Lu the 1976 Airstream Argosy on the day I bought her in April of 2019. I knew I wanted a big trailer that was gutted so that I could do the design that would best suit me. I had a short renovation timeline, as I was planning to move out of Massachusetts in September.
Lu in all her gutted-to-the-subfloor glory.
Carsten’s legs (who along with the rest of him I couldn’t have done this rebuild without) installing so much needed new frame into the back end.
Indispensable Gordon investigating, “what’s under the subfloor?”
New subfloor went down in the problem areas: mainly the front and back of the trailer where there was the most apparent water damage. I chose not to replace the entire subfloor mainly due to my time constraints. If I had more time, I would have done a total frame off renovation and while I replaced the floor insulation, I did not replace the walls and that would have been a huge help to me insulating this winter in the high desert.
Does the electric work??? David & Max were here to answer the big question…
Max checkin’ out the electric.
Hooray! Electric (inside) works! Huge relief…..
Now it’s wall cleaning time! My 1976 Argosy has vinyl laminated aluminum interior walls. The only way to clean the mildew and sticky gunk off was by using liquid sander. Once I found that, it worked like a charm.
Starting to paint! I chose “Silky White” which felt like a less yellow-y white. It also happened to match two very sweet pet rats of Fourth Street.
It was a tight squeeze to deal with Lu’s passenger side exterior….
The Argosy model of the Airstreams were painted due to a couple of reasons: they used steel endcaps instead of aluminum, and also supposedly used a lower grade aluminum as well for the body. The Argosy’s would even have factory swirls sanded into the body to help the paint stick. Although many people love the painted Airstream, I have always been partial to the silver reflective look. My first job was to sand out the rust on the end caps and to fill any major dents with bondo glass.
After some mistakes… I learned the best way to deal with the paint is by using Citristrip and a power washer.
Here’s Sue power washing the roof!
Carsten putting in the roof vents! Here you can also see in the bottom left an example of the sanding swirls the Airstream Factory put on to help the paint stick.
It was a long process of using goo-gone products, paint stripper and hours of scrubbing with fine steel wool and carefully scraping to get the paint and caulk off the window frames.
Polishing was one of my favorite projects that if I wish I had more time for! It is about a 3 step process using a large polisher and three grades of wet polish.
One of my first designs of the space (not to scale!!). I knew I wanted a very open interior with only a separate room for the bathroom. The layout stayed pretty close to this in the end, however my dreams of slatted teak flooring for the wet bath went down the drain due to money.
Constant summer trips to Home Depot were always made better by a free sno-cone of two…..!
Dawn & Marlene help paint!
Keeping the door painted as an homage to the Argosy, the painted Airstream! Future mural to come……
Framing begins! Building a new wall on a curved surface was an exciting challenge. We used quarter inch plywood strips glued and nailed into the frame to create the base we needed for the wall. Letting go of my dream of a slatted teak wood floor for the bathroom, I opted to use the same peel n’ stick floating flooring and a Home Depot corner shower pan that happened to fit.
Not sure who this is or what they’re doing… probably cutting shims or something.
On the other end, work begins on the bed/storage area! Under the slatted bed is an 11 gallon water tank. I designed the bed to be high enough for storage bins underneath, and also storage on each side of the bed.
Lots to see here! On the right is a bench/pull out second bed. On the left are standard cabinets from Lowe’s that we cut to be able to fit over the wheel well. You can see the mini fridge next to the cabinets as well as my Nature’s Head toilet hanging out in the bathroom near the new wall! Flooring is down in the bathroom at this point and the three roof vent fans are wired up.
Gordon figuring out the slatted pull out bed/couch.
Gordon and I laying down flooring.
What else is a Sue gonna do when there’s a shiny Airstream in the driveway!
Bathroom is coming almost done! Waterproofed the walls using FRP sheets riveted in and installed the gold shower.
The shower picks up the colors of the original light/mirror/hidden shelf to the right. The mirror is off in this picture, but this is one of the last remaining original fixtures in Lu currently.
My first caulk gun! Endless polyeurethane caulking ensued on the outside of Lu to keep any water out.
Here’s Carsten cutting out spots for the new exterior lights.
Sanding the doors for the underbed storage area.
The finished bed! So much storage area underneath plus on the sides.
In this closet, two batteries sit on the floor and the solar electrical panel sits on the left wall. This creates the perfect spot for my little Nature’s Head toilet!
Walls up, wall sconces wired in, cabinets cut and in place with countertop and sink installed and bench/spare pull out bed all done!