Hi Fryzowt; Last Saturday being caught up with work at the business, we hooked up to my Kubota our new SS frame on which the shell was sitting with the old floor still attached, and brought it into the shop bay. Monday, me and my wife rolled up our sleeves and went to work removing the inner skins, wiring and remainder of old plumbing. My wife armed with a drill attacked the rivets while I attempted to remove rusted away screws which were attaching the plywood to the floor channel. Lag bolts attaching the channel to the old frame were half rusted away, which I have previously cut off from the frame, popped out easily being rusted away. As my wife removed some smaller sections of inner skins and catalog them for future reference, it became obvious to us that IT IS possible for one company to create more than fifty technological sins while building it. By the time we have removed all interior skins leaving the inner end caps alone, it was not hard to believe the crappy workmanship. Many rivets did not go trough the ribs and were ball peened between outer skin and ribs. The front and rear vertical steel mounting plates half rusted away by not being sealed, causing serious damage to aluminum. Rear attaching vertical cross plate just forward of storage box was completely gone along with aluminum part of the outer shell touching it. Section four inches high SS plate had to be rivited to replace it. Outside paint was the only thing that held corroded aluminum skin together. Horizontal ribs which support the inner skin are not facing same direction, some up some down. Steel back up plates that hold the floor channel down to the frame, rotted away along with bolts. Wiring inside looked as some amateur who had no idea what he was doing, decided to play a electrician. Who were those people? Was there ever a standard introduced in building it? Were those people all dyslexic and could not figure which end is up? They sure could have used someone who could think and put forth a logic to it all. This sure makes me fiery mad. After all of the inner skins were removed I have braced the ribs inside to prevent shell from collapsing while being hoisted up. We have used a pipe and hoists hooked up through the vent openings. Lifting the shell, my rib braces all fell out. We have dropped the old floor and removed all floor channel from it. With the shell hanging over night there was no sign of collapse. The shell actually opened out in the middle. Yesterday, [Tuesday] we have straighten out all bottom edges of outer skin as well as the floor channel. Previously I have copied and made a template of the front floor and assumed that the rear was identical in curvature. I was wrong. Lowering the shell onto new floor we discovered another factory technological sin. Most likely I will need to remove my C trim encapsulating the edge of the floor with 3M 5200 sealing it, and re cut the floor curvature. Fun never stops, so that is my project for today. We have a freezing rain today and I have asked my wife and employees to stay home.
My progress today may not be so good. As I get the inside insulated and wired I will post some pics. Thanks, "Boatdoc"
AS I have previously stated; Sometimes we are the doggie, rest of the times we are the fire hydrant.
I too was surprised to see the poor quality of workmanship when I removed all the inner skin. It looked like alot of the stringers were cut to length using either a meat cleaver or a hand ax. Many rivets were in the radius or no ED or missing the stringers and frames completly. I was also surprised to see no stringers supporting the skin laps and the complete failure of attaching the frames to the stringers and lower C channel. There is also no fayed surface seal between the skin laps, just fillet seals along the edges of the inside only. I too ran into the fwd mount that was not primed or sealed and the fwd skin will need to be replaced do to it. Are you seeing the same things that I'm seeing? I envy you to be able to work on your Argosy during the winter months. I still have not been able to talk my boss to letting me park my Globetrotter in the hanger to start replacing the skins that need changeing.
I didn't see any gross errors in workmanship on mine, maybe it wasn't built on Friday
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Bob
'77 Sovereign Intl 31' CB '07 GMC 4x4 2500HD EC 8.1 Allision six | Bedrug | Softopper | Airbags
WBCCI 11411 | Metro NY | AIR 15915
WBCCI Time's a-changing Say no to Lawrence Welk attitudes
Progress report; On March 14th number of members of the local PD came out to help out as a thank you gesture for donating my work in the past to them by building a SWAT van. Time was to install inner skins, and what a great help just holding them up while I rivited them in place. I felt so pushed by the help that I forgotten to install a specially molded [flattened] sink vent pipe into the wall. While I was very happy with progress on that day, on Friday morning returning to finish some riveting I have felt so stupid, that it took me a day to disclose it to my wife. There I was drilling all the rivets except last two rows in the ceiling. It took me most of Saturday to finish correcting my mistake. Had some problems with window gaskets as well. Glue stuck very well to cleaned aluminum window frames but it was peeling clean off the rubber gasket. We have wound up removing them, clean the glue and sand the gluing surfaces of the gasket with 80 grit sand paper. Now the glue stuck very well.
The multi cracked taillight panel was repaired with Devcon primed with 3M adhesive promoter and finish painted to original appearance. Found at NAPA a identical direct replacement license plate iluminator, made by Signal-Stat #435. All window frames were cleaned and polished. All three vents repainted and new gaskets were installed. All white plastic window adjusters were replaced with black UV resistant adjusters. All beauty rings for windows and vents were straightened, glass beaded and painted.
My SS fender wells were sealed with urethane 6 lbs density rigid foam since there will be no chance of having any vibrations with welded in SS fenders.
All wiring is in proper place. All clearance lights will be replaced with identical size and shape LED's. Since my brake light lenses are Fresnel lenses I have purchased a LED replacement for #1157 bulb and they appear to be very bright. As soon as the miserable winter gives us a break, a SS battery box for two Group 29 batteries will be built and installed. Problem is that my 8' brake is sitting outside and covered, so I will do other work until then. Today Sunday we are going to Lowe's to see about the paint for the interior. Most likely it will be a Perma-White by Zinsser, which is mold and mildew proof. Color, most likely a Sea Foam Green, it is my wife's choice since she will be the interior decorator and she has good eye for such.
My question to all of you is; Can the paneling inside be painted successfully having a thin layer of vinyl covering it. If so, this would cut out a lot of work and expense for us. I wonder if good marine monopoxy would do the job? Has anyone have done it? What will it do to the vinyl? Will it blister it and will it stick? Pic's coming soon. Thanks, "Boatdoc"
You can paint the vinyl clad aluminum panels easily. I don’t know about other products but this is what I did with perfect results:
First wash down the walls very well. Prep is everything. I tried several types of cleaners and found a spray called KRUD KUTTER superior to everything. I also washed everything down with TSP.
I used TWO coats of KILZ primer.
For the majority of the trailer I used a Benjamin Moore wall paint, oil based and FLAT. Beautiful results.
Same thing with the bath area. There I used a two-component coating by POR 15 called WhiteCoat. The white finish is as hard and brilliant as porcelain.
I applied the flat oil with those little foam rollers originally called “ German rollers”. They produce a lovely finish that looks like it was sprayed.
I used these rollers for the POR 15 too, having first asked the supplier about it. The paint reacted with the roller and ruined the job.
We had to sand the whole thing down with 400 grit paper and redo it with a brush.
A couple of questions:
* How did you fasten the deck to the frame? I see a row of fasteners but can't tell if they are carriage bolts or what. Do they fasten to the main frame tubes or just to the cross memeber pieces?
* Since you have obviously done this project without cost in mind, what is the advantage of the aluminum coated plywood over the aluminum honeycomb panels on the market? I have found the aluminum honeycomb panels for about $260 for a 4'x8' sheet, how much does the aluminum coated plywood go for?
* Do you have any thoughts on the suitablity of an extruded aluminum decking product being used for the floor?
* Your post says you used 0.90"x2" mastic tape to insulate contact between the frame and floor. Is that maybe .090" thick as nearly 1' thick doesn't seem right. Of course you are the engineer, so if 0.90" is right I'll go with it!
OK, I guess that is more than a couple of questions! I'm sure there will be more to come as I refurbish my '67 Tradewind. Looks like it is turning into a frame replacement.
Thanks for all your expertise you share in this forum. I got a kick out of all the AS junkies who were up at 4:00AM on Christmas day planning or working on their toys. I came across those posts at about 3:00AM this morning as I was planning my restoration. I actually wanted to go out and start drilling and cutting on my Tradewind but thought I was goofy for wanting to be out there at that hour. My wife would surely have me committed if I did that. Just to let you all know, based on your posts from Christmas, I have informed my wife that it is perfectly natural for someone to be up at all hours of the night working on an AS and not to be bothered if she finds me doing that one morning. Thanks guys, you made me feel normal!!!
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I'm sure there will be more to come as I refurbish my '67 Tradewind. Looks like it is turning into a frame replacement. 
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