Update on demolition

July 10 (from Lynn)

Not a lot to report.  The heat here in the Carolinas has been bearing down. I thought we found a contractor- to raise our carport-turns out he only played that role- he gave an estimate to raise the carport rails. We lined him up 3 times and 3 times he didn’t show or even  call. So, we’re still looking for someone to raise our metal carport. 

I began removing the bunk beds, cabinets, pulled out the fresh water tank. We need to see the frame and inspect that. Our goal is to make sure that the frame is road worthy. That’s at the top of our list.

Raising the carport will obviously give us some much needed shade. The humidity this past week was brutal.  Difficult to wear a mask while working inside. 



More photos before we start

5/1/20

These were taken as we went through the trailer looking to establish the good and the bad.

Our manufacturer's plate. It's a 73, officially but it was dated 11/72 on this plate.

The steel endcaps on both side are badly rusted. There's also a lot of hinky paintwork in several stages of breakdown. Hopefully the rust can be sanded/ground off and sealed and painted smoothly

(Below) This seems to be the original setup of the black water tank outlet. It's located in the back, in the center under the fairly wide bumper. In other words, you have to get down on your hands and knees and reach in about 18" to hook up your hose. That is really unacceptable. I remember the '69 Caravel had an outlet to the side, easily accessible. 

(Below) I don't know what to make of this. This looks like the grey water outlet, but I'm not sure, the water system is not hooked up and no demolition has been done yet. There looks like there were rivet holes once, but now it's just a jagged mess.

(Below) This is the compartment for the battery, you can see the subfloor has been damaged, probably eaten through, since there is evidence of several nests in the back. Yuck.

The back bumper/compartment is badly rusted at both ends, not sure yet if it's bad enough to replace.

 

Now for some inside notes. Along with the demolition at the front, where the couch/gaucho was pulled out, the refrigerator and some of the cabinet just inside the door are also missing. All of the rest of the  kitchen is intact, though in questionable shape. The stove is rusted but probably works. The sink is fine, but so shallow, we will probably replace it. On the positive side, all of the windows and hardware are intact and working great! Just missing one screen, and all the weatherstripping needs replacing, but glad we don't have to replace anything major there. 

A view to the bedroom and bath, as it was packed up at the previous owners. Those long pieces are the protective rubrails for the outside, that protect the seam around the mid-section. There's some other miscellaneous hardware we're not sure of. We got the front gaucho cushions, but they are nasty and will def be thrown out.   

More bins of stuff, and the table top that goes with the front couch. You can see the bed structure underneath, all intact.

The bathroom is mostly intact, no photos yet, but the nice pocket door is still there. Too bad we will probably be tossing that too.

These next photos below were taken a bit later, as we started to look more closely and take off some of the tape. Yes, the cold hard look. 

First, note that the carport is way too short, as we found out on pick-up night. We've had some issues with that, more on that later. 

Just to document the problems from one view:

• Badly rusted steel caps
• Shoddy installation of ceiling vent fan (rear), taped-in, because the corners hadn't been cut and the facing didn't fit. We did get the remaining parts and docs for the fan. 
• One ceiling fan with fan removed and only cap and brace still there
• Hard to see from here, but there's a round vent on the far side opposite the door, that has paper and plastic taped over it. No idea if there should be a cowl over that. 
• ALL of the running lights and outdoor house lights have been removed, with just the pigtails sticking out and bondo covering the spot.  We got the fixtures in one of the bins, we think all are accounted for. 
• No lock on the door; it's completely gone. 
• There is tape everywhere, hiding many sins, we are sure. See below.

(Below) the tape over the center front window hides a row of pitted rust. This is the front steel cap, remember. Note the front coach light pigtails. It's not rusted through, but we don't know if it's sound.  Note some evidence that the top has been painted dark red and yellow previously. 

(Below) We didn't notice this at all when it was covered in dirt, but it looks like someone went wild with his grinder, and didn't clean up afterwards. Luckily, it's not deep. This is an aluminum panel (just below and to the side of window under the front end cap) Since we know we will paint (seal that steel!) we know this can be bondo'd and painted.

Finally, (not really, more to come) this is a mess and we barely have begun to remove the tape. The compartment goes inside to a cabinet, so outdoor storage. I guess the latch is broken and the plate for the electric outlet next to it is gone. Also, one side of the step ladder has broken off. The other side is holding for now, but we really need to fix that soon, it lists to the side.

The tick list has begun. 

We might find Jimmy Hoffa in There.

5/1/20

Well Lynn is spraying the Argosy down today and we are discovering amazing things. For instance, we thought that someone had stripped the the shell down to its aluminum skin in order to have it look more like the more familiar Airstream (Argosies were originally painted). But in fact we find it has been painted metallic gray overall. The original bottom color is a golden yellow.

Rather sloppy painting job, but it makes clear that the silver gray color is painted over the yellow

This looks like a flubbed paint job, instead of damage to the shell. Relief!

The pressure wash is showing what really beautiful shape this trailer is in; once it’s clean it’s a different trailer. I don’t want to cast aspersions, but if the last owner just sprayed it down they could’ve gotten another thousand dollars more off of this baby. But we feel lucky that we’re making the discoveries. It’s amazing what a coat of dirt will hide - a nearly perfect shell.  Huzzah! Also, yo yo. Also, shit yeah. 

Another interesting fact - the Argosy has a serial number, and quite a low one. Looking into what that might mean. [note from the future: its an Airstream club number, not a factory serial number] After a bit of checking out the paint chips, it looks like the original color on the top was always gray, and the serial number is on that layer. I think the original color combo was gray and yellow. That gives me thoughts of returning to that combo. 

This is archaeology. 
Enjoy some soothing pressure washer clips of the dirt washing away...

The Aftermath - Settling with UHaul and taking stock

5/1/20

As soon as we got back, we got in touch with the local UHaul place that had botched the installation job of our brake controller and plugs so badly. Lynn went in with the repair invoice from John's RV and they paid it back to her without comment or pushback. After we had vented all the way back to NC about their massive fuckup, it was a little anticlimactic, it took all the wind out of our vengeance. We did not try to ruin them on Yelp. So, buyer beware, but also, complain. Eventually they'll hire someone decent if they lose too much money.

The next few weeks we got used to the big silver thing in the driveway and tended to pandemic issues and learning how to operate in the new world. But we started to take stock of what we had gotten into right away.

As I said last post, the Argosy didn't fit under our awning so it was stuck on an incline in the driveway, making it a little tipsy to do anything productive inside. It was also open to the weather, and in the sun, so HOT inside during the afternoon. We went through all the parts and tools that we inherited, put up shelving in the garage and started moving things out of the trailer. 

Here are some of our first photos of the state of her:

The underside looks generally intact, around the jacks. We found some junky cuts and repairs around the black water pipe outlet but no photos of that yet. There's some rust that's concerning, but we'll need to get a better look to be sure.

The stove is rusted out underneath the cover. Not sure yet if we'll keep it.

Someone has pulled out the front gaucho and the subfloor beneath it, along with some of the skin. They left a newer water tank and started to put a new city water outlet in front, unfinished as well. The frame up here looks to be in good shape! Notice the bright light along the bottom corner, it's a fiberglass patch.  

Here's the outside view of the fiberglass patch, rather shabbily done. The previous owner had bought some banana wrap bumpers to cover that area, and we got them with the trailer, but we plan to get that panel redone in aluminum. 

Last problem area we saw was the steel endcap in back is badly rusted. I'm sure there will be sanding in our future. 

More photos next time, while we think about what we want to do first!