Peanut lives on!

[bkahler]

Wow!

I was beginning to think those bumpers were never going to come off I hope AS NE didn't charge to much for their "assistance".

I'd say you accomplished everything you really needed to.

[martin300662]

Originally Posted by bkahler

Wow!

I was beginning to think those bumpers were never going to come off I hope AS NE didn't charge to much for their "assistance".

I'd say you accomplished everything you really needed to.

Actual AS NE bought the most important thing to the party....the knowledge of the best way to remove the bumpers!

Turns out, the easiest (in my case only) way to remove the countersunk machine screws, is to get behind the bumpers remove the nut then knock the screw out from inside. However to do that you needed to be able to get under the bumper. I couldn't when it was parked (dumped?) out the back of the shop, but the techs had pumped up the tires and temporarily pulled it on to the asphalt using their plow truck....they didn't want to work laying in the dirt!

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by martin300662

Actual AS NE bought the most important thing to the party....the knowledge of the best way to remove the bumpers!

Turns out, the easiest (in my case only) way to remove the countersunk machine screws, is to get behind the bumpers remove the nut then knock the screw out from inside. However to do that you needed to be able to get under the bumper. I couldn't when it was parked (dumped?) out the back of the shop, but the techs had pumped up the tires and temporarily pulled it on to the asphalt using their plow truck....they didn't want to work laying in the dirt!

It sure didn't appear that there was access to the bumper bolts from inside the frame. Hopefully that same approach will work with Peanut. If not I've got my acetylene torch that will work as well

I don't blame them for not wanting to work in the dirt, that's why Peanut is parked on my driveway!

[bkahler]

At some point in the past the right front brake line from the brake compensator block to the right front brake hose had been replace. It wasn't routed very well and rubbed on the gas lines to the fuel pump.


A while back I fabricated a replacement brake line to match the one on my Argosy and today I got around to installing it. The picture makes it look like its interfering with the rubber gas lines but in reality it's several inches behind them



Next up was to install the AC compressor. At some point someone had repaired an elongated hole in one of the mounting brackets. Unfortunately they didn't grind it down flat which made it difficult to remove and harder to try and install.


So prior to mounting the compressor on the engine I ground down the offending repair which made it much easier to set the compressor on the mount.



The compressor is now installed. Those A6 style compressors are definitely heavy!



I'm finally done reassembly everything between the front of the engine and the radiator so once the radiator is done it can be installed.


I've mounted an new AC condenser in front of the radiator and am currently working on installing a 16" electric fan to aid in cooling. I'd like to get the fan installed this week so when Martin get's here we can lift the radiator into place. Lifting the radiator and trying to set it in the chassis is not something I want to do by myself


Brad

[martin300662]

Originally Posted by bkahler

At some point in the past the right front brake line from the brake compensator block to the right front brake hose had been replace. It wasn't routed very well and rubbed on the gas lines to the fuel pump.
Attachment 266320

A while back I fabricated a replacement brake line to match the one on my Argosy and today I got around to installing it. The picture makes it look like its interfering with the rubber gas lines but in reality it's several inches behind them
Attachment 266319


Next up was to install the AC compressor. At some point someone had repaired an elongated hole in one of the mounting brackets. Unfortunately they didn't grind it down flat which made it difficult to remove and harder to try and install.
Attachment 266318Attachment 266317

So prior to mounting the compressor on the engine I ground down the offending repair which made it much easier to set the compressor on the mount.
Attachment 266316Attachment 266315


The compressor is now installed. Those A6 style compressors are definitely heavy!
Attachment 266314


I'm finally done reassembly everything between the front of the engine and the radiator so once the radiator is done it can be installed.
Attachment 266313

I've mounted an new AC condenser in front of the radiator and am currently working on installing a 16" electric fan to aid in cooling. I'd like to get the fan installed this week so when Martin get's here we can lift the radiator into place. Lifting the radiator and trying to set it in the chassis is not something I want to do by myself


Brad

Great stuff Brad....U-haul is booked, next job is to try and get all these parts in it!

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by martin300662

Great stuff Brad....U-haul is booked, next job is to try and get all these parts in it!

Getting the parts in the trailer is only half the battle. The other half is trying to find a place to put it all once you get here!

[martin300662]

Originally Posted by bkahler

Getting the parts in the trailer is only half the battle. The other half is trying to find a place to put it all once you get here!

Oppsss!

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by martin300662

Oppsss!

We'll figure out something

[martin300662]

Peanut needs new drivers/passenger seats so I have ordered the same as fitted to Bella.



May actually swap the new (leather/suede) seats for those in Bella (fabric) as Bella should be down at Brad's by the end of next week.

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by martin300662

...as Bella should be down at Brad's by the end of next week.

Whether Bella ever leaves Kentucky after she gets here is a whole different matter...

[bkahler]

Martin made it to Kentucky Friday evening and was finally able to spend some quality time with Peanut

Here he is removing the rear rub rails in preparation of the repairs to the rear center panel caused by the spare tire carrier having been pushed into the skin. He's using John Warden's patented technique of hammer and chisel to remove the rivet heads



In order to properly replace the rear panel the spare tire mount had to be pulled back to it's proper position. We came up with the technique of using a come-a-long (or as Martin calls it a block and tackle) and heat to pull the 3/8" steel plate back into it's proper upright position. To our surprise the process worked a lot better than expected.



One thing that still needs to be sorted out is the electrical shore power connection. Some previous owner has modified the shore power cord and eliminated the use of the generator as a power source. Since we are going to install the running generator from the donor the shore power/generator wiring needs to be reworked.



Also yesterday for the first time Peanut was plugged into shore power (no batteries are currently installed) so we could find out just what coach worked and what didn't work. The fridge works on 120AC, the roof air conditioner blows cold air and most of the interior lights that we tested also worked although the light switches for each light were a little flaky. Martin plans to replace the interior lights with something new so that flaky light switches might turn out to be a non-issue.

Oh yeah, one other thing. We got the donor generator running and producing 120 vac! Probably took 1-1/2 to 2 hours of dinking around with it before we got it to run. Once running it sounded pretty good.

Brad

[PeterH-350LE]

Originally Posted by bkahler

.

One thing that still needs to be sorted out is the electrical shore power connection. Some previous owner has modified the shore power cord and eliminated the use of the generator as a power source. Since we are going to install the running generator from the donor the shore power/generator wiring needs to be reworked.
Attachment 267127



Brad

Looks to me like the pre transfer switch setup. When you use the generator you would plug the power cord in that box??

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by PeterH-Airstreamer

Looks to me like the pre transfer switch setup. When you use the generator you would plug the power cord in that box??

Yeah, there definitely never was a transfer switch. Problem is the plug that should be from the shore power cord has apparently been cut off and connected directly into the new junction box in the top right corner.

I'm going to try and dig into the wiring a little bit tonight to get a better feel for what might have been done.

[bkahler]

My mind appears to be a little sluggish today

To use the generator all you have to do is plug the shore power cord into the female socket shown in the picture

I think I need to hit the sack early tonight

[PeterH-350LE]

Originally Posted by bkahler

...

To use the generator all you have to do is plug the shore power cord into the female socket shown in the picture
....

yes, it's called a manual transfer switch with no points to burn out.
Thomas, the donkey could have told you that..

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by PeterH-Airstreamer

yes, it's called a manual transfer switch with no points to burn out.
Thomas, the donkey could have told you that..

Tommy's to wrapped up in trying to find another escape route to bother helping me with trivial stuff like this

[martin300662]

Apologies for the 'massive' post but, as Brad shared, the two of us spent a couple of pretty solid days working on Peanut; at least it was the demolition phase so 'fun' even if we were exposing some horrors....

First up the two twisted bumpers were removed using a combination of heat and force. At the rear this also meant cutting the vertical plate support (the rear bumper only comes off it that is cut away or if the ABS rear corners are removed first).









Carrying on at rear, all three belt trims came off to allow the light bar to be removed and to allow the rear wheel carrier to be pulled out (tension, heat and the occasional hammer blow worked great).



However this still left the fundamental issue with the early wheel carrier; it is welded in place and the complete body lowered over it - if you want to do any work on the rear panels, it is in the way. So having repaired/straightened the wheel carrier we then came up with a design to allow it to be bolted in place and proceeded to cut it off anyway!



This allows the rear panel to be removed and replaced - more on that later.

Next up we test fitted the bumpers from my parts donor - rear is a direct replacement, however the front has been modified to include a aluminum diamond plate step, so although we could test fit, that just showed that the three outriggers need extending by about 7" to allow them to fit. Brad will get a single section bent that can be cut in three and welded on.



Attention then moved to test fitting the drivers seat or more importantly the battery box layout with regard to the base of the seat. Easiest way to do that was remove the battery box.



The '77 MH have a different battery box to '78 (the later being lower and longer taking the batteries side by side with the terminals facing forward). The concern was the that original battery box was too high to fit under the seat base at the driving height but the salvaged '78 seat bases actually are 2" clear of the batteries, so the box can be 1" higher than the batteries and still have clearance.

Having the drivers seat base in place also allowed us to test fit one of Brad's seats (which are the same deign as ordered for Peanut and installed in Bella)....success! Simply moving the seat back fully allow the seat back and headrest to retract past the steering wheel and allow the seats to rotate fully.

Also surprisingly the floor under the battery box is sound - more than can be said for the rest of the front floor.....which is not only rotten but been repaired/hidden by layering on some quarter ply. Guess what folks? laying thin ply on rotten wood does not do anything other than provide more wood to rot!





Then came the biggest "oh s#*t" moment. I removed the piece of ducting sheet that was masquerading as a rear banana wrap, and took the brand new replacement out of the packing.....only to find that counter to popular belief the body parts from '77 onwards are not the same and not interchangeable and the new banana wrap is longer in the bumper section and a different shape on the lower side. The only way it could be used is if I buy a second one from the passenger side and replace both so they match.

This instantly got worse when I realized that one of the front banana wraps needed replacing as well, and again the new part is substantially different from the old - luckily I bought a pair of fronts so we have the parts, just twice the work.

At this point it was pretty apparent that this is turning into more work than I can do remotely or that Brad has time for. Luckily Brad could call in some favors generated from repairing a friends house....a friend who is a retired bodywork/metal worker. We showed him the broken remains of the original rear banana wrap and his only comment was....yep, can be repaired will just take time.

I have had to drive back to New England to pick up Bella today, and Brad spent the day at work but I have a message that Ernie (Brad's friend) has already removed the damaged rear panel, removed and found some openings in the markers (one described as about 1/2" so plenty enough to let water in to rot the floors). New markers (LED) markers are on order from Fastenal, so as the saying goes....onwards and upwards!

[GWallace]

Brad and Martin,
The power transfer for Peanut looks factory original in your picture. The generator output in its compartment is wired through the 30 Amp circuit breaker box next to the generator and then terminates in the 30 amp receptacle in the storage compartment on the opposite side. The junction box next to the 30 amp receptacle has a 30 amp (in my case 50 feet long) shore power cord wired into it. The junction box wiring goes up to the AC circuit breaker panel in the left rear closet. To get AC power from the generator plug the shore power cord into the 30 amp receptacle. To get power externally unplug from the 30 amp receptacle push the plug through the hole in the floor of the storage compartment (photo attached) and plug into external source.

Gregg

[GWallace]

The diamond plate with the front bumper appears to be added by a PO. Attached is a photo of my unit as it came from the factory.

By the way back in 1978, my nieces named my Argosy 20 "Jelly Bean" and the name has stuck even with my children.

Gregg

[GWallace]

Driver's seat for Peanut.

The driver's seat in my Argosy 20 is in a tight space. When I am driving, I push it back from the steering wheel for room. When we stop, I have to push the seat all the way forward to have clearance to lower the couch down into the bed.

As you install the new seats check that you have the clearance for making out the bed.

My seat is also a little high to clear the battery box. Some years ago I fastened some carpet on a wooden block (2 x 8) for resting my feet as I drive.

For e passenger seat in my unit, it is part of the "Roto-Dinette" and is double wide. Different from the single seat that you plan.

Gregg