Dane's 1974 Argosy 20 adventure

[Danec020]

Don't go cutting your cushion for me! As for the valance I'll go look under it in the morning and let you know.

-Dane

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by Danec020

Don't go cutting your cushion for me! As for the valance I'll go look under it in the morning and let you know.

-Dane

No big deal, I don't know why I still have those cushions anyway. I'm switching to twin beds in back like Martin did in Bella so they are just taking up space on the shelf.

[bkahler]

Dane, here's a picture of the plywood that makes up part of the couch/bed.

71-1/2" x 12" x 3/8"

[Danec020]

Originally Posted by bkahler

Dane, here's a picture of the plywood that makes up part of the couch/bed.

Thanks! I really appreciate it and sleeping in Trixi will be much more comfortable with that piece!

Continuation of November 16, Wednesday

I was back on the road for about an hour and so far everything was running smoothly. Since the frequency of the bogging was every 5-10 minutes before, I felt the problem was addressed or at least part of it was. It was almost dark but everything was running so well I wanted to try and get another hour or so of driving in. I looked over my gauges one more time to make sure everything was still where they should be and I brought my eyes back to the road to a surprise! In the left lane about 150ft away was a big buck walking his way into the right lane where I was currently at! I knew I would hit him if I stayed my current coarse so I opted to go into the left lane and hoped he kept on walking and not freeze. I applied the brakes firmly but not too hard since I didn't want to lock them and with luck and about 6 inches to spare I missed the deer. He was in no hurry to get to the other side but once I almost scratched his butt off with Trixi, he did a sprint for safety! I was shocked to see one so early since the sun wasn't completely down yet. I thought on it for awhile and told myself I better stop for the night and drive during the day where my vision was better and less likely to hit a deer. So I put on my lights and kept my eyes peeled for a truck stop where I could park for the night and sleep.

Another hour went by and I hadn't seen anything but an exit or two that had no lights or buildings. Now it was completely dark and my luck wasn't looking good. Not only were there no exits but my lights were abysmal! When I first turned them on when there was some light left I knew they weren't going to be bright since I couldn't see much light coming from the Argosy. Once it got darker I seen why. Apparently checking the front lights to make sure they worked wasn't the only thing I should have done. One light was shining down and to the left while the other one shined up and to the right. I am not talking about a little down and a little up, I am talking full tilt! I couldn't see anything but about 10 feet in front of Trixi and the tree tops on the right. You could imagine my anxiety after almost hitting a deer and then being stuck in the mountains at night not being able to see anything around me. *SPUTTER, BUCK* "Not now! Come on Trixi, you can do it baby!" I patted the steering wheel even though no one could see me. Then I started thinking maybe I shouldn't say or think anything... I might jinx myself... I am not usually superstitious but I didn't want to do anything that made this trip any more "exciting". Luckily she caught back up and everything started running smooth again.

For the next hour I was white knuckling the wheel, leaning forward with squinty eyes, and whispering prays. In the end they must have payed off because I finally came to a little town called Greenland, AR. There was a Philip 66's truck stop with a McDonalds attached to it and it seemed like a nice area that I could stop for the night. I parked Trixi in between two big 18-wheelers and shut her off for the night. To do this I have to leave it in gear when killing the engine due to the timing being off, other wise it will keep trying to catch. The downside to this is the amount of fuel left in the carburetor when it is off. Sighing with relief I locked everything up and went inside for some food and relaxation. The lady at the counter had no problem with me sleeping there for the night and the McDonald's had wifi that was free so I was able to surf the web on my phone while eating/relaxing. When done I was pretty bored to I checked out some of the automotive things that were for sale and found a little domed mirror that sticks onto your existing mirror for $4. Since I couldn't see squat with the current passenger mirror, I picked one up and went outside to install it. It was a simple peel off the back and stick to the mirror... Or it seemed simple until you hand it to me. I was hovering the little mirror above the glass trying to make sure to put it exactly where I wanted it. I wanted it all the way to the edge of the mirror so it wasn't blocking majority of the view but while hovering I bumped the mirror ever so slightly, like a fly's caress. It was STUCK... To top it off the edge of the mirror pushed against the edge trim of the Argosy's mirror and caused the actual mirror part to pop off. Apparently the mirror was made to detach from the base so people wouldn't steal it? No problem, I will peel it off carefully and move it over a 1/4 of an inch. What ever adhesive they use on those things should be sold, the stupid little foam pad would not budge and I was practically destroying it trying to get the dang thing off. If I were to try and peel it off it would leave pieces of itself all over the mirror ruining the little vision I had! Eventually I got the plastic base to peel off the foam adhesive pad and was able to move it over enough to get the little mirror on. In the end I just shook my head at myself as I turned a 1 minute easy job into a 10 minute cussing session.

Done with the stupid mirror I decided to turn in for the night and crawled into the coach. My senses were assaulted by fuel aroma coming from the dog house. I turned on the lights and to my surprise they all worked! I moved my luggage, spare parts, and a box of old parts Willie had given me to the side trying to make room for the bed to pull out. With all the stuff I had in there, it was a little challenging to walk around. After arranging the bed I was surprised to see it had aluminium railings instead of the wood ones in my Caravel. The other surprise was I couldn't figure out what to do with the middle section of the bed since I had no support to go on top of the railing. Also the driver side of the bed had no legs to support the edge of the bed, didn't know if this was normal or not so I just went with it. In the end I just put the cushions down and laid in the bed trying to stay to the outside part that had the wood supports but keep my feet away from the outside edge that had no leg support. Even sleeping couldn't be simple today! Over all it was surprisingly comfortable but the fumes were killing me so I opened a window. The fumes made it hard to sleep but I had another 550 miles to try and finish the next day, so I needed to leave the truck stop at 6am. While laying there I wondered if excessive gas fumes could kill someone but I was too tired to google it, I had a window open... After several hours of trying not to die from the fumes I finally passed out.

[bkahler]

Dane, your trip keeps getting more and more interesting! That deer could have made a real mess of things, good thing you missed it

Previously you had asked whether your front end might be sitting low, if it is that will also contribute to your headlights being out of wack.

You should not be able to smell any gas inside the coach so if you're smelling gas then your stumbling problem could be a sign that the fuel bowl needle valve is sticking open. I think we discussed previously about you having the carburetor rebuilt. What you don't want to do is just get a replacement carburetor off the shelf from some auto parts store. You want to have yours rebuilt, that way you know it's set up right for your specific engine. I think Martin might know who to send the carburetor to for a rebuild.

Brad

[jm2]

Dane,

Reach out to Dick Paterson at http://www.springfield-ignition.com/

Best,
Joseph

[martin300662]

Dick Paterson refurbished and setup Bella's QuadraJet - he is highly recommended.

Part of the service (you literally unbolt the carb and return everything to him) is he sets up the carb on a PACC machine and adjusts for idle, cruise, and power, and the only thing that may need any adjustment on re-fitting is the choke setting because it is dependent on location/climate.

[martin300662]

I forgot to add....we get no smell of gas inside with the doghouse closed, so I suspect the combo of smell and poor fuel mileage (we used to get around 11mpg, from the 350 small block before installing the GearVendor and now get around 14mpg) = a leak/overflow somewhere

[mayco]

Holy crap what a story!

[GWallace]

Dane,
By all means do not let anything taken off of your Argosy get away from you especially the carburetor. It is too easy to overhaul the original one as compared to replacing with another. The original was matched to the application by Chevy while most replacements are general in nature with subtle differences. Often those subtle differences are significant.
For example, I purchased a Delco brand "rebuilt" starter and turned in my old starter for the "core" charge. Both starters looked the same. After I installed the replacement I had a lot of problems with the starter gear aligning with the ring gear. Further investigation uncoveed the issue - the older us dimensioned starter and the newer metric dimensioned starter. I ran back to parts house and got my older starter back and then had a local starter/alternator shop rebuild it and no more problems.
Bottom line you never know that an older bad part can be reworked and perform better than some unknown replacement. Even if you get a new part, keeping the old one is a good fall back if the new part develops issues.
Gregg

[Danec020]

Well I went to check on Trixi this morning after we had a decent shower last night to see if there are any leaks. I knew there was some small ones but you could imagine my surprise when the passenger floor boards had about 1/3 of an inch of sitting water. Took a little more than a full towel to soak it all up. the driver side had a 6x6inch section that was wet. Behind the passenger seat the closet has a leak that was fairly significant. Then the last leak I found was by the driver side of the pull out seat between it and the counter it seemed. I can tell that some must have came from the windows because the seals were wet. Even on the one I replaced the fuzzy gasket on.

I am going to go to the store today and try to get some sealant and go over all the lights and any other areas I think water might be getting in on. Does anyone know if vintage trailer supply has all the seals needed for the Windows? Not the windshield.

Dane

[Danec020]

Originally Posted by GWallace

Dane,

By all means do not let anything taken off of your Argosy get away from you especially the carburetor. It is too easy to overhaul the original one as compared to replacing with another. The original was matched to the application by Chevy while most replacements are general in nature with subtle differences. Often those subtle differences are significant.

Gregg

Definitely will keep this in mind, thanks!

Dane

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by Danec020

Well I went to check on Trixi this morning after we had a decent shower last night to see if there are any leaks. I knew there was some small ones but you could imagine my surprise when the passenger floor boards had about 1/3 of an inch of sitting water. Took a little more than a full towel to soak it all up. the driver side had a 6x6inch section that was wet. Behind the passenger seat the closet has a leak that was fairly significant. Then the last leak I found was by the driver side of the pull out seat between it and the counter it seemed. I can tell that some must have came from the windows because the seals were wet. Even on the one I replaced the fuzzy gasket on.

I am going to go to the store today and try to get some sealant and go over all the lights and any other areas I think water might be getting in on. Does anyone know if vintage trailer supply has all the seals needed for the Windows? Not the windshield.

Dane

Dane, the leaks are pretty much what I had expected from it sitting in a barn for all those years. There are a lot of potential entry points for water during a rain. Over the years I've been finding a bunch on mine some of which surprised me.

On the front cockpit side windows the way Airstream built them they do not drain well even straight from the factory. I made several changes to mine and I'll post that info in a little while.

The window seals on the passenger side window will be bad (I think you replaced them already). Something to look for on the side window are the drain ports at the bottom. There are probably four or five little slits that are supposed to allow any water that runs down the glass and into the channel to drain out instead of in. Make sure those are clear and that your new window seal has slits where the slots are in the window frame.

Your upper front and rear marker lights are probably leaking badly as well. Each marker light has two screw holes and one hole for the wire to pass through. All three of those holes need to have Tremco 116 sealant smeared over them so water can't get through. In addition the front center marker light has the CB antenna mount on it so the hole in the front cap is even larger. That will be major source of water leaking into the front. Seal that hole real good!

Any loose rivet on the walls or roof is a potential source for leaks. I know this to be a fact as I watched water drip inside my coach through the head of an Olympic rivet

There are various types of sealant to use and hopefully others will chime in with their favorites. It would also be a good idea to go to the Trailer side of the forums and search through the Exterior Restoration forum. Lots of good stuff there.

Since you don't have an air conditioner on the roof that's one less thing to worry about at this point.

On the top edge of each of the windows and door frame you'll want to run a light bead of Tremco 116, Parbond or Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure. A suggestion would be to have some of each of these sealers on hand all the time because once you get one leak fixed another will show up shortly afterwards!

Oh yeah, in case you didn't know, do NOT use silicone sealer on an Airstream. It doesn't work and just makes a mess of things.

Brad

[Danec020]

Thanks for all the great info Brad! I had to order the Tremco 116 since no where around here carried it. As for the restoration forums I have been browsing it for awhile, figured most of the things apply to Argosy as well. Do you normally seal around the marker lights as well to be sure or just the holes? It looks like there was some gasket or sealing previously applied.

Dane

[bkahler]

I don't think anyone sells Tremco locally either. I usually just order from Amazon, mainly because I've been using black lately and I know they sell it.

My Argosy did not have paper gaskets between the pods and the cap. If I remember correctly a couple of the pods on Peanut had some paper gaskets. Personally I'm not sure if there is a "right" way to seal the light pods. Laying a bead of sealant along the top edge and sides is the fastest and easiest. Sealing just the holes gives a cleaner appearance. I have mixed feelings about the paper gasket. In theory they should work fine. If I was to go the gasket route I would probably use a thin rubber sheet instead of paper.

Brad

[chiefair]

Probably stating the obvious but... most clearance light assemblies have drain holes at the bottom of the housing. Sealing them on the bottom will likely make your leaks worse instead of better! As Brad said, sealing the top and sides is frequently done. I think getting lots of sealant on the screw and wire holes and leaving the light housing edges unsealed is the best option. I have one persistent leak in the front of mine I have not succeeded in tracking down. Thought I got it when I resealed the spotlight but no luck. The awning rail is my next suspect. Good luck finding your leaks!

[bkahler]

Hey Dane, it's been over a week since the last installment...hint...hint....

[Danec020]

November 17 (Thursday)

Around 6am I heard a few of the big rigs start up and I opened my eyes to find there was daylight. I got up and pushed my comfortable bed back into a bench arrangement for the travel and went inside to freshen up for what was hopefully to be the final day in my trip home. After about 10 minutes of waking up I got back into Trixi and filled her up with gas, cursing the pump the whole time. The tanks neck had the pump kicking off every .10 gallons so it was quite frustrating especially in the morning after barely being up. After I had her full of gas I did one more walk through inspection and checked all my fluids, everything looked great so I set off to finish my adventure!

For the first two hours everything was going well but I could her a *tink tink* sound every now and then when I would hit a bump in the road. The front fender well had a metal rod that goes to the aluminium fender for support that had broke off so I figured it was just tapping the metal exterior on rough bumps, no harm. Still I had my ears peeled for any other noises when all the sudden *SPUTTER BUCK*! "Oh lord, not again!" I thought to myself as I waited for Trixi to catch again and continue going. But this time nothing happened... I was slowing down to about 40 mph and it still hadn't came back to life so I pumped the gas pedal a little bit with hopes it would help get some fuel to the engine. *BUCK BUCK* Oh god, 30mph and I was going up a hill! I checked the mirror and there was only one car behind me but he seemed to be staying back a little ways, thank god. 20mph, I pumped the pedal another time and this time I got a little response *SPUTTER BUCK*, I kept pumping! *VROOOOOM BACKFIRE* Thankfully it got power and I was able to bring myself back to speed but my heart was racing and I did not like my prospects of making it home. I still had atleast 8 hours of driving left and I could not make it if the engine kept doing that or got worst!

I drove for another 30 minutes praying it didn't sputter again but instead of preventing it I must have been summoning it! *SPUTTER BUCK* This time it stalled for about 5 seconds and caught back. That's a little better but the fact it sputtered again had me nervous. Unfortunately I was in the middle of no where and there were just a bunch of small shops and gas stations. Having about half a tank left I decided to pull over at one of the gas stations and fill back up and add some more sea foam to the tank in the hopes it will help clear up the issue some. Of course this is a small town gas station so it only has 2 pumps, one on each side and the only one available was the one closest to the building because the other was out of order. I pulled into the pump and quickly realized due to my size I was blocking the cars parked in front of the door from leaving, great... I poured in some sea form and quickly filled up. This pump didn't seem to have a cut off because it did not care how fast I pumped! Once done I go inside and grab me a drink for the road and one of the patrons decide to leave so I hurry out behind him in case I was blocking him from backing out. I was but he wanted to check out Trixi so I ended up talking to him about her for a few minutes while I looked her over for any problems. Embarrassingly enough as I am talking to the guy I find my exhaust is hanging about an inch from the ground and the guy laughs when I point it out! "I guess good condition old is still old. You going to probably get a lot of that." he says and I just nod in agreement. I apologize for blocking him in and pull Trixi forward out of the way so he can get out and then I crawl under the beast to see what is going on with the exhaust. The previous owner had a mechanic look at the exhaust to replace what ever was needed but the mechanic said it was all still good except for the last few feet where he would put new piping on. He was wrong... The exhaust was rusted pretty badly, which I expected, and the weight of the new pipes and jiggling on the road caused it to break off at the muffler and was only hanging on by a little shred of metal and one exhaust hanger. I didn't want to spend the time to unbolt the hanger and fight the exhaust so I just took some wire cutters and cut the hanger off. After a few twist back and forth the tiny piece of metal that held on broke and I was able to pull the piece out. The store owner was watching me through the window so I smiled and pointed at the exhaust pipe. She pointed to my right so I went around the side of the gas station and seen some dumpsters and tossed the pipe in and wondered what she was thinking. Ready to get back on the road I climbed in and drove off thinking that today was getting off at a rough start.

The next hour or so was pretty uneventful. I no longer heard the *tink tink* sound which was probably my exhaust pipe tapping the ground when I hit bumps. I reflected on how lucky I was to catch it before it became completely detached and was bouncing all over the place underneath Trixi. It could have caused some damage and possible hit someone else when it's hanger gave out. *SPUTTER BUCK* Okay, it is time for me to get another fuel filter in case I need it and I was approaching De Queen, AR which looked like it had some stores and a decent population. I ended up getting lucky and there was a Walmart and an Autozone next to one another so I parked Trixi at the Autozone and got the fuel filter. I decided to let her cool for about 30 minutes before getting on the road so I walked over to Walmart to charge my phone and get more sea foam which was almost $3 cheaper there. While doing this I got a text from our friend Brad to see how my trip was going. I relayed the details to him and he wasn't too surprised by the exhaust incident since he had thought it needed replacement when he had seen it. We talked about the sputtering and agreed it might be stuff still coming loose from the bowl and I might be ok but the filter was cheap insurance. After 30 minutes were up it was time to hit the road again!

The next 3 hours were smooth with no real issues except for maybe one sputtering in there somewhere. I was trying to get a better feel for the gas tank gauge so I wanted to push it to a quarter of a tank left to see how many gallons I could add. I was going to stop in Shreveport, LA but they were redoing the interstate roads and had tons of detours so I figured I would push it a little further and go to the next stop. Little did I know there weren't many if any stops for a while after this point. I passed the next town exit but seen nothing but woods so I kept going, half a quarter of a tank left. Few miles later I came up to another exit but was just a crossing highway, 1/3 quarter of a tank left. Feeling like I am cutting it close the next was 7 miles or so away and I figured I should take it and look for gas no matter what. I see the exit and there is a dealership on the road but nothing else, I take the exit and drive in the direction of the dealership hoping there are other things near by where I could find gas but the road goes for 5 miles with nothing. I have about 1/4 of a quarter of a tank left now and I am pretty nervous, I look on my phone and see the next exit had gas and I curse myself for not staying on the interstate! I turn around and get back on the interstate trying to baby the throttle. Kingston was the next exit and I knew there was gas *SPUTTER BUCK*. I look at the gauge and I am almost on E and I am not sure if the sputtering was because of the previous issue or I was running out of gas. I give the good ole girl a pep talk and watch the mile markers go by, boy did it seem like forever. Meanwhile in the back of my mind I am thinking about what Brad told me. "Get some fuel containers from Walmart while you're there and put some gas in them. Nothing worst than breaking down because you ran out of fuel." Damn you Brad for being right! I make it to the exit and there is a small hill to climb *SPUTTER BUCK*, I make it up the hill and can see the gas station. I'm now officially on E and I pull into one of the stalls and thank my luck and shut it off. I filled her up and to my surprise it only took 17.6 gallons. The new tank is either a small replacement or there was much more fuel in the tank than the gauge leads you to believe but either way it was a scary moment! I go inside to grab a bite to eat and relax for a bit feeling much better and being even closer to home, it was 3pm and I was only 4 hours away from home! After 30 minutes I got back on the road.

I am glad to say the last few hours of the trip went well, sorry I don't have anything exciting for you guys but I am glad for it! It got dark again on me and I had to fight poor vision but I knew the roads well so I felt pretty good. The scariest part was the last 40 minutes when I was so close to home that you can taste victory but are waiting for the upset! I patted her when going up the Horace Wilkinson Bridge that entered Baton Rouge. It is a fairly steep bridge and there is tons of cars trying to get into some short lanes, I had some concerns she might sputter while going up but it handled it like a champ. After that it was just 30 minutes to home and I pulled in the driveway 10 minutes before 9pm. I unpacked everything from the inside and cleaned her up a little bit for the wife and went inside to let her know I was home. Of course she went right pass me to go check out Trixi and she fell in love. She went through the entire cabin trying all the lights and looking at the storage and was excited about all the future things she could bring and do in there. I think she was most excited about the outside porch light though, which is funny since it is such a simple thing. In the end we are both happy with the purchase and don't regret any of it. If I would have towed the vehicle then a lot of these things would have came up the first time we took it out for a trip and I am much happier knowing I worked out a lot of little things before my family was in it. I also know what I need to do next because of those found issues and the money that would have went to shipping was instead used on paying mechanics to make progress on fixing her. All in all it was a great adventure and I hope I didn't bore you guys too much with the details. Now a new adventure starts, restoring and enjoying Trixi!

-Dane

[Danec020]

So I got the Velkum in the other day and decided to try to tackle the leaking problems I have found on Trixi since the rain stopped for a two day period. The amount of water on the drive side is enough to be concerned about but no where near the passenger sides volume. The driver side looks like it is coming from the top left of the firewall area and running down, not sure what the source is but I am guessing the windshield? The passenger side looks to be dripping down from the firewall area/window corner. I pulled all the light covers off and cleaned the metal beneath to apply the Velkum. That stuff is thick and tacky, not very easy to work with in my opinion. I thought it was going to be like some of the other caulks I have used but it proved more difficult to get a good seal. In the end I piled a lot on the holes and hoped for the best, the problem is when I would push in the wires or screws the velkum would stick and go with it possibly opening up a hole again? All of the lights seemed to be sealed pretty well still with the exception of the middle light. It has this added piece and wire I am assuming for an antenna that was not sealed at all. I ended up making a rubber plug for one of the holes out of a vacuum nipple since it was too large to just fill. Of course I coated that baby with Velkum as well!

There was a lot of rust on the steel cap where these lights held dirt and moisture so I took some time to sand them and paint over it with Rustoleum. I will have to do a better job in the future but for now it will help some. Unfortunately the first one I used painters tape to mask off the paint and when I removed it, it took a lot of the original paint with it . Anyone know a good touch up paint for the cream color? I also ended up trying to seal where the water hookup was since there was a leak there but ended up breaking the dang pressure regulator. I was removing the plastic trim from the outside to add Velkum and didn't realize it screwed and held together the water pressure regulator! So when I undid the screws from the outside, the spring blew the back off the regulator and I lost some nuts. Hopefully I can put it back together with someone applying pressure on the inside while I screw it from the outside.. Who designed this?

Any how we have some rain coming tomorrow, I am still going to cover her with some tarps but hopefully this job helps a little with the leaks. Does anyone have a good recommendation on what to use on the front window seals? There looks like someone sealed it with something that almost feels like rubber but it is pulling away in places and could be the source of leaks. It will peel off easy so something similar would be nice.

-Dane

[bkahler]

Your reasoning's for driving it rather than towing are really good ones and should pay dividends in the long run. Might have been a little nerve wracking while it was happening but you learned a lot

We've been using Rustoleum Almond on Peanut and the match seems to be pretty good for the end caps.

I think vulkem is actually more of an adhesive than a sealant. I also think the newer Tremco 116 vulkem is stickier than some of the same stuff I used 10 years ago. I vaguely remember something about the Vulkem brand being bought by Tremco and things changed slightly. Then again I could have that story totally wrong!

When using vulkem to seal the wires I generally apply the vulkem to the wires and the hole and then let it set up prior to setting the light in place. It's always a challenge trying to fit everything under the light base but it can be done.

You can buy vulkem in beige color which should be ideal for covering the top edge and sides of the light bases and still not look out of place. I used the gray stuff knowing that I would be going back and redoing it anyway when I got ready to paint.

The center light base with the hole on to for the CB antenna can be a challenge to fill. The later Classics did not have holes in that location and I managed to salvage one from the 345 that I'll be using on mine. No need for a CB in the day and age, my opinion anyway! The light base on Peanut had some sort of sealant, body putty or what ever in it and it seems to have sealed ok.

The latest fix some of us are trying for the windshield is Vulkem in black. Put a bead of sealant on all edges of the gasket. I'm having issues trying to get Peanut to stop leaking in that area. Peter has hypothesized that it could be condensation on the inside of the steel caps and that's entirely possible. Don't forget to look for loose rivets on the roof and side walls. They will let an amazing amount of water inside.

Brad