'74 Argosy 20' Motorhome restoration/rebuild

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by PeterH-Airstreamer;

we all should plan a spring road trip to Brads House. That will keep him on his toes

Originally Posted by wxbuoy

I'm in! I will bring the grape libation!!

I think by the time this screwball outfit gets organized enough to come help I'll be done with it

[bkahler]

The day didn't start out to well. Had to spend about an hour trying to figure out why my hot water pressure washer wouldn't pump any water. Once I got that resolved I spent the next three hours cleaning all the dirt, moss and grunge off. Hot water sure does make a difference when it comes to cleaning years of caked on grunge. Washed it from top to bottom including the engine and generator compartments. Overall it came out a lot better than I expected.





One bonus was a lot of old paint came off under the water pressure. To bad it didn't take all the paint off

I was surprised but there wasn't a whole lot of water that made its way to the inside of the coach. Maybe things are sealed better than I expected. Next step is to get it backed into the shop. Hopefully in the next few days that will happen.

Brad

[PeterH-350LE]

Originally Posted by bkahler

I think by the time this screwball outfit gets organized enough to come help I'll be done with it

No one said anything about "help" and Dave, I think, Mossman just challenged us

[mayco]

Man those 20 footers are just plain cool looking. Kinda like the short Dodge van, always loved that body style and the 20' Argosy looks like a bigger version.

What kind of wheels are you planning on when finished? Have you done some preliminary drawings for your interior lay out or is it pretty much all in your head right now. It may be counterintuitive but I would think that it would be harder to design a 20' as apposed to something larger like a 310 starting from scratch. Martin knocked it out of the park with his design and execution, Im really looking forward to what you come up with..........especially considering your knowledge and skill set. Im sure it will be another home run.

Mike

[ViewRVs]

Congrats Brad! Awesome progress.

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by PeterH-Airstreamer

No one said anything about "help" and Dave, I think, Mossman just challenged us

No moss here... Took care of that earlier today

This winter I'm going to concentrate on getting the engine compartment prepped and the engine installed. It would be nice to be able to move it in and out of the shop under it's own power while I work on the rest of the exterior and interior. We'll see...

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by mayco

Man those 20 footers are just plain cool looking. Kinda like the short Dodge van, always loved that body style and the 20' Argosy looks like a bigger version.

My first motorhome was a 20' Coachmen and it drove like a regular dually pickup. You could pretty much drive it anywhere. I really like that capability

What kind of wheels are you planning on when finished?

Assuming the budget can handle it when I'm done I'll put on some American Eagle 0589 wheels.

Have you done some preliminary drawings for your interior lay out or is it pretty much all in your head right now. It may be counterintuitive but I would think that it would be harder to design a 20' as apposed to something larger like a 310 starting from scratch. Martin knocked it out of the park with his design and execution, Im really looking forward to what you come up with..........especially considering your knowledge and skill set. Im sure it will be another home run.

Originally I was just going to rebuild the interior to be pretty much what it was before (front bath) but after seeing Martin's layout those plans pretty much went out the door! So for now I'm not really sure just what I want to do. I definitely want a more open layout. The original layout made you feel like you were in a small cave. I've lived in too many small apartments to want to go back to something like that

This winter I'll spend some time figuring out what I can do without having to relocate any of the major components like bath, water heater and stove.

Brad

[martin300662]

Really looking forward to seeing what you come up with Brad, in my opinion you have the best 'bones' with the rear pano windows. If it helps, here are some rear bed floor plans (all scaled with standard Airstream fittings), and keeping the bath/kitchen where they are:

Clean (ie empty)



Rear twin



Dinette



Sofa bed



Side bed



Queen



The only configuration I disconnected out of the gate was the 250, but that is only because personally I don't like the bed and bath at the back layout....seems a waste of a lot light, but here is the floorplan - it could easily fit.

[martin300662]

Opppsss.....should also have added the marked up raw floor plan with my original measurements!

[bkahler]

The weather cooperated today and I was able to move the Argosy into my shop. It took me close to four hours to get it moved from the back of the shop around to the front and then inside. Since I was doing it myself I had to pull the Argosy a little ways with my F250 and then get out and tweak the Argosy steering wheel to get it pointed where I wanted.


Once I got it moved to the front of the shop I had to tow it from behind to get it into the shop. As you can see from the pictures it wasn't all that easy to do. The hardest part was getting the 9'4" wide Argosy (mirror to mirror) inside a 10' garage door opening. It took a lot of towing it about 2' and then checking alignment and then towing a few more feet.


I had the electric steps extended which took a little while to rectify as I had to hook up a battery and some temporary wiring to get the steps to retract. Once that was done it was pretty straight forward after that. Just a few twists and turns of the front wheels to get the mirrors to fit inside door opening.


My shop has two garage doors, one on each end and opposite sides of the shop. I was able to clear enough junk out of the way to make a suitable path for the chains between the tractor and the Argosy.


Wait, there's more!

[bkahler]

Getting closer....


...and it's in!


A 20' Argosy doesn't take up much space.


I'm going to have to spend the next few weeks re-organizing the shop. I want to set up a work bench just for the Argosy which should help me keep track of what I'm working on. I currently have some stuff in the shop I'm storing for a friend of mine. If things go according to plan those items will be gone in about three weeks which will free up more working space.

In the mean time I've got a lot of thinking and planning to do

Brad

[PeterH-350LE]

nice working space, Brad. You must have heat for the colder winter month?
I insulated and air-conditioned my shop, but unfortunately the door will not accommodate the Motorhome or trailer.

[bkahler]

Peter, The shop has reasonable insulation and over a year ago I installed a 75k btu infrared heater that does a nice job of keeping the shop warm at least until the temps get down in the single digits.

For summer I have four overhead fans that do a nice job of circulating the air.

When I had the shop built I sized it to accommodate the 310. It's nice that the Argosy is 11' shorter as it provides more room

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by martin300662

Opppsss.....should also have added the marked up raw floor plan with my original measurements!

Martin, thanks for the layouts! I'm going to have to transfer them to graph paper so I can play with different arrangements. Most likely I will be keeping the bath and the fridge where they were originally but other than those two items everything else is up for redesign. I do plan on altering the bath because I want the wall that is against the drivers seat to be move two to three inches towards the rear.

Brad

[dadstoy]

I sure wish I had your shop Brad.

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by dadstoy

I sure wish I had your shop Brad.

All it takes is a credit card...

[Hittenstiehl]

Nice 20 footer, nice shop, nice drawn plans with different setups.

[wxbuoy]

Originally Posted by PeterH-Airstreamer

No one said anything about "help" and Dave, I think, Mossman just challenged us

I kinda got the same feeling!

Great looking vehicle all cleaned up. I love the shop. Wish I had room for one of those! That is on our list to find/rent next.

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by wxbuoy

I kinda got the same feeling!

Great looking vehicle all cleaned up. I love the shop. Wish I had room for one of those! That is on our list to find/rent next.

My hope is the Argosy will always have that place to park when not in use. The shop is big enough for my other vehicles & projects so with luck that will be the case.

[VintageFan]

How tall is your garage door? I am trying to figure out what size carport to buy to put ours under.

Thanks!