Peanut lives on!

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by martin300662

Maybe Airstream prep'ed the inner skin for the larger battery box, but had a supply of the smaller boxes to use up - who knows!

My '78 donor has inner skins that are trimmed to the edge on the box and the existing 'door' trim comes down to meet the carpet on the battery box.

I will say the smaller battery box is definitely small! It looks like it would be a real pain to try and remove/install the batteries. Hopefully the larger battery box from the donor can be installed as it would make life a whole lot easier.

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by martin300662

Rough day trying to remove parts from the donor.

Lets start with the positives.....the fridge vent door is off. Took longer than expected (the theme for the day) as not only was it riveted to the outer skin, it acts as a closeout and the inner return was also riveted (luckily nowhere as frequently) to the inner skin.

You can ignore my text about the fridge vent door! I guess I should have checked here first

Next up were the two grill end castings....there are only three rivets showing from the outside so that will be easy right? Well the three visible rivets (all the way through) are complemented buy around a dozen 'blind' rivets which go through the outer skin from the inside, and there is no access to drill. Only thing I could do was lever open a gap and then cut through them.

Now the not so good.... Despite a few days of soaking in penetrating fluid, the bolts on the bumpers will not budge with hand-tools. Its time to get serious and I will take my Honda 2000i next time to be able to run something with some torque/able to drill out the bolts.

Do you have one of these impact screwdrivers?

I will be trying mine to see if it will loosen the screws on my rear bumper. I can try Peanuts as well.

For some reason I was thinking they were only fastened with screws. I remember Keyair describing the work he did to his front castings when he removed them for polishing and I don't remember him mentioning anything about rivets.

We might have to look at some other method of fastening onto Peanut

One job I was able to do with hand tools was start to remove the drivers side rear banana wrap. The donor as the original ABS molding, and it is disintegrating in my hands. I wasn't planning on it, but it looks like a new one will have to be ordering.

That's to bad. I found what's left of the original left rear corner in the closet. It's pretty beat up as well.

[bkahler]

I found this little coolant bottle in one of the cabinets.


One of the receipts that I found mentioned that the shop told her to buy a replacement for the milk jug that is currently in the sitting in front of the radiator!


I think the one she bought is just to small to use on a cooling system the size of this one. The link you sent me of the one from Andy appears to be the same size as the one she bought. Do you want to stick with the one on hand or do you want a larger one installed?

[martin300662]

Originally Posted by bkahler

Do you have one of these impact screwdrivers?

I will be trying mine to see if it will loosen the screws on my rear bumper. I can try Peanuts as well.

Yes Brad, or rather the HF version (http://www.harborfreight.com/impact-...ase-37530.html).

But I have tried two different units and today took a 3lb engineers hammer with me (yesterday I was tickling it with a little 16oz ball pein!) and was giving it a pretty good 'clout'. It seems the extended supports (onto which the bumpers screw) do a pretty good job of dissipating the impact

[martin300662]

Originally Posted by bkahler

I found this little coolant bottle in one of the cabinets.
Attachment 260376

One of the receipts that I found mentioned that the shop told her to buy a replacement for the milk jug that is currently in the sitting in front of the radiator!
Attachment 260383

I think the one she bought is just to small to use on a cooling system the size of this one. The link you sent me of the one from Andy appears to be the same size as the one she bought. Do you want to stick with the one on hand or do you want a larger one installed?

Bigger must be better right?

Even a milk jug is better than the recovery system on the donor.....that overflow tube simply 'empties to atmosphere'

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by martin300662

Yes Brad, or rather the HF version (http://www.harborfreight.com/impact-...ase-37530.html).

But I have tried two different units and today took a 3lb engineers hammer with me (yesterday I was tickling it with a little 16oz ball pein!) and was giving it a pretty good 'clout'. It seems the extended supports (onto which the bumpers screw) do a pretty good job of dissipating the impact

So much for that idea

I guess I better not hold my breath hoping that it will work on mine

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by martin300662

Bigger must be better right?

Depends on who you're talking too.......

[bkahler]

For some reason I neglected to get pictures of Peanut sitting on the big trailer that brought him from Florida to Kentucky. I contacted the driver and he sent me this one.


I asked if he had more pictures, he said he would check and send them if he finds any.

[martin300662]

Whilst we make progress rounding up parts ready to bring Peanut back to some resemblance of usability, Brad and I have been chatting about best approaches for the dinged bodywork. The rear panel is quite straight forward once we can get the spare wheel holder out of the way, but what about the curbside front quarter? My idea had been to try and straighten and patch what is there, but has anyone got any experience with replacing these lower front panels? Are they preformed?

[bkahler]

Looking closer at the right front quarter of my Argosy I'm not so sure now that any of it was preformed. The only area that might have a slight curve formed into it is the lower front portion. Even then that curve could be a side effect of the sharp curve at the top front.


My bet is if the old section is removed and laid on top of a flat sheet to draw the pattern that would probably be enough.

Your call...

[bkahler]

Forgot to mention Peanut's new brake drums arrived today. I decided to throw a coat of paint on the first one to try and slow the rusting process down a little. With luck I'll try and install the hub tomorrow after work.



The second will get painted later tomorrow.

[shepherd57]

Brad

That is a preformed front quarter the one, I took off the 28 was preformed. Martin has what looks like a good front quarter on the 28. As long as it wasn't damaged when the headlight casting was removed.It should be able to be removed and reused. It would be expensive to buy from Airstream.

After the bucked rivits are removed there will be 1/16 pre assembly rivits to watch for at the corners of the panels.

[martin300662]

Originally Posted by shepherd57

Brad

That is a preformed front quarter the one, I took off the 28 was preformed. Martin has what looks like a good front quarter on the 28. As long as it wasn't damaged when the headlight casting was removed.It should be able to be removed and reused. It would be expensive to buy from Airstream.

After the bucked rivets are removed there will be 1/16 pre assembly rivets to watch for at the corners of the panels.

Unfortunately (and at the time I didn't know it would be needed....) I made a budgetary decision to get AS NE to cut around the wheel well trims on the donor. So although the rest of the panel is good - the wheel opening so approx 2in larger than original. I guess hindsight is a wonderful thing!

I guess I need to find out how 'expensive', expensive actually is.

[shepherd57]

Brad

It might be easier to just drill out the heads of the bumper bolts to remove the bumper. And then use heat to get the rest of the bolt out I had to do that on a couple of mine. Then I replaced them with 1/4" st steel counter sunk Phillips

[shepherd57]

Then I would go with Brads idea and make a panel from the trim molding down. Brad is right that part is basically a flat panel. The upper section is the formed part

[bkahler]

I was reading through a list of old receipts that I found in one of Peanut's storage drawers last night and one of the items a previous owner wanted done was to "check wiring under dash - remove whatever isn't necessary".

I about fell out of my chair laughing!

After an untold number of owners modifications plus the original crappy wiring that statement probably applies to 50% of the wiring under our dashes.

Brad

[martin300662]

Its all those darn gauges and gizmos that people 'need'!

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by martin300662

Its all those darn gauges and gizmos that people 'need'!

Does that mean I don't need the 12 gauges that I'm planning on installing in my dash?


Being an Automation Engineer by profession I guess I just have this fascination with gauges

[bkahler]

Brakes are complete for the right rear wheel. Still need to torque the lug nuts and slide the axle into place. Should be able to complete that tomorrow and get started on the left side.

[bkahler]

Moved on to the left rear brakes this evening. Got Peanut set on jack stands and the drum removed. Tomorrow I'll pull the backing plate and head to the car wash to clean and degrease it. With luck I might even have the backing plate re-installed by the end of the day. Things go faster when you have the parts on hand!

I still haven't found a smoking gun as to what might have caused the brake fluid to be missing from the master cylinder. I did notice this spot on the rear axle but I haven't tried yet to identify whether it's a leak from the differential or brake fluid from the brake line. I'll try and figure that out tomorrow.



This sort of thing scares me. Airstream routed the propane line right down and slightly below where the wheel well sheet metal ends. Granted there is supposed to be a mud flap in place. However I don't think a mud flap is going to stop road debris or tire remnants from shearing off the mud flap and taking the propane valve with it.


Not my idea of good design