This May be long, but I will try to make it worth the read.

My Aunt remarried in her 60's to a great man by the name of BOB. No lie. So now I had a n Uncle Bob. He died in in 2010 and left some property to my Aunt. I moved in and started fixing and cleaning the place up. It had a small mobile home trailer on it and an old Argosy. At first I thought it was an old wreck that needed to be hauled off. My Aunt talked about letting me have it as the mobile home is not much bigger than the argosy. It's only 575 square feet.

To make a long story short she tried selling it, then giving it away for some work. Nobody really seemed interested in it. It was being used a a storage shed. So after I started getting into the tiny house movement, I got to looking around for a small THOW I could buy. The prices really confused me. I thought the tiny house movement was to get away from mortgages and get out on the road, go see the world and live without having to backpack and live in hostels. Some of the THOW's I was looking at started at 50k. I found a little tiny trailer that was made to be a mobile office on a trailer. It was only 6x6 feet. Yes! 36 square feet! But it was only 900 dollars. I got to thinking how easy it would be to fix up and how much I would really have to downsize. I planned on putting a little fridge and a microwave on top of it. The trailer had electrical installed but nothing else except an small Ac window unit. Unfortunately the thing was built on a trailer with no suspension. So the the trailer would need rebuilding from the ground up and was actually in bad shape.

It was about this time I said to my Aunt, "well if I am going to do this much work for so little return I may as well take up you offer of the crappy argosy". All I knew about Argosy's was that they were part of the Airstream line. I even reckoned that they were some offshoot that just had the Airstream name added on as a courtesy some company that paid for the right.

WOO-HOO! Was I wrong.

So I started looking into the Argosy. I was blown away by the history of the Airstream. The quality and workmanship. The amount of love and admiration for what Wally Byam built. The amount of pride and that the workers that build them have. I couldn't help myself. I soaked up everything I could get my hands about Airstream and Argosy's. I also bought the entire catalog and repair guides for my model. Scoured the Airstream forums for all that I can find and finally joined this subreddit. I have learned about wiring problems. Seen all the videos on youtube about reconstruction from the ground up, checked out all the upgrade stuff. I can honestly say that I now know that I know very little. As I have yet to actually dig into the rebuild of my Argosy. There is so much to them, but I'm excited by the chance to rebuild this rolling ship.

I recently repaired the windows in the front door side and the rear bathroom. As some pesky punks in the neighborhood broke in and stole things my Uncle had stored. I need to do a major cleanup and have provided a detailed picture album of the way it sits right now. I was given this Argosy last year and have been doing repairs around my house, so I have not done a lot to it yet. Even though I have started buying things for when I move in. Mostly stuff that will fix the Argosy, like a tank cover for the front hitch and a battery box for the deep cycle battery I am going to install. I even put a storage shed for all the junk that was in it and have started cleaning it out. My family and I are kind of pack rats. Which in a tiny house is a no-no. I am slowly breaking myself of this but it's hard. I love thrift shopping and building cool stuff so I'm always buying something weird or interesting. Enough about me though. Here is the Argosy the whole reason you came here to look at this loooong post.

The Argosy was made September 1976. She is a 28 footer and has never been wrecked or even dented except for one tiny one from a tree that grew next to it. It has both front and back side awnings, but not rear window. it's the rear bath, mid bed twin bed design. She has a Dometic 3 way fridge and Ac. There is the electric jack option added on and the Gaucho is in great condition, even though the cushions are over 40 years old the foam is still springy. Although the material is horrid and shredding. My uncle put blankets on all the cushions. I know the propane lines from the tanks will need replacing and all of them will need checking for leaks. The AC unit is more than likely shot even though it looks like it's in great condition. The exterior is sound and not a single leak. Even with busted windows, the floor has no soft spot anywhere except for one small one right at the main door. All the interior plastics seem really good and the countertops are immaculate. Since it was used as storage things have lain on top of them just sort of preserving it. It has sat since at least 1981 in the south west desert and the desert out here preserves vehicles thanks to our dry environment. There is signs of squirrel infestation from the mesquite tree growing up next to it. When I was cleaning I had found a box that a cat had her litter in and eventually abandoned also. I will have to test the electrical and make sure the thing doesn't burn down when I plug it in. I know the converter is probably going to make weird noises and will be replaced if it works at all. All the cabinets and closets and storage places are still in great shape as well. The tambour doors are still fully functional also. The tacky 70's plastic wallpaper has peeled almost everywhere. So I plan on peeling it off. Underneath is a beautiful medium dark wood paneling. I had some friends that had an old rv with the same problems and all they did was paint over it with some varnish. It seals in the glue and makes it look nice. There is no floor rot underneath or inside, again except for one spot by the door. I am also going to reseal all the windows with new seals. But I don't think I will have to a cap off procedure. There is no real rust on any of the undercarriage. There is some surface rust and discoloring but I am very hopeful and fairly sure that I got away with a gem in the rough. I need to get some new tires on it and have those dura torque axle checked but since it hasn't moved and really has had no load on them in quite a while, I'm keeping my fingers crossed I can ignore those for a while. I hope.

I will keep updates on this if you want as I go and let you know what I was wrong and right about. My styling leans towards Steampunk, so expect a lot of brass, wood, and a mix of Renaissance, Art deco, and art nouveau, with a dash of cool crap.

This is my long winded piece on what will be my forever home. I plan on traveling and seeing the world as much as I can. and all in my Argosy Airstream. Below is a link to all my pics and I leave you with a hearty thank you for reading.

Album = http://imgur.com/a/EQ2sR