'74 Argosy 20' Motorhome restoration/rebuild

[martin300662]

Sorry Brad, I meant to send these weeks ago....

Deadlock from outside, inside, and a couple of the second 'gizzy' (lower than first) to give access to the thumb bolt from inside. It is just a domestic dead bolt.









PS Boy does Bella need a bath, sorry about the dirt!

[kidjedi]

Originally Posted by bkahler

When I was a kid my dad built a cabin on the Blue River in Nebraska and it had these large screened openings with large wood covers that you could swing up for ventilation. You could probably do something similar on one of these rigs but it's not something I would care to attempt to do to the Argosy!

Just run a piano hinge along the roof. You'll be fine!

That would be cool though. One of the Airstreams I bought last year had electric/pneumatic struts that raised (or were supposed to) a bed out of the floor. It would be fantastic to put those on a huge side hatch.

[bkahler]

Martin, that's a nice dead bolt install. I'm either going to have to patch the new door where a dead bolt had been installed or install a dead bolt. More than likely I'll install one but it's not on the immediate to do list!

Thanks!

Trad

[bkahler]

Unfortunately I won't be able to start riveting the panels in place this weekend like I'd hoped. A project at work is in crunch mode and I just don't have any large amounts of free time at the moment. I did manage to get about 2/3s of the rivet holes drilled in the large 4'x10' panel.

My hope is to at least have all of the panels in place and all of the holes drilled by the end of this coming weekend. We'll see....

[bkahler]

One day weekends just don't seem right....

Anyway, I drilled a bunch more holes in the upper panel and it's basically now fitted in place. Not so surprisingly .040" thick aluminum sheet doesn't necessarily like to follow the curve of the ribs! I still have a 7" gap between the new panel and the roof panel so the next step is to fit the final section in place. I might be able to start that task later today.




I think I found the reason why there was a large slab of Bondo in the panel I just replaced. You can see the Bondo slab in the picture below, it's the red showing through the white.




The picture below shows a gap between the rib and the aluminum sheet. This is after forming the sheet over the ribs with the sheet being held in place with Clecos. None of the other ribs have this issue. This particular rib seems to have a flat spot in it. You can see the gap between the rib and the sheet. If I try pressing on the aluminum sheet it creates a flat deformed section. I think the rib was bent during installation and the factory fix was to Bondo the side to make it look a little better.




I think my fix will be to add shims between the rib and the skin so the skin doesn't get deformed after riveting.


Brad

[PeterH-350LE]

its good that you have access to all of the inside. I had a similar problem with a rib on my 1979 (just passed the rear window). I ended up drilling several rivets heads out and after it popped back out, I filled the space with PL-200 construction adhesive, by injecting it in the rivet holes. After it dried for a few days I drilled the remaining base of the rivets out and riveted it back.

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by PeterH-350LE

its good that you have access to all of the inside. I had a similar problem with a rib on my 1979 (just passed the rear window). I ended up drilling several rivets heads out and after it popped back out, I filled the space with PL-200 construction adhesive, by injecting it in the rivet holes. After it dried for a few days I drilled the remaining base of the rivets out and riveted it back.

That's a good fix for when you can't access from the inside.

I'm planning on adding at least one new rib, possibly up to two more if I can find them soon enough. Working on the exterior with the interior removed is certainly making things a lot easier

[bkahler]

Another quick update.

I now have all the rivet holes drilled in the top most center panel. Unfortunately the last row of rivet holes to drill is going to be the hardest due to location and having to try and form the skin while drilling the holes. Should be interesting

Here's some pictures of how I supported the back side of the skin while drilling the rivet holes. I just repeated the process by moving the 2x4 to the next section, drilling all the holes and then moved to the last section and repeated. The 2x4 provided nice support for the drilling operation.







I'm supposed to have a two day weekend so I'm hoping to have all of the rivet hole drilling completed and possibly some rivets installed this weekend. However....I'm not holding my breath........


Brad

[bkahler]

Oh well, so much for the two day weekend. Turns out I have to work Sunday....

No riveting for sure

[bkahler]

Found a couple hours of spare time today and pretty much finished up the small strip along the top. There are probably a dozen holes yet to drill but they are easy to get to and don't need any support so I'll take care of those sometime this coming week.

It sure looks a lot different with all of the panels in place








Maybe later this week I'll be able to remove the upper panel so I can deburr all the holes on both sides. I've already deburred the bottom panel and the corner panel as well as most of the large upper panel. With luck I can have all of the prep work done before next weekend. I would REALLY like to get all of the riveting done next weekend and be done with it.

At least I'm still moving forward.....

[PeterH-350LE]

Originally Posted by bkahler

Found a couple hours of spare time today and pretty much finished up the small strip along the top. There are probably a dozen holes yet to drill but they are easy to get to and don't need any support so I'll take care of those sometime this coming week.

It sure looks a lot different with all of the panels in place

Attachment 397761

Attachment 397762

Attachment 397763


Maybe later this week I'll be able to remove the upper panel so I can deburr all the holes on both sides. I've already deburred the bottom panel and the corner panel as well as most of the large upper panel. With luck I can have all of the prep work done before next weekend. I would REALLY like to get all of the riveting done next weekend and be done with it.

At least I'm still moving forward.....

yes, you sure are moving along, most likely because i am not pestering you with my endless electrical circuit questions. As a matter of fact, it looks like you know what you are doing. Now imagine this with using goo sealant instead of the plumbers tape....

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by PeterH-350LE

yes, you sure are moving along, most likely because i am not pestering you with my endless electrical circuit questions.

Nah, the real reason is I'm working 6 days a week right now and I'm mentally fried at this point

As a matter of fact, it looks like you know what you are doing. Now imagine this with using goo sealant instead of the plumbers tape....

So far I've only used plumbers tape where the rear corner panel meets the bottom of the Pano window. I'm still debating on whether to use plumbers tape or Trempro on the other seams. Based on our discussions the plumbers tape is good if there will be long periods of not being able rivet after setting the panels in place.

However, with all of the holes drilled and ready for riveting I think I can work on one panel at a time by applying Trempro along the seam, riveting it in place and then working on the next panel. I may not be describing the process I plan on using correctly but I think I can make it work.

Like I said, I'm still debating in my mind what the best assembly process would be.

[PeterH-350LE]

Originally Posted by bkahler

However, with all of the holes drilled and ready for riveting I think I can work on one panel at a time by applying Trempro along the seam, riveting it in place and then working on the next panel. I may not be describing the process I plan on using correctly but I think I can make it work.

Like I said, I'm still debating in my mind what the best assembly process would be.

if you use sealant, don't use Vulkem its too coarse and full bodied. use tempro 635 instead. Like you said, the issue with using sealant is you can't stop and mow the lawn. Once you start you must finish that seam or else you will not be happy when you return to dried tempro.

Since you do have access to all of the inside, I would use tape and then wipe the inside seam with lacquer thinner to get rid of the oily stuff and seal it generously with vulkem, just like they did.

the front forward overlapping seam, I would considered using tempro

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by PeterH-350LE

if you use sealant, don't use Vulkem its too coarse and full bodied. use tempro 635 instead. Like you said, the issue with using sealant is you can't stop and mow the lawn. Once you start you must finish that seam or else you will not be happy when you return to dried tempro.

Yep, Trempro 635. I have a bunch of tubes on the shelf

I'll be sure and mow BEFORE I start riveting.......

Since you do have access to all of the inside, I would use tape and then wipe the inside seam with lacquer thinner to get rid of the oily stuff and seal it generously with vulkem, just like they did.

If I seal the inside then what purpose does the tape serve?

the front forward overlapping seam, I would considered using tempro

Yep. There are a couple of seams where the only way to seal will be from the backside. For example the seam between the rear curved panel and the rear center panel. There's no way to get anything in between the seams so it's going to have to be sealed from the back.

[PeterH-350LE]

[QUOTE=bkahler;2507488..
If I seal the inside then what purpose does the tape serve?

..[/QUOTE]


Double is better? seals the rivets? Tape is prone to move and expand when pulling on it. Tape installation is so much easier and cleaner than Tempro, so why not make sure and add the seal from the inside, since you have the access.

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by PeterH-350LE

Double is better? seals the rivets? Tape is prone to move and expand when pulling on it. Tape installation is so much easier and cleaner than Tempro, so why not make sure and add the seal from the inside, since you have the access.

What I will probably do on Friday is practice riveting with some scrap aluminum along with the plumbers tape. I'd like to get a feel for how things are going to fit together with the tape in the seams.

As for riveting this weekend, that isn't going to happen. I now have to work Saturday and Sunday.....


Brad

[PeterH-350LE]

Originally Posted by bkahler

What I will probably do on Friday is practice riveting with some scrap aluminum along with the plumbers tape. I'd like to get a feel for how things are going to fit together with the tape in the seams.

As for riveting this weekend, that isn't going to happen. I now have to work Saturday and Sunday.....


Brad

all the money you are making working those weekends, you could fly me up there and get it done, except I already have to work weekends myself

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by PeterH-350LE

all the money you are making working those weekends, you could fly me up there and get it done, except I already have to work weekends myself

Hah! I know better......you just want me to spend all that money flying you up here so you can hang out with Tommy....

[bkahler]

Ok Peter, the test has begun.....

I drilled and deburred two scrap pieces of .040" aluminum and then laid a strip of plumbers tape between them and they are now held together by Clecos. I'll let them sit this way until Friday and then I'll buck rivet them together.

This is the exact same process I would be using on the shell itself so we'll see what happens

[PeterH-350LE]

Originally Posted by bkahler

Ok Peter, the test has begun.....

I drilled and deburred two scrap pieces of .040" aluminum and then laid a strip of plumbers tape between them and they are now held together by Clecos. I'll let them sit this way until Friday and then I'll buck rivet them together.

This is the exact same process I would be using on the shell itself so we'll see what happens

Attachment 398060

Attachment 398061

Attachment 398062

so did you poke a hole in the tape before you inserted the cleco?
I think you will have a good seal on the flat mating surfaces, but nor so sure how well it will seal on curved ones. Sometimes the space between 2 rivets wants to pucker up ever so slighly