This Weird Airplane-Inspired Fiberglass Motorhome Started Life As A 1977 Honda Civic And Its Story Will Warm Your Heart

The average factory-built motorhome isn’t exactly a weird or quirky vehicle. For the big brands from Indiana, placing a toilet in a different place is considered weird or innovative. If you’re looking for greater creativity than a different decal package, look no further than the custom-built RV. All it takes is one person with a dream to create something incredible. A perfect example is this “1982 Honda Motor Home” that I found online. Incredibly, this coach started life as a 1977 Honda Civic wagon, and then an ambitious Air Force veteran and aviation geek turned it into a sturdy fiberglass motorhome that was inspired by jets. It looks like it’s built better than something constructed today, and yes, there’s still a classic Civic under there!

I found this motorhome on Facebook and reached out to its current caretaker, Randy Wallick. In our call, I could tell that Randy is so deeply infatuated with this unique motorhome, and he told me that he isn’t interested in selling at all. After all, there’s no chance that he could ever own a motorhome like this ever again if he did sell it.

My biggest question when finding this motorhome was simply “why?” Why would someone go through the work to hack up a Honda Civic to make a tiny motorhome? This was followed up with the next obvious question: what parts of it are still Honda Civic? Randy was able to give me my answers and more, and now this lightweight fiberglass motorhome might be one of my favorite custom coaches yet.

An Inspiring Creator Of Many Vehicles

Randy told me that this motorhome was constructed in 1985 in Indiana by Carl McCain. The story that Randy told me about Carl’s life as an Air Force mechanic, barber, and builder of experimental aircraft matches the obituary that I found of Carl W. “Mack” McCain of Peru, Indiana, who passed in 2019 at 93 years old. That obituary details how Carl was a self-taught engineer and inventor. The motorhome is mentioned, too:

During WWII, Carl served as a crew chief in the Army Air Corp and was stationed in the Philippines. After serving his country, Carl worked in many different capacities throughout his life. For many years, he was a barber who cut hair for local men and children while selling and repairing motorcycles in his shop next door to the barbershop. He also worked in maintenance for Peru Community Schools until his retirement in 1988.

Carl was an inventor and builder of many things, such as motorcycle travel trailers, three wheeled automobiles out of motorcycles, and a full-size RV.

Carl and Faye enjoyed travelling. Over the years, they traveled extensively throughout the U.S., with a good portion being via motorcycle. They made their winter home in Sebring, Florida for over 30 years.

One of his great loves was airplanes, which began when he was a small child. This love led him to build several airplanes, large and small. Carl and Faye travelled often in the Emeraude and Osprey. On a good day, he could always be found at the weed patch or Converse Airport flying his R/C planes.

Carl was reportedly a member of the Academy of Model Aeronautics, the Experimental Aircraft Association, the Converse Flying Eagles R/C club, and others. Aviation was such a huge part of Carl’s life that he didn’t even limit himself to fixed-wing operations and even built his own helicopters.

Carl is survived by a large family who carry on his legacy, and he is remembered by all of the people he met throughout his long life.

The Motorhome

Randy explained that Carl’s inspiration for the motorhome was, perhaps unsurprisingly, aviation. He wanted to build an RV that was lightweight and streamlined, not unlike the experimental aircraft that he built.

The donor vehicle for the motorhome was a 1977 Honda Civic wagon that Carl had in his possession. This wagon was built during the first generation of Honda’s venerable family car, which entered production in 1972. The Honda Civic was a truly revolutionary vehicle that not only got countless people on wheels but also helped define what makes a proper small front-wheel-drive car. It also helped thrust the name “Honda” into the status of a household name in markets like America.

Honda says the Civic was built for the needs of the global market. Prior to the Civic, Honda exported tiny hatches and roadsters that people loved, but didn’t quite hit the standards of places like North America, where the open road was filled with V8-powered land yachts. Honda intended the Civic to be the perfect car to slice through traffic. Development on the Civic started in 1970, and in designing the Civic, Honda’s engineers had to change how they designed cars. They couldn’t think about simply making a bigger car. Instead, they thought about the kind of car that would be deserving of a Honda badge. During development, engineers stressed out over making the Civic light, and found that adopting the principles that led to lighter Japanese fighter aircraft, namely reducing metal thickness in 0.1 mm increments, cut weight out of the car.

Another move to decrease weight while increasing interior volume and vehicle stability was eliminating the rear solid axle that many front-wheel drive cars had back then. The Civic would sport a four-wheel independent suspension thanks to struts on each corner. Another bold move was to ditch the common three-box profile for a two-box trapezoidal shape that didn’t have a defined trunk.

Honda’s sales teams and even buyers didn’t quite understand the styling at first, but eventually, the Civic became not just a hit, but a sort of blueprint. But that wasn’t all. The Civic did so much right. It weighed around 1,323 pounds at its lightest, and the CVCC (Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion) engine that came in 1975 ran so clean that it didn’t need catalytic converters. That 53 HP, 1488cc four-cylinder mill even got 54 miles per gallon on the highway. It was also hard to beat the Civic’s rock-bottom $2,150 price tag.

What I’m getting at here is that the Civic is a weirdly decent platform for a motorhome. Carl’s car was a 1977 Honda Civic CVCC Wagon with a four-speed manual transmission. A ’77 Civic wagon measured 159.4 inches long, weighed 1,980 pounds, and had 60 horsepower and 76 lb-ft of torque on tap.

Carl didn’t use the whole Civic for his motorhome. Instead, the Civic parts that would make it over include the engine, the transmission, the full suspension, and other miscellaneous platform parts. These pieces were joined together using a frame that Carl made himself.

The body of the motorhome is made out of two layers of fiberglass and features foam insulation sandwiched in the middle. The fiberglass forms a sort of monocoque and features a sort of aerodynamic nose, a completely smooth undercarriage, and initially, lightweight acrylic windows. Carl was serious about making his motorhome as lightweight as the Civic was when stock.

One neat feature is the awning, which is electrically powered through a window regulator.

The coach also rides much closer to the ground than a typical motorhome, a benefit of having those Honda Civic bones. Another benefit was that, since the motorhome is front-wheel drive, the coach is able to have a low and flat floor behind the driving cab. In a weird way, it seems like Carl’s motorhome is like what would happen if Honda tried to make its own GMC Motorhome. Yet, all of this was built right there in Carl’s garage in Indiana.

Carl actually used this motorhome as a recreational vehicle, too. He loved traveling across America with his wife, Faye, often astride a motorcycle. Carl even raced motorcycles on the sands of Daytona Beach. Later, after building this coach, Carl and Faye drove the motorhome from Indiana to Florida, where they escaped winter for the season inside the Honda. Then, once the ice melted away, the motorhome would take the couple back to Indiana.

Randy says he picked up the motorhome about 10 to 15 years ago. He watched Carl build the motorhome in the garage, and Carl knew Randy’s family. So, Randy knew that the motorhome was out there in the local area. At the time, the motorhome had sat for several years and was pretty worn out.

Randy and his wife, Debi, went through the motorhome and gave it a full restoration. This was rather detailed work, too, with Randy telling me that he stripped the old paint off the body using razor blades. The couple added new furniture to the coach, replaced the hazing acrylic windows with glass, and outfitted the motorhome with solid cherry cabinetry. Randy said he built the cabinetry himself. This renovation process took a couple of years.

Randy admits that his changes did weigh the motorhome down, but the motorhome is now modernized, more luxurious, and still usable today, more than 40 years after it was originally built. That’s not an exaggeration. I mean, I recently toured a $1.8 million motorhome that had laminates rather than real wood. As a heartwarming note, Randy says that Carl got to see the renovated coach before his passing and was apparently happy to see his invention was still on the road.

Randy has taken the motorhome out on the open road, but notes that the coach has some limitations. That old-school Honda running gear is still there and working. It cruises at around 60 mph, but doesn’t go much faster. That wasn’t a problem during the time of the “double nickel” 55 mph Interstate speed limit when the motorhome was built, but is properly slow for modern traffic. Today, Randy doesn’t really see this as a motorhome you’d drive across the country, but something you’d take to a regional state park or similar.

Randy and his wife have used the camper countless times over the years. However, as time went on, she wanted something a little bigger and more substantial. Now, they have a travel trailer for most camping outings. Still, Randy doesn’t want to get rid of this small rig. There’s no factory-built on the market that has the story or the quirks of this one. No other motorhome could fill the hole left behind from this one. So, while the motorhome is on Facebook, he doesn’t actually want to sell it. Instead, he wants to keep it in the family for some time longer.

A Motorhome With A Story

Instead of selling the coach to another private owner when Randy is done with it, he wants to send it off to a place where everyone can enjoy Carl’s creativity. He really wanted the motorhome to go to the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, but the museum told him it’s short on space. He is currently looking for other museums that might be interested in the motorhome and its story.

That is the beauty of the custom motorhome. These aren’t just rolling hotels to shower in and to sleep in. These RVs have stories to tell, have quirks hidden in plain sight, and are built by people who have inspired perhaps countless others through a lifetime. This motorhome is as much of a camping device as it is a container of memories. I have long thought that the stories of how machines and people are so deeply intertwined are far better than just the story of the machine itself. This motorhome is a perfect example.

In a neat way, by having the motorhome on Facebook, even if it was reluctantly, the story of Carl and his motorhome will now be told to thousands of people and will be available to read for years to come. Maybe, with some luck, you’ll see this motorhome in a museum one day and think, “Oh, I’ve seen this one before!”

Top graphic images: Randy Wallick; Grays.com