Clean Out Phase 1

Hauling off the garbage

Before I begin telling about the wonderful world of mouse droppings and snake sloughs, I think it would be nice to share this video of what Artie looked like on the inside the day we brought him home.

 

Interior tour of 1973 Argosy 24 - Day 0

 



Recently, I began the task of taking Artie apart. I started by removing most of the trash. Yes, I wore a respirator, gloves and coveralls. Most people might think that it is crazy to even venture into the realm of mouse droppings and snake sloughs to remove the multiple mouse nests, old blankets, mattresses, and other nasty stuff. But, those of us who are into restoring vintage campers know that there is something absolutely beautiful under all that trash. It reminds me of a story I heard a preacher tell many years ago.

There once was a little girl who was always optimistic and looked at the bight side of everything. When she saw the glass, it was always half full - not half empty. Her father, a hardened cynic, decided to help her learn a hard lesson in life that things are not always cheery. He had a truckload of manure delivered to his garage. When his daughter came home from school, he took her to the garage to let her see for herself the hard facts of life. When the little girl opened the door, she was ecstatic. She leaped into the manure and began to frantically dig through the piles of poo. Her father, very puzzled and thinking he might have pushed her too far, asked, "Honey, what are you doing?" To which she excitedly replied, "With this much manure, there MUST be a pony in here somewhere!"

The smell of the interior was so bad that, as soon as I removed my respirator outside the camper, I gagged. My clothes were saturated with the scent of mouse droppings. Oh, the perfurme of a vintage camper! I tried to get one of my older daughters to help me but, they were not very enthused about going inside where all the mouse nests were. So, I alone pulled out the piles of insulation, the rancid foam mattresses, the matted blankets, the 17 year old diaper bag, and all the other junk. I piled it into my haul trailer which was parked next to Artie.

As I pulled out the garbage, I thought about who might have lived in this camper years ago. I found several Waffle House nametags with "Shirley" printed on them. I figure Shirley must have had a young child because of the diaper bag and toy doll house I found. Given the number of blankets in the camper, I would think she lived there in the colder weather. The aluminum pots and pans were still in the cabinets. There was some food still in the fridge - YUCK! There were spoons, forks, knives, playing cards, a lamp, a cooler marked "Robertson" and a couple folding chairs marked "movable property." There was even one solitary beer can.

I truly expected to find a snake hibernating in one of the cabinets. As of yet, I have not found one and I hope I don't. Did I mention that I hate snakes? I did, however, find one mumified mouse. As I removed scoop after scoop of junk, I found that I had filled up 3 large construction garbage bags, a 32 quart Coleman cooler, two storage bins, and the entire trailer with refuse.

The next day, I set myself to removing the stove and refrigerator. The stove was easy - just a few screws and it was out. I had no idea that there were quite so many screws and braces holding the refrigerator in. I have built campers for several years and never felt the need to put 30 screws in a refrigerator. But persistence pays off - I got it out.

Below are some pictures of the interior after the removal of the initial load of garbage. I hope to start removing walls and fixtures very soon. If anyone needs anything that I am removing, contact me through my website and let me know what you're looking for. If it's something that I will not be reusing, I'll gladly sell it to you. Just remember, it smells badly right now. My website, KnoxRetroCampers

The toilet was formerly filled with insulation and mouse droppings.

Where you see the garden hose sticking out the wall is where I found a snake skin that was over 4 feet long. I think belonged to a large rat snake. I really hope he is not hiding in there somewhere.

You can see I removed the old food but left the mug with something in it. It will go out with the fridge.

Stay tuned for more updates on the progress.  I'm going to try to update this blog once a week until it is all done.

Bringing Artie the Argosy Home

 

Meet Artemis, the 1973 Argosy 24. We call him Artie for short.  This is how we found him - abandoned and alone, unwanted. But, this is not a sad story. This is a story of revival, we hope. We are planning on bringing Artie back to life. Follow our story of Artie as we work through the ups and downs of restoring a 1973 Argosy 24.

One day, while I was out getting some metal bent for a camper build that I was working on, I met a man who was lost. He was looking for the machine shop in town to buy a small piece of angle iron. As we talked, he discovered that I am a camper builder and restorationist. Not very long into our rather short conversation, he asked, "Hey, do you want a camper?" To which I asked how much he wanted for it. He said again, "Do you want a camper? It doesn't cost anything. You can have it." I had never been given a camper before. I didn't know quite what to think. I said, "Sure, I'd love to have a camper."

I went up that very evening with the man to a place on the northern outskirts of Nashville, TN to have my first look at the camper. I wasn't sure what I would find. I knew that the area where the Argosy sat was hard hit by the flood of 2010. I got my first look of Artie in the dark by headlight and cellphone light. The exterior was covered in moss and vines. The awning was barely hanging on. The wheels were rim-deep in mud and grass. It was rough, but I could see potential. I then toured the inside which was full of stuff - some windows, snack vending machines, and old blankets, pots, cards, etc. It smelled of mice and rats and I saw a couple snake skins in it as well. (I HATE SNAKES!!) The owner said the windows were his, but that was the rest belonged to me. I offered to take out the windows and vending machines when I came up to take Artie home. As I drove home, I called my wife to let her know what I had found. I see Artie as a diamond in the rough. Sure, he needs work, but don't we all.

It was about a month later before I could travel up to Nashville, TN to pick up Artie. The first time, my wife and I (and our 2 year old) went to get him on December 20, 2014, I noticed that all of his tires were in bad shape and that the bridge I would have to cross on the way out was partially washed out. But, since we didn't have tires or a compressor with us,we knew we would have to leave him there for a while longer. Realizing we would not be able to take Artie home with us that day, we removed the contents of the the camper and neatly stacked the windows, vending machines, and a bicycle near a garage. I had to choke up the courage to pick up some of the windows as some had a snake skin draped across them. Remember, I HATE SNAKES. My wife would hardly touch the windows that had the snake skin on them. She shook and quivered the whole way back from touching the "snake skin" windows. She hates snakes too.

Some of you are probably wondering what our 2 year old did while we cleaned out Artie. She played NASCAR. That is to say, while we worked very nearby (and constantly checking on her), she sat in the driver's seat and pretended to drive. We could see her little head bobbing above the silouhette of the seat as she would stand and drive. Imagine if we drove that way! Wouldn't that be exciting!

After Christmas, on December 30, 2014, my wife and I (and our 3 girls, ages 16, 11, and 2) made another trip up to Nashville. This time we were even more determined to bring Artie home. I took some boards to place over the bad spots in the bridge, a hefty floor jack, an air compressor and various tools and straps.

We spent a couple hours repairing the tires. When I say repairing, what actually was happening is we were putting tubes in the old, dry-rotted tires. I actually found that two of the tires held air just fine. So, I inflated them to 50 psi and left them alone. One tire received a tube and was inflated to 50 psi, with grass stuck in the crevices of dry rot. I prayed we would make it home. The last tire was exceptionally wobbly. So I removed the drum to discover the inner wheel bearing was shattered. So, I decided to take the wheel off and throw it in the camper. Ok, so we would travel home (about 75 miles away through metropolitan Nashville near the beginning of rush hour) with only 3 wheels and ALL of them dry rotted. Are we brave or just crazy?! Or, maybe just too broke to care. Remember, we had just made it through Christmas.

Check out this video of us towing Artie over the bridge.

Meanwhile, my parents were on their way down from Kentucky to pay my sisters and I a visit after Christmas. I gave my parents a call before we left to see where they were and fortunately, it turned out that they were very near where we were picking up Artie. So I asked if they could follow us home, just in case we had any trouble. When we left the land where Artie has languished for several years on our way to meet my parents, somewhere along the way we lost one of the towing lights we had attached to the rear. Furthermore, the towing light that remained had ceased working. Needless to say, we kept phone contact with my parents all the way home. We pulled Artie through Nashville, TN and cringed and prayed all the way home. The whole time we only reached 50 MPH twice. Most of the time, I kept the car at 40-45 MPH. Whew, what a trip! 75 miles never seemed so long.

Below are some of the pictures of Artie from his initial resting place and his new home in our driveway. Stay tuned for further updates.

Artie, where we found him.

 

Notice the washed out bridge that has been partially repaired.

 

Artie at home.

 



Beautiful sunset at the end of the day.