I’ve long said that if you want an RV that has character and style, you have to look to the past. Rewind your calendar back 50 years and you could find a bevy of striking designs from a number of manufacturers. A tired and rusty Dodge on Facebook has reminded me of another marvel of half-century-old motorhome design. For a short time during the 1970s, DayStar Motor Homes sold a motorhome with a design so odd that it looks like it was created by AI. Even weirder, sales from the DayStar St. Tropez coach were allegedly supposed to be used to build church halls.
Every day of every week, I add something new to my massive list of vehicles I’d love to own. This list spans over five years of for sale ads and the vehicles for each week’s Mercedes’ Marketplace Madness often comes off of the list. Along with pretty motorcycles and the Smart Fortwo of the week that I want, I also put motorhomes and travel trailers on the list. Last week, I stumbled upon this “1974 Dodge Daystar” for sale on Facebook and after a weekend of digging, I still haven’t quite unraveled the history of this thing. What I did find was pretty intriguing.
DayStar Motor Homes Inc.
The DayStar motorhome was the work of DayStar Motor Homes Inc. Most sources report that DayStar Motor Homes was established in Compton, California. Reportedly, DayStar Motor Homes was created to generate income to build Christian church halls. According to automotive history site Coachbuilt, DayStar apparently partnered with a manufacturer in Taiwan with a name translating to “Phosphorous.” From what I could find, the coaches were designed in America but utilized a Cor-Ten weathering steel body with a prefabricated teak interior from Phosphorous in Taiwan.
Over in America, DayStar hired Wellington Everett Miller as its chief engineer and designer. Born in 1904 in Los Angeles, W.E. Miller was known for his streamlined designs. You could see the DayStar St. Tropez’s heritage in the Gilmore tankers that were reportedly designed by Miller. Like this motorhome, those trucks sported bulbous cabs with curved windows.
Not much is known about the DayStar St. Tropez coach or what happened to DayStar itself. According to Coachbuilt, which sourced its information from books, just 16 DayStar motorhomes were built before DayStar had to close as a result of an alleged money laundering scheme involving Phosphorous’ directors. Apparently, the parties involved were all connected through a Christian fellowship.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to independently verify the allegations, but I did find historical records linking Miller to the company as its designer. I also found the website of Witness Lee’s “Local Church.” According to the site, Lee was one of the men involved and the Local Church fellowship was unsure of the financials of DayStar. Local Church put together a complicated web that seems to suggest that a church in Boston loaned money to Lee and two other men, who called themselves the Overseas Christian Stewards, who gave money to Phosphorous, who was supposed to provide the parts to DayStar. It’s unclear what happened here.
The DayStar St. Tropez
What is clear is that DayStar at least produced a handful of coaches before going under. Reportedly, the DayStar name is a reference to the Star of Bethlehem, the light that was said to have led three wise men to the birth of Jesus. This appears to be reflected in the design of the coach. Some examples appeared to have been adorned with a star in that weird grille.
The DayStar rides on a Dodge RM400 chassis and reportedly has a body of Cor-Ten weathering steel. What is weathering steel? I’ll let U.S. Steel, the trademark holder of Cor-Ten, explain:
Weathering steel, best-known under the trademark COR-TEN® steel, is a group of steel alloys which were developed to obviate the need for painting, and form a stable rust-like appearance if exposed to the weather for several years. Weathering steel has increased resistance to atmospheric corrosion when compared to other steels. COR-TEN® resists the corrosive effects of rain, snow, ice, fog, and other meteorological conditions by forming a coating of dark brown oxidation over the metal, which inhibits deeper penetration and negates the need for painting and costly rust-prevention maintenance over the years. In simple terms the steel is allowed to rust and that rust forms a protective coating that slows the rate of future corrosion.
While Cor-Ten is designed to have a natural rusty patina, it’s also able to be painted just like mild steel. While it’s reported to have a Cor-Ten body, there are zero surviving brochures or any documentation confirming the use of such steel. The gaping rust holes would suggest that at the very least, this example may not be Cor-Ten.
It’s also said that DayStar St. Tropez coaches came with lavish equipment from a Norcold DE-828 full-size refrigerator to a full kitchen, a full bathroom, and even an Aqua Magic self-cleaning toilet. The interior was also said to come with power-operated sofas, a teak dresser, a central vacuum system, an Onan generator, 35 storage compartments, and cab seats with their own suspensions.
Further, the St. Tropez was said to come with skylights, two air-conditioners, and a trunk for golf clubs. All of it was wrapped in leather, teak, brass, and built to the customer’s desires. With features like that, a DayStar would be the peak of 1970s luxury. Your mobile palace would come with 440 cubic inch Chrysler RB V8 power backed up by a LoadFlite three-speed automatic.
The reported standard price for all of this was $70,000, though I did find one listing from DayStar itself quoting a more reasonable $42,000. At least one of these coaches made it over to Australia and the interior is about as luxurious as it sounds. It’s rare to find these for sale. I remember seeing one pop up for sale a few years ago before I even started writing about cars, motorcycles, and motorhomes.
Sadly, the one up for grabs today is worse for wear.
This DayStar St. Tropez
This 1974 DayStar St. Tropez popped up in my feed when I was looking for a BMW airhead (more on that tomorrow). It’s for sale in Grand Marsh, Wisconsin and I’ll warn you, it hasn’t survived nearly 50 years of life that well.
The wild Miller design still shows through the peeling paint, gaping rust holes, and broken glass. The coach is absolutely covered in rust and one particularly rough area is right next to the destroyed windshield, which shows holes large enough to reach your hand through. Some of the holes look like they could open up into literal caverns if you’re not careful. The rust damage is substantial and I have no doubt repairs would require an extensive rebuild of the body. A torn piece of tarp dangling from the roof is also not a good sign.
Things don’t get better inside, where it looks like the elements and critters have torn and worn down every single surface. There appears to be a trash bag taped to the driver seat and the dashboard is beyond cracked. The seller doesn’t even provide other pictures of the interior and that’s probably a good thing because the poor condition will probably make me sad.
Still, there are some interesting things to note about this coach. Check out those weird gills along the side and the roof air-conditioners. This coach is about 26 or 28 feet long depending on who you ask. In its prime, those air-conditioners probably kept the DayStar icy cold.
The seller says this rig ran when parked in 2021. You’d be forgiven for thinking it was parked because a baseball-sized something went through the windshield, but the seller says it was parked because the engine had an overheating problem. The seller says they never bothered to check out why the engine was overheating, so should you buy it, you’ll have to solve that issue on top of everything else wrong with the coach.
The price for what’s left of this weird motorhome is $10,000, which may be a bit much since you’re getting maybe 40 percent of what this thing used to be. Though, one thing’s for sure, if you do buy this and restore it, you’ll have one of the weirdest motorhomes to ever hit the road. If you know any additional information about the DayStar coach or the company, I’d love to read it! Drop me a line at mercedes@theautopian.com.
(Images: Facebook Seller, unless otherwise noted)
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If you buy this thing for 10k then please contact me because I can offer you a great deal on the London Tower Bridge.
Jokes aside though, maybe this thing is not worth preserving. It’s butt-ugly, seems to be about 90% rust and 10% rodent droppings and its historical provenance is “maybe possibly totally a money-laundering operation”… just saying.
It looks like a gag gift at a bachelorette party.
No annular radiator! Very disappointing. Boston churches! Funding weird motorhomes and IRA alike. You’ll never know what those zany folks will get up to next.
That weathering seal sounds like a bigger con than money going overseas to build churches for the savages. No radio no cigarette lighter, ran when parked? Yeah we towed it to the top of the hill pushed it to the decline and it ran downhill to where it is sinking today.
Yeah, if they did use Core-Ten, it was purely as a marketing gimmick, since thin sheet steel is such a horrible application for the material
My high school had Cor-Ten outer paneling. I see in a drive-by (it was almost fifty years ago when it opened!) it had been replaced. What I remembered was that the panels would bleed rust on the brickwork whenever it rained. When I worked at an Architectural/Engineering firm after college graduation the employees there didn’t talk of the era when Cor-Ten was popular and forbade every one to recommend anything that used the product to a client.
Despite it being from the 70s, the styling just fairly shouts more 1950s Jet Age vibes. It looks like a vehicle that belongs in the Fallout games universe.
The interior looks like the outdated restaurants in the middle of nowhere that you would find in the ’70s. Garish red-purple carpet, tufted seats, dim lighting, smoke so thick that it would give you instant emphysema…
Herkimer Battle Jittney anyone?
That’s a deep reference right there…
I actually own such on DVD. Yes, I paid good money back in 1999 or so for it.
Jitney only has one T in it.
Just saw Mystery Men the other day, of my own free will.. Great entertainment for me and the kids!
Never seen or heard of this rig before, but it’s certainly interesting. Would be a MASSIVE resto project for sure.
FWIW all the Cor Ten I’ve seen is structural plate or beams, not stamped sheet metal body material.
Was going to try something with that grill and the circles of Hell, but I seem to recall that Dante had 9 of them, not 7
I go by Donald now. Pleased to meet cha. (Hope ya guessed my name.)
Or Ron. Or Gregg Hot Wheels. Take your pick.
I’ll take $1k from the current owner to tow it off their property. I wish them the best of luck actually Getting $10k for it. Lol!
Wow, restored it would be amazing, the design is oddly dated for 1974 though, super cool but more 60s space age than swingier 70s
WOW! You are officially the “Finder of Cool Things”! This one is weird and Amazing!
Core-ten disaster with the amount of rust repair this thing needs.
Probably the most spectacular use of Cor-ten is the US Steel Tower in Pittsburgh.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Steel_Tower#/media/File%3APittsburgh-pennsylvania-usx-tower.jpg
I’m from the Pittsburgh area, and I’m going to vote against the home town and go with the New River Bridge in WV as the most spectacular use of Cor-Ten
….plus, on Bridge Day, you can base jump off the bridge, if that is your thing. And,
if you happen to be a GMC Truck, you have base jumped off the bridge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUdvRBZjuUU&t=3s
I was going to say the Pennybacker Bridge in Austin, but that WV one is pretty impressive too.
On a side-note, my understanding is that the CMB building on the U. of Texas campus was also Cor-Ten (or other brand of weathered steel) that was supposed to turn a lovely shade of burnt orange when fully weathered. Unfortunately, it turned a rather hideous shade of maroon instead. Fortunately, it has since been resurfaced.
That’s bungee jumping.
BASE jumping is free jumping off Building, Antenna, Span(bridge), or Earth(cliff) with a parachute.
/pedantry
If someone does buy this (which they emphatically should not) and restore it, it will be the DayStar of Theseus because basically nothing about it looks salvageable.
The financing scheme sounds like something the Three Wise Guys thought up. Mea culpa.
The great thing about Cor-ten is that when the surface rusts, it does not flake off, exposing new metal to rust and leading to cancerous rot that eats right through the panels. That being said, the rust perforations around the front window and along the drip rail make me think this vehicle is not actually made from Cor-ten.
Yeah I agree, cor-ten wouldn’t have penetrative rust like that. The Daley Center (and the Picasso) has been exposed to the elements for longer than this thing has.
So little information is out there about these things that it’s frustrating. I wonder if they were supposed to be made out of Cor-Ten, but weren’t because of…perhaps the circumstances surrounding the whole money laundering thing?
There is a lower limit in terms of thickness.. Cor-ten sheet products can behave very unpredictably, especially in thinner gauges. You can buy Cor-ten roofing and siding products, but you will notice that manufacturers put big warnings “NO WARRANTY FOR THIS PRODUCT.” You also rarely see stamped Cor-ten in an exterior environment, because that creates thin spots and areas where corrosive agents can collect.
The protective rust layer is really just a slowing of the oxidation process rather than a stoppage. If the base material is thick enough, you could go hundreds of years before structural integrity is compromised. A 20ga or 22ga sheet of the type used in automotive applications is so thin that the rust layer quickly becomes thicker than the remaining good material. They will all oxidize eventually, including the Picasso sculpture in Chicago. That sculpture, however, will likely outlive us all because it’s made of plate steels starting around 1/4″ – 1/2″ thick or more. Looking at how and where the DayStar has rusted out, there is some poor detailing for shedding water around those windows. Couple that with road salt, windshield cleaning fluids, and thin spots created by those funky character lines and it could actually be Cor-ten under there.
That is a weird and fairly ugly looking design. Good luck getting any actual money for it as its roached.
This is based on Dodge mechanicals? Looks more like the Anti-Chrysler to me. Again, sorry.
This thing hasn’t got a prayer. Sorry, couldn’t resist.
I sent you this on IG last week, as soon as I read about it. Seemed up your alley.
Also: Religious people, laundering money? Shockedpikachu.jpg
David needs a Jeep made from COR-TEN. Then he could feed his lust for rust without worry.
So we’re gonna see David Tracy living in that very last example with his kitties, right? See if he can hack it in the wild for 100 days. Like a mashup of Bubbles from ‘Trailer Park Boys’ and the survival show ‘Alone’ .
This has got some Righteous Gemstones flashback storyline all over it…
I could see Baby Billy signing some deal to be the spokesman for DayStar motorhomes, hit that RV trade show circuit
TOTALLY Uncle Baby Billy material
Came here for this.
It’d be hard to wash off the gross reason that motorhome was originally built. Even restored it would still be tainted.
I wonder what those windshields are from. They look amazingly like an early 90’s Pace Arrow.
To me they look like windshield glass used on a number of motorhomes and other vehicles going back at least to the 1980s if not the late 70s, so they could be the same basic parts. The RV industry used and re-used a lot of common pieces to save cost.
You would hope the glass was off the shelf. I’d hate to have to commission a new windshield set for something like this. You’d probably spend more than the entire rig was worth after restoration.
I guess that’s what you could call a Holy Roller.
This Holy Roller was in worse shape, but had more going for it, the restoration costs are probably similar.
https://globalnews.ca/news/8880090/holy-roller-unveiling-london-ont/