FINAL POST! Yup, it's true...she's gone.

It was starting to look like we wouldn't be using the trailer much so we let her go to someone who will show her the proper love and respect. Matt owns a rock climbing magazine and with his wife will be travelling in the Argosy to promote their business. I can't wait to see what they do with my stalled project. Click the title to follow their exploits on the Airstream Forum.

JANUARY UPDATE!

I can't believe we have owned her more than 3 years now. Progress on the Argosy has been delayed recently, but that sad news is offset by the fact that she now rests under cover inside our new home's hay barn. We moved last summer! I recently ran gas to the new workshop (cow stalls) in the barn but it's not insulated yet and I am not expecting to get to that this winter. The house needs lots of help first and has been the priority. Our neglected century home needs to be completely re-wired, and insulated. The barn however has been taken care of wonderfully. It's a 40' x 60' drive through barn sitting on a modern cement block foundation and sporting a new roof. This fall we poured some concrete in the barn finishing off the half that was dirt.

Serro Scotty's new life!

Compare this to the very first picture in this blog...the person I sold my $100 Serro Scotty to for $500 resold it after doing some great work for $1,500 and the new owner polished it :)

The Vintage Airstream Podcast (VAP)

An old friend from the Airstream Forums has started a wonderful online radio show called the VAP. Click on the title of this post to listen and/or go to the shows web site: TheVAP home page

The show is all about Airstreams, finding them, using them and fixing them up. He often interviews various experts and vendors so the show is always fresh and lively. More than a year old now I downloading the entire archives to my iPod and have been listening to 4 or 5 shows a day to get through them.

I have no excuse for not knowing about the podcast except to say, as evidenced by my blog, I have been a bit burned out by my Argosy project. I haven't accomplished anything substantial since May of '05. My aluminitis is chronic and the best remedy is to simply camp in one's trailer. Be satisfied with what you have, enjoy it, regroup and refresh. The show has done wonders for me and I am excited about getting on track to put my interior back together again. Thanks Tim, and everyone at the VAP!

Nelson Ledges

What a hot weekend at the track! 90+F but some great club racing. We had a nice shady spot out of the way at Nelson Ledges road racing track in Garrettsville, Ohio.

NO WHERE TO SLEEP

I'm finally implementing the design plan for the living/dining areas. I had removed both gauchos and a closet, and the plan is to build a bench seat that stretches the entire length of the street-side wall. At the back end of it will be bunks and at the front a new dinette. Stay tuned for progress, finally!!!

NO SLEEPING IN!

Here's a view of our outstanding camping spot outside of turn 9 at Mid-Ohio for the SCCA National Championship Runoffs

AIRSTREAMING

It's been a busy summer and their hasn't been much progress on the Argosy. This blog has been more of a travel journal so here goes....





We just got back from our first Airstream rally. We towed about 4 hours to a campground north of Detroit and joined about 15 other Airstreams and Argosys:





Though a little unorthodox I put the camper up on jacks. It's much more solid than the 4 little stabilizers I had bought for this purpose.(btw, the jacks should be closer to the axle for better support)





I still haven't built the dinette or bunks, but the boys love sleeping on a futon in their sleeping bags. We had full hookups so I brought the TV and N-64 video game system.

BOONDOCKING

Boondocking for RV-ers is when you camp without being hooked up to any utilities. You must completely rely on the campers onboard systems for electricity, water, and disposing of waste water.
The boys and I just returned from a great weekend at the race track "boondocking". After my previous log entry I installed the new water tank and connected the old pump which didn't work. After an hour of disassembly and head scratching I found the problem only to be that the rubber valves had stuck in the closed position when the pump last dried out. I lubricated them lightly with silicone spray and the pump now works amazingly well. Loud but reliable. The pressure switch works as intended, when the pressure drops on the outlet side of the pump it automatically turns on until the pressure builds in the pipes again after the faucet, or toilet is turned off.

Since the '73 Argosy doesn't have a gray water tank I had to use a tote-along(?). You set it under the camper and it catches sink and shower water. The "black" water tank still holds all the toilet waste. We left with a full water tank and after doing the dishes late on our second day I noticed that the fresh water tank had become almost empty (note to self...stick to paper plates and cups when boondocking). I had a 5 gallon water jug that we filled twice and emptied into the tank to replenish most of our supply. For drinking water we had a 5 gallon water cooler type bottle with a "Dolphin" pump in the top. With the temps in the 90's we 3 drank most of that bottle in just 3 days.

The biggest headache of the weekend was the fridge. Burdened by the heat it could only make ice over night and barely kept liquids cool during the day. I had left the fridge thermometer at home so I don't know if the temps reached were dangerously low. The biggest factor is probably that we were parked in full sun the whole time (note: bring cooler to keep store bought ice in). I was able to keep the interior of the camper pretty cool using "reflective bubble wrap". I would bungie it to the top of the window when open and it made a great canopy for each window. I'll photograph an example and add it here:


Since the front of the Argosy is gutted I simply threw a full size futon on the floor for the boys to sleep on. They loved it...and any mattress that allows sanctioned wrestling is always a pleasure for them. I slept high and dry on my twin mattress from the NH trip.

I installed a makeshift canopy using an old canvas tarp and some tent poles that worked pretty well. I don't have the budget for a real canopy but I'm sure that I could refine the system for a better fit. Since I forgot the camera this weekend I don't have any pictures, sorry.

CAMPING SEASON

We are heading off for our second trip...to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington Ohio. This weekend brings vintage racing to the best road course race track in the Midwest. I haven't done a thing to the camper since I got back from my solo trip to NH so I'm still not sure how I'll configure it to sleep me and 2 kids. Another problem is that I'll have no hookups this trip....so I better get outside and connect the old pump and new water tank. I'll check in later

FIRST CAMPING TRIP!

I haven't forgotten you, I'm just out of town on my first actual camping trip! I'm sitting here on the porch of the Hampton, NH Public Library Blogging for some very strange reason. Oh yeah,I know why...because network TV stinks and there isn't much else to do on a rainy day. I'll drop some quick pictures here too. The inside of the camper which isn't done but I added a twin bed with some storage under it, and a 6 foot table at the front. You may notice that I don't have drapes or shades yet. All is going well...I have full hook ups for my 2 week stay at the Wakeda campgound. The fridge will only give me full cold using electric so I started it up on gas and am not freezing my milk now. I'm here in Hampton taking a class to learn how to build Windsor chairs from scratch with hand tools.











My finished chair, called a sack back Windsor:

ALMOST READY

I'm wrapping up loose ends around the trailer: The door holdback was broken so I made a little aluminum bracket and attached it to the door. Also, now that the screen door has new screens I replaced the missing little sliding door and have now finished all the bug proofing.








Here's a staged photo my wife took so I could show off my new t-shirt. Using 65GT's artwork, I uploaded it to zazzle.com then 1 week and 16 dollars later I had a very high quality product.

SCREEN JOB

I love accomplishing the big visible jobs: I've replaced all the window screens in the trailer, including the screen door. Most of the screens were missing so the job was necessary now that the weather is warmer and the bugs are coming out. I'm afraid I couldn't think of a way that this would make an interesting photo but I'll keep thinking because I think this blog is boring without photos.

ALL SYSTEMS GO (ing)

Though I have repaired and tested all the camper's systems already I just wasn't that confident in their long term reliability so today I left the water hooked up, and the hot water heater and fridge running. It would be much better to find a problem with the camper in our driveway than out in the boondocks somewhere. My plan is to leave it that way for at least a few days. I've been working non-stop on this complex machine for a while now and it's not going to be easy to just sit back and relax with thoughts that everything is going to continue working flawlessly.

BATTERY BOX ROT

Yesterday's test drive revealed a major weakness in the floor under the battery box. The design of the battery box door provides no resistance to water infiltration and apparently traps moisture in the floor. I didn't see any way to replace the wooden floor itself without major surgery. It's camping season and we want to get on the road! After removing the screws and putty holding down the plastic battery box cover I cut a piece of .080 aluminum and slid it over the rotted floor and screwed it down. The new panel is large enough that the weight of the battery is now supported by the trailer's frame. After adding Vulcum to the joint I screwed the box down to the new aluminum floor. I also adhered the original aluminum base inside the box.

FIRST SPRING TEST DRIVE !!!

I finally emptied out all the tools and dropped the camper off the concrete blocks it's been sitting on since November, hooked it up to the truck and hit the open road for a test drive. It pulled really nice on new Goodyear Marathon radials, and the new brakes worked great. The only surprise was when the floor of the battery box collapsed and the battery pushed on the door until it bent the latch enough to open the door. The battery didn't fly out and break on the ground because of the way it was trapped in the box...see picture below.

WIRING TRAILER CONNECTOR

The evenings are finally warming up and I'm getting to some outside tasks with the Argosy. I plunged into checking to see what wires were what up front. When I received the camper I wired a new connector directly to the tail lights, using just turn signals and brakes for the way home. Now I'm connecting reverse lights, parking lights, a 12 volt hot wire to the battery charger, and of course the electric brakes.

Here's the scary picture of the junction box on the tongue:


The wire colors in that box were a huge mess that I had to figure out first but after removing some extraneous wires to a defunct breakaway switch I was able to work out which wires went where. Then I could use standard colors for the connector. I'm thrilled to have this behind me. Next: connecting the brake controller in the truck so I can go for a test spin :)

PIPES, ETC, REPAIRED

I had 2 large splits in my water pipes. Since when pipes freeze they balloon before they break I had to replace both lines all the way from the kitchen to the bathroom closet where they T off of the main water lines. I simply couldn't find normal diameter pipe to solder a fitting to.

I'm also insulating the hot water pipe:



The stove fan was locked up tight so I took it apart, sprayed all over with "Liquid Wrench" and then lubricant. Things loosened up so I put it back together and re-installed it. It's sort of noisey, but runs well (I think that the vent fan, which is the same type of motor, needs the same treatment):

LEAK CHASING

last weekend I finally replaced the "city water" inlet, connected a hose, turned on the water... and heard a waterfall pouring out from the belly pan of the camper. Tonight I finnaly cut out that piece of pipe:


To replace the pipes will not be so easy because they snake around the transformer, toilet, shower and then into the kitchen. And at $1.30 per foot it will not be cheap either. Earlier in the week I capped the lines so that I could confirm that they were the only ones leaking. Luckily they were. I removed the toe kicks from in front of the black water tank and the shower pan and now have access to make the repair:


I also tested the hot water heater for the first time and was thrilled to find that it worked just fine!

DEADBOLT INSTALLATION

Here's what I accomplished this morning:

First hole drilled after much contemplation...



Hole saw centered on the pilot hole cut from the inside but it missed the vertical edge trim on the outside anyway:






I reattached the inside skin with clecos and clamps then lined up the hole saw and cut:


I cut the outside trim ring to fit over the vertical edge trim. A diamond burr in the die grinder was used:





This was the toughest hole to locate well:




Temporarily fit but still needing caulk. I also want to fill the wall with stiff foam to stiffen the wall to avoid distortion caused by compression of the inner and outer walls:



To transfer the exact center of the bolt to the door I glued a pencil eraser on the end and covered it with magic marker before closing the door and pushing the bolt out.





I drilled out the center and opened up the hole with the the die grinder.


I filed the bolt as little as possible and it turns out it's exactly the same width as the the door latches bolt. Also, the deadbolt lines up exactly with the door latch hole location on the door jam. I will certainly reinforce the door with something to back up the hole where the deadbolt goes.


By the way here are the tools I used to accomplish this job. Difficulty level: FAIR

WEEKEND WORKOUT

I'm planning a long distance trip for May so I've made a sudden shift in focus from interior decorating to systems testing and troubleshooting. I've been waiting for this chance anyway and now it's getting into the 40s during the days so I can work outside. I hadn't tested the fresh water system yet and I guess I will not until I replace this city water connection which is loose and will not make a tight connection. A replacement is now on order from Camping World.



Also this weekend I poked my nose into the black water system so to speak. The main dump valve was stuck and after finding invaluable help on the Airstream Forums (airstreamforums.com) I capped the exit and filled the valve with water to let it soak overnight. Today I found that it will shut tight and not leak hardly a drop.



While looking at the fresh water inlet behind the bathroom closet I spied this chaffed blue wire. I believe that it is a heavy guage battery charging cable that snakes up to the hitch connector. By the way the fuse that it was connected to was blown. I'll look into the service manual ASAP. (Update: the blue wire is the HOT wire from the trailer connector.)



My entry door lock doesn't work and a new one costs more than the trailer is worth. I pulled off an interior panel to begin thinking about installing a deadbolt lock. Integral to my success will be the help I found, again, on the forums:

DEADBOLT THREAD

DEADBOLT THREAD

MINOR PROGRESS

I didn't get much done this weekend. Being home alone with my boys we just played most of the time. I did finally do a cushion mock-up. This would be one of the bunk beds. It's 24" wide by 74" long and 4" thick (3" foam + 1" memory topper). I sewed up the corners and stapled one end to the 1/2" plywood support. I didn't use adhesive between the layers so it will have to come apart for a final assembly. I like the whole system but don't like my choice of fabric. The Cordura feels stiff but it may break in a little over time. So I'm thinking about switching fabrics and going with the "duck" fabric after all. It warmed up this weekend and the rubber floor expanded alot. Now it looks like it will need to be stuck down.

NEW FLOORING

I unrolled the rubber flooring to let it relax inside over the weekend and installed it tonight. Some of the edges and corners around the kitchen and bath were tricky so it's not flawless but okay for the most part. By the way it isn't stuck down and I don't think that it will need to be, though I may use outdoor carpet tape in some areas. Click this entries title for the manufacturer link.

A NEW FLOOR!

Here is the final result of finding that smallish section of rotted floor. I had removed some of the floor then decided it was just as easy to do the whole front portion. Plywood only comes in 4' x 8' sheets anyway. My Guess is that it's the floor in an Airstream that holds the entire body to the frame. The floor is screwed to the frame, then the "sill plate", a C-channel like in a traditional metal stud wall, is screwed to the floor. The inner and outer aluminum walls are then riveted to the C-channel. So it's important that I replace as many of those screws as possible.

This picture shows the rot and the holes left after cutting around the sheet metal screws holding the floor to the frame. I cut around them with a hole saw and then chiseled the wood out from around the heads. After that the floor will lift up and you can get the screws out with vise grips or a grinder.



Finally done with that I can start to put together the interior. After laying down the floor I'll then be able to start framing the dinette and bunk beds. Stay tuned....

INVISIBLE PROGRESS

Since I've been layed out by the flu and now bronchitis the only tangible progess this past week is that I went out to the Argosy and changed a 12 volt 20 amp fuse! Wahoo! UPS stops by daily with samples and materials for the interior. If I'm up and kicking this weekend I hope to fix the floor so that I can roll out the new rubber mat. I still haven't conquered the leaks though. I ran out of Sikaflex 221 but just received a couple of slightly different sealants that I'm going to try: Sikaflex-295UV as a relacement for the #221 and Sikaflex 291 as a putty for the windows. Both are polyurethane adhesive/sealants and I just love the way they fast cure WITH moisture.

A TALE OF TWO HOLES

I had a busy afternoon. It started with caulking around windows some more in hopes that I may finally kill the leaks one of these days. Later my crew got busy removing the carpeting, pad and tack strips. Then I got fed up with the big wet spot and started beating on it with a crow bar. The hole grew to the point that finally I cut out a large portion of the floor to make patching easier.

INTERIOR DESIGN DETAILS

I bought the camper to quit sleeping in a tent with my 2 boys when we go to the races at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. Mid-Ohio is a world class track and a favorite of fans thanks to the park-like landscaping and great family atmosphere. I'm not sure at what point it was that I decided to completly redecorate but I knew that I didn't want it to be a boring makeover. I came up with a unifying theme: Race Trailer Heavy Duty. I don't want to have to worry about tracking in dirt so this ain't going to be the softer side of Sears!

Flooring: Better Life Technologies, Barn Red


Cushion Fabric: Dupont Cordura 500D, black


.024 Diamond Plate veneer to cover the brown woodgrain vinyl on lower cabinets


Counter Tops: Richlite (though I'm having trouble obtaining this controlled substance)


Butcher Block is my second choice for the counter tops.


Black Carbon Fibre Vinyl to cover the brown woodgrain on the upper kitchen cabinets, end wall and bathroom door.


Rear(Bathroom) Window Graphic




I'd like to add a stainless steel steel backsplash to the kitchen area and Online Metals is a fantastic distributor of small quantities of industrial metals located in Seattle. Click logo to visit them.


Curtain fabric and color: Yet to be determined...

TOOK THE PLUNGE

I did it and there is no turning back now. I listed on Ebay and have sold the 2 sofa beds (gauchos). Tonight I finished removing them plus the street side overhead compartment and then the closet as well. My plan is to build a single long bench seat the length of the left side which will be about 12' long. The front 4 1/2 feet will be at the dinette, and above the rear portion will be a bunk bed. I hope to work on drawings right away.

I'll reuse the overhead doors under the bench seat.

WHEELS DONE!

I got the new Goodyear Marathon radials mounted(and balanced) on the old refurbished wheels and installed them on the old refurbished Hub/Drums and they look great! I still don't know what to do about the old rusty hub caps. Maybe I'll just scuff them up and paint them POR-15 black. Woops, I did forget...I haven't adjusted the brakes yet. I guess I'm waiting until spring for that.

WHEELS PAINTED

...sand blasted then painted with POR-15 base and Blackcoat top coat:

LEAK CHASING

The plywood floor has a few wet spots under the front windows. I caulked the more obvious exterior cracks and holes but I'm not the type of person that can sit back and just wait for the floor to dry up. My thought was that the insulation was saturated and it could wick moisture to the floor for weeks. That's why I had to open up the wall. Of course I should know better...many times I've seen Norm Abrams on this old house pull off one rotten clapboard and the next thing you know he's jacking up the house and replacing the sills and foundation. I'm looking at the one square foot of soft floor under the water inlet trying to figure out how to avoid tearing up the whole floor, paint the frame, and reskin the belly while I'm at it. I simply want to be sure that I've found the leak before I fix the floor or build the new dinette.

BEGAN DINETTE PROJECT

I got motivated, went out tonight and removed my front goucho. How can you take decent measurements with a sofa in the way after all. The space for the dinette in my Argosy 20 seems pretty large to me and I'm confident that there's room for 4 on very comfortable bench seats. I'm going to try and fit the benches to fill the full 4' width between the window and the door but that will not fit the full size mattress I want so I may need to get creative. Too bad I found some water coming in with smallish longterm damage to floor. Click on this title to visit a dinette conversion thread on the airstreamforums.com site...

By the way... all the goucho, table and shelf parts removed add up to a combined weight of 143 lbs. I hope to be able to compare that to the weight of the new dinette.

Before in bed configuration, see bottom of November page for sofa set up:


Water tank:


Water damage:

"The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining." John F. Kennedy

Simple measurements to begin:

NEW REFRIDGERATOR ACCESS DOOR

I finally got this nagging little project done....

While driving the camper home after purchase I lost the exterior fridge access door. I remember the first time I walked around the camper with the owner and he pointed out the loose door. We noticed that the hinge had separated from it so we set the hinge inside. When I went back to pick up the camper I taped up the battery door but didn't even think about this one. The luckey thing was that I still had the hinge so all I needed to do was cut and rivet a new panel to it. All that's left is to install a lock on the door.

REBUILT BRAKES, ETC...

Though raining it was the warm break in the weather that I needed to get the bearings and drums back on as well I replaced the shocks. One shock came off easily but on the other side I had to heat and bend the bracket out to remove and replace the shock...which as I've read is par for the course.


Here's how I could work in the rain



New is nice when it comes to safety components



You can't see it but that's RedLine bearing grease under that hub cap :)

WINDOW GASKET REPAIR

I finally got to repairing the window gasket on the front window. It was a pain but I've learned a few things that should make it easier next time: like exactly how much adhesive to put down (don't glop it on or it will never dry) and using the angle iron the weatherstrip is clamped to so that it remains stable for the application of adhesive. I still have the main door gasket to repair someday.

BLASTED AND PAINTED BRAKE DRUMS

I sand blasted, degreased(Marine Clean), etched(Metal Ready), and painted(POR-20) the newly turned brake drums. Click this heading to go the POR-15 web site.


The license plate holder got painted too even though it didn't need to be high temp paint.

WINTER WORK

To do the rear tail light work I mated the camper to the garage so I could work in the warmth:


I'm taking the tired "green wall" tires to be removed from the wheels. I'll sand blast the wheels and then paint them with POR-15. I have the hub caps but they are pitted and rusty so I'll need to decide what to do about restoring or replacing them. Apparently they are somewhat rare and it's hard to find "baby moons" for the original wheels.

TAIL LIGHT PROGRESS

Here's a picture of the new tail light installation. The original lamp holder was broken, leaking AND I never liked the cheezy plastic look much anyway. Recently I ordered school bus tail lights from www.etruckpart.com and received high quality "Truck-lite" lamps. These are not LEDs (which are available) but super bright anyway and were about $15.00 each. I ordered the heavy duty license plate illuminator from them also.



I had to patch up the big hole first (lots of Sikaflex #221 caulk and Olympic rivets)



Rear end of camper as found

FURNACE WOES

I finally exchanged a propane bottle for a full one and tried to start some appliances. I picked a tough one to begin with: the furnace. There was no way it would start so I removed it from the camper and tried this and that...in and out about 4 times before I finally quit for the night. After some research on the airstream forums web site I found that to do a really good cleaning it needs to be completely disassembled. Long story short: I finally put it back together and tested it on my workbench where it seemed to start and run fine. The key to the rebuild was the cleaning of the gas valve, thermocouple, and pilot oriface. It's now installed and I'm waiting to test with a recently ordered battery powered carbon monoxide detector before I celebrate too much.

This is the burner after cleaning. The left 6 slots were packed with rust and the pile is what I banged out of the heat exchanger:

12 VOLT BATTERY INSTALLATION

Picked up a "deep cycle" marine/RV battery at Sears today ($60)...connected the terminals and slid it into the battery compartment. All worked great but the 12 volt lights are actually brighter now than when I had the camper plugged into "shore power". I think that the transformer may not be putting out full power.

WHEEL BEARINGS, BRAKES AND SHOCKS

After much surfing and online research I finally ordered new wheel bearings and complete brake assemblies mounted on new backing plates. As I was shopping around for bearings I discovered www.lowcosttrailersupplies.com to be the cheapest, and also the closest so as to minimize shipping charges. The parts apparently originated from Redneck Trailer Supplies (a huge wholesale dealer). The brakes and shocks came from www.inlandrv.com for $85 and $33 per side respectively. The brake assemblies are marked "Genuine AL-KO replacement parts".

INLAND RV CENTER INC., CORONA, CA

Placed a monster order at Andy's place www.inlandrv.com which is a very good resource for vintage airstream owners. You'll notice from the early photos of the Argosy that the rear window had an A/C unit installed. The very first thing I did was uninstall it! Luckily the previous owner kept the rear window and screen but sadly threw out all the hardware. The lower window locks alone were $37 each! (I had no idea this was such an expensive hobby). I also ordered "fuzzy screen seal", "window push arms", "window(peanut)knobs", "window position fixtures", Gasket material and finally some Kirsh drape tabs so that I can re-hang the drapes.

CLEANING

Cleaned up the interior before tearing it apart to check out the mechanical systems:


I love this picture because it reminds me of a private jet.

AIRSTREAM ARGOSY HISTORY

"Argosy began possibly around '71 thru late '70s early 80's. The Argosy motorhome started in 1975 and production stopped in 1979. They were built in a separate facility in Versailles, OH. In 1979 there were three models of motorhomes built. The Argosy, a painted Airstream (truly an Argosy with Airstream logos and different paint scheme) and the first silver bullet Airstream motorhome."
You could not actually strip and Argosy and find an Airstream. The Argosy motorhome (and the '79 painted Airstream) were built differently. The upper rear segment was a one piece steel segement. True Airstream motorhomes used 5 aluminum segments instead. The motorhome and trailer underwent a significant structural design change in mid 1982. It is not readily apparent except in the trailer lower segments." Charlie Burk

FIRST POST

Picked up new camper today: 1973 20' Airstream Argosy 20 for $1500. Found in Akron, Ohio and purchased from a gentleman who never had it on his property until the week before I went to see it. I was actually calling to inquire about a 50's Airstream which he had already sold. As I was hanging up the phone I hear "wait, Wait, WAIT! I have an Argosy. Do you know what that is?". He had bought it from someone who never camped in it but for 6 years let his young daughters use it as a playhouse (This was confirmed by the Barbie clothing and crayons under the cushions). The owner prior to that sold it involuntarily at his own estate sale but I appreciate his having taken excellent care of it and winterizing it before heading to campers paradise. The pictures below are the pictures that I was emailed and sold me on going to look at it. By the way the only other camper I've owned was a 15' 1960 Serro Scotty Silversides that I had for 1 year and just sold on Ebay last week.


It appeared kind of sad looking but I could see it's proud Airstream heritage. It's built like an aluminum tank and the fine craftsmanship is obvious. The window hardware and the main door have held up strongly and are well engineered.


Amazingly it didn't stink like a musty basement even though it had been sitting for a while.


Appliances are clean. The oven and stove look like they've never been used!


I have a friend who will help me make new drapes, and I have found info that the yellowed fiberglass end caps can be painted. The walls are textured vinyl over aluminum and clean up nicely to a bright white.

Bye Bye Scotty: