Hello all!
I figure that since I am about a month into my restoration I should finally start a thread to track my progress of my 1976 22' Argosy. I am going to host all the photos over on my Facebook page via this link and I will post any relevant photos here in the forums.
1976 22' ARGOSY RESTORATION PHOTOS
Here is a little background of the project. My girlfriend has always dreamed of owning an Airstream so I started looking around and getting the plans together. She is the dreamer while I am the planner. We looked for about 6 months until we came across a great looking Argosy located near Mammoth Lake in California (we live in Pasadena). We decided to take the trip up and see what kind of condition this thing was in. Once we laid eyes on it, we knew that we had to have it. Something happens in the presence of an Airstream or Argosy that cannot be explained by rational thought. Your fictional dream state of the potential takes over while you end up getting stuck with the reality of months of repairs and updates. Either way, I am getting off topic. We ended up negociating a decent deal and drove home that Sunday with the title in hand and the trailer scheduled to be delivered the following weekend. That's right. We don't even own a Tow Vehicle. LOL. Talk about putting the cart before the horse.
The delivery day arrived and the excitement set in. As soon as it pulled into the driveway, it all began to feel real. Problems began before I even began assessing the trailer. Mike (the PO) had a huge truck and could not get the trailer positioned where we had originally intended. Guess where it did fit? Right behind my car, blocking me in. Lucky I work from home and don't need to leave. To this day, I still have not moved the trailer or taken my car for a spin. I consider it motivation to get moving on the restoration.
That night after Haley got home from work, we began taking a look at the state of the trailer. The first things that she noticed were the peeling wall paper and the funky gross carpet (no offense Mike if you are reading this). She picked at the edges of the wall paper to see how bad it was and only a few minutes later it was all laying on the ground. Shreads upon shreads covered the floor. That is how this whole restoration began. Next I began tearing up the carpet and checking to see how the sub floor was looking. We left the trailer that night with a mixture of excitement for the travel to come but also the trepidation of the repair and restoration process. I, by the way, am a designer and animator while she is an interior designer. Neither of us have a background in home of automotive repair. Luckily we are both very quick learners because we don't have time to wait. The summer is upon us...
Anyway, I think that should be quite enough for now. I will update this thread as things happen. I will try to back date some posts as well to document the restoration up to date. Wish us luck, cause we are in for the long haul!
Attached are some photos of the Argosy on the day we purchased it.
Chris
Thanks! Got a lot of work done this weekend. Will post more photos tomorrow! More stories to tell.
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