no matter how you rotate the seat, it would not bind. A simple thing, really. All it took was a few minutes.
But Winnebago's priorities were on glitz. They spent a small fortune putting little vinyl skirts around the base of the seats. Little vinyl skirts that attracted and held dirt and dust and served no function other than to hide part of the seat base (but not the ugly slide/rotate mechanism). An easy fix - I took them off and threw them in the trash.
Funny thing - the only place on the coach that labels it as a "Winnebago" was some cheap chrome (Mylar coated plastic) letters stuck on the rear door. The Mylar was peeling off, so off they went, leaving behind a faint shadow. Now, the only label is the words, "Touring Coach" on the back.
I could go on - for example, why they felt they needed to use 20 lbs of rubber caulk to install the refrigerator (only took me a week of scraping to remove) or why they used rubber hoses for the propane lines - and then bent them so they crimped. The usual RV stuff - I'm not complaining, just saying. After 30+ years of RVing and our sixth RV, I can say I have seen it all. Never spend a lot on an RV and never buy one unless you are "handy." Tears will result otherwise.
But this got me to thinking about style over substance. It is nothing new in the automotive world. Old car brochures are pretty shameless about it - touting new styling features over technical improvements. Copywriters would gush over the fender shapes or the massive new bumpers on the '58 Dodge, but little was said about the nuts and bolts of the car. Most people buy vehicles based on appearances, with technology and features coming in a distant second or third. It is all about style and status - wanting to look smart and look wealthy. You don't want to drive an out-of-style car, do you?
At GM, the Engineers derisively referred to it as "tortured sheetmetal" - the doo-dads and dagmars the stylists slathered onto the body in an effort to make the car look new and different. And while annual model changes are largely a thing of the past, people still line up to buy the "new model" in its first year of production. And not surprisingly, the first year of production is usually the least reliable in the run, as bugs are worked out and the assembly line is running at full-tilt.
Even "functional" features can be used to sell style. When the center high-mounted stop lamp (CHMSL) was mandated in the 1980s, automakers fought the new rules. But a funny thing happened - people ran out to buy aftermarket CHMSL lamps for their older cars so as to "update" them. You don't want to be seen driving last year's car, do you? So long as the new car looks, well, new, it doesn't matter what changed, so long as Humans can cling to their style and status and look down their noses at those who can't keep up.
So, in a way, I get it why Winnebago spend the money on making the van look more sophisticated. Rather than better quality or upgraded features (heated seats would have been nice!) they slather on some paint and shiny trim. The person they are selling to isn't me - it was the guy, ten years ago, who paid over a hundred grand for the van and drove it a scant 900 miles before unloading it. The new-car buyer is persuaded by shiny trinkets. The used car buyer is more interested in the oil change history.
I am not sure where this is all going, other than it illustrates why cars are so ugly today. Even the Japanese have taken to torturing sheetmetal, with folds and creases that make little sense, or the "weeping taillights" of the later model Camrys. At least the era of the "giant grill" seems to be coming to an end (looking at you, BMW and Lexus!). That was indeed an odd design choice, particularly since most automotive grills are non-functional. Cars can suck in cooling air from under the front bumper, as the original Taurus and Infinity did with no problem. Grills are just, well, ornamentation at this point.
And ornamentation sells!
