Hrmm. Under our bed, we still have wood covering the whole thing so I think some rid-rot stuff will probably be enough. I think we are going to epoxy the entire area under the bed so we have some protection for the fllor from the stuff stored under there. I also need to figure out why the PO used spray foam in the spot you can see in the photo...

Oh, by the way. After we took the bed out, I noticed a little aluminum thing that looked like a half of a hotdog bolted to the inside wall right next to the outside access door. Under a little closer inspection, it was a light. I would never have known it was there and I thought I would pass it along in case you all hadn't seen yours.

Wow, sounds great! Did you have to remove the banana wraps to put in the new pieces of floor? Just wondering because we seem to have a little rot we found under the bed, right along the back of the camper. I am hoping to dry it out and after caulking outside by the trunk where some say the leak happens, see if it stays dry. If it can't be salvaged, I was hoping to splice some pieces in without having to get underneath.

Sounds like you all are coming right along! Can't wait to see the photos.

Such an undertaking..
I recently acquired a '71 Sovereign; my first AS..mostly gutted, rear bath, lots of rust and some holes in the undercarriage. I wonder how bad it will be when I remove the under pan. Mine also took a large tree limb across the front roof, shattering a vista window outer glass, and seperating the ribs from the interior and exterior sheet metal. Good thing I'm not in a hurry..
Good luck with your restoration..I'll be following along and learning. Thank you for documenting your work..it helps loads!

Tadd,

Ah.. the vista views.. well two of the three top ones are peeling, all the lower ones are fine. The final top one... well it probably was peeling, before the tree fell on it. I will be learning how to replace the pane in that one...

I am pretty sure we will find a lot of floor rot up front also.. just part of the fun! The window seals are going slower then I would like, but, getting done. I really need to put AC in the garage-mahaul.

Mark

Here's a link about redoing the window gaskets:

Airstream/Argosy Window Weather Stripping Replacement

We used the newer "D" shaped on ours.

Mary

Ahh, floor rot. We got lucky on that. We had 2 small spots. One 3" X 3" spot right beside the curbside window next to the front cabinet and against the wall which had dried up. I will probably patch or talking about putting a small, thin cabinet there maybe with a slide mechanism for a flat screen that hides inside. Been throwing ideas around. The other spot is smaller and inside that really small cabinet next to the door where the awning rod goes but its not worth worrying about since it is so small and flooring on top will cover. It had dried up as well.

We haven't replaced the seals on the windows/door since they aren't leaking right now but they will need it soon since they are dry-rotting. Our vist view windows also have that film peeling inside all 4 so I will also be breaking the inside panes and re-sealing once I get the new molding seals from Can-Am and get the nerve to break them. Yours have the same issue? All of our windows are double pain and one of our curved front windows ha condensation in between panes and 2 bedroom windows film is peeling as well. Not looking forward to fixing them all...

Take care,
Tadd

Bowmans,

Well.... we weren't exactly planning a "full restoration" (although I am sure that's where we will be in the end) We removed those bottom panels so we could get to the floor bolts in the perimeter so we can replace the sub floor that is rotted all the way through under the rear window. This AS does have some serious work needed to get it fully functional, but we knew that going into it. Several we looked at had fewer overall issues, but most had running gear problems that would have needed to be fixed before towing home to tow safely, so we ruled those out.

Thanks for the offer on the manuals, we bought reproductions straight from airstream. Learning about re-gasketing the windows today. Started with the kitchen window, will have it finished in a bit (heat/humidity has come up) but now that I have a procedure that works, should get the rest of the curb side and the rear done in the AM, then the rest the next "work" day.

Mark

You both sound like your making great progress. Our originally was a queen bed in the back (as the owners said). They pulled out the rear furniture a some point and made the entire back into one bed area. We like the setup since we have 2 boxers and an english bulldog that will of course, be piling on top of us at night and this will hopefully allow me to sleep in the same bed as my wife HAHAHA.

We pulled the 'California King' mattress out though and will probably be putting in 2 twins side by side for ease or removing and flipping. I'm thinking of building 2 lifting areas (one for each mattress) to access the storage underneath since we only have one small door on one side of the camper for external access to this area.

Our AS came with the service and owners manuals but they were well used. I scanned them both into the computer when we got it home and stored the originals away for safe keeping. I think it took 4 CD's since it was 300+ pages and I scanned them in high resolution tif files. If you have any issues with your manuals and need a few pages, let me know. I would be pretty confident they are the exact same manuals.

I noticed you said you removed the bedroom interior panels. Are you removing all of the interior aluminum panels? Are you all doing a full restoration/renovation?

Take care,
Tadd

Deja Vu! We just got our 1979 31' Sovereign International home (VA) a few months ago and started just as you did. Cleaned out the inside of all material items, pulled up the carpet and all of those staples... My wife was dressed like a science experiment. From the outside, yours looks just like ours except the front (over the tongue) ours has an awning instead of a window gaurd. The rest of the windows are all in the same place and looks like the little window in the center, curbside is the bath so center bath? also. And wow, I just checked out your photos on photobucket and the bathroom wallpaper is even the same...

We decided to start on the outside first, leave the inside for winter. We scotchbrighted all of the window frames, and I have been polishing, strip clearcoat, more polishing, strip the vinyl stripes, more polishing, strip clearcoat, etc. About 40% done now so it is coming along slowly.

Question: When/if you strip the blue vinyl stripes (not the beltline but the pinstriping stuff) the runs along the outside, mid section, let me know what colors were on the bottom layer. I am trying to figure out what ours was originally. Ours had blue for the wide stripes red for the thin on top, 2nd layer was the same but the bottom layer actually had all blue stripes.

Good luck with your restoration! We'll keep checking on your progress. I want to see how you get that hole fixed

Take care,
Tadd