So most of the winter has been one complete modification process for us.We completely re-insulated, "rat-furred", panelled, floored, painted, and re-engineered our 88 scamp. Way to many pics to post in one sitting, but I'll throw out a few. We're still compiling the total package into a slideshow and a camper folder.

A couple of pics showing what we did instead of a fridge or icebox.

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A shot of the front bunks and couch area
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Our new table mod
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The custom made upper cabinet
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A shot of the new faucet and one of the counter tops
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A look at the new tail lights and backup lights
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Beautiful work Dan...

wow, Wow and WOW!!!!

That looks FABULOUS!!

Will the back end be a permanant bed?

EGGcellent!

Dan, could you tell me what type/weight limit your drawer glides have? Also, did you build the box and if so, what did you use?

Thanks

The back end will be a permanent bed, with a sub wall aproximately 2/3 of the way in. 3/4 plywood across the top. There is an extra storage area behind the sub wall.

The drawer glides were from a cabinet shop. They have full ball bearing glides in them and are a three piece track system. I never saw a tag but the shop guy said something like 250 lbs. We did build the compartment area and it is extra insulated as well

Absolutely Brilliant !!! Because I never used my trailer at all last summer, I have decided to give it to my son & his wee family. I am saving all the mods for him to sort through. These mods of yours are are jaw droppers!! Bonnie

Here's another look at the sub wall under the bed platform from during the construction phase.

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Here's a shot of the new converter/charger we've installed. Just a quick question for anyone else who might have one of these, does the cooling fan ever run on these converters, or is it only during overheat protection?


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I have the exact same one you have, and I've never heard the fan run. I'd think it would run only under extreme load. I don't expect to ever hear it at all. Good stuff.

Thanks, I was a little bit worried that my brand new converter might be broke.

Here's a shot of the new front window we installed to replace the plexi one.Click to view attachment

The front side marker light to go with the tail lights.
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Rear side marker light.Click to view attachment

Here's a shot that shows where we moved the original "bathroom" window to over the stove and we purchased and installed another side window to install towards the front, above the new couch area.
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I've got to apologize for the poor quality on the photos, Digital cameras, screens, and dust just don't mix. Unfortunately by the time we had realized about the dirty lens it was to late in the process to go back and retake most of the pictures. Now hopefully the rest of the pictures will be taken at a campsite.

thats really nifty thrifty re-do!! your ice box slot is really nice with the slide out drawer!

Dan,

That is really a neat renovation...well done...

Garo

Here's a couple of better angles on the whole overall rebuild. The 2 lights on the closet we're wired in as 3-way with a switch at the bed side sink cabinet, and one at the entrance door. The exterior light was wired to be switched on at both the inside door switch or the exterior, but I couldn't find a 3-way switch to fit in the light fixture.

The Table mod is one of my personal favorites. My wife applied "Envirotex" to the table for an incredible finnish.


An under cabinet flourescent light is on order for above the stove. We chose to go with the 112 model from Thin-Lite.

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WOW, looks beautiful! You have done an excellent job. WOW :-)

I have to echo everyone's sentiments and say 'Wow'!

I love the front table mod. How much trouble was it to remove the bathoom and then patch over the floor, wall, etc.? Were you able to remove the bathroom intact or did you destroy it upon removal.

We've got an '89 16' and depending on usage patterns this season, I may attempt something like what you've done with the bathroom in order to open it up. Brilliant job.

Todd

I appreciate all of the wonderful response from everyone. I hope that all of the pics we post will help everyone who owns or is thinking about buying one of these eggs to understand that they don't come without consequences, or that it's not impossible to do the kind of work/mods that we did on our own. I may be a bit more mechanically inclined than the average owner, but this kind of work still isn't that hard, just time intensive. For the most part I think that most of the people here would look at it the way we did, it's a labor of love, not an investment. We hope that this camper will last at least another 20 years.

Here's a shot of the cabs after they were removed. Getting the bathroom out was a little difficult and resulted in a little bit of cracking, but it's repairable. I don't think I could ship it so if anyone wants it they would have to come and get it.

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The next two shots are a view of the inside with the fiberglass patching on all of the rivet holes that we decided we didn't want in the hull anymore. Note the white powder appearance in the second picture along the vertical rivet line for the bathroom cab. That's water stains from where there was water intrusion past the rivets. The white powder around the upper cab overhead rivet line was dust from a regrind after glassing the holes shut. we wanted to provide as smooth of a surface as possible for reattachment points later.
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The pic here shows how we cut the bathroom floor back to match with the cabinet floor profile of the stove. We built up a stub wall between the stove cab and the front couch cab to create the base for the new couch/seating area.
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This pic shows the closet cab after it was glued in with 3m 5200 marine adhesive.We used the original rivet holes to bolt the cab to the hull with the adhesive in place. We gave the adhesive a full week to ensure complete cure, and then we fiberglassed the cabinets to the hull on both sides of the attachment point (inside the cabinet and out). This method made the insulation and rat fur installation a bit difficult but it allowed for a mostly rivet free camper. We figured the fewer holes the less likely there would be leaks down the road.
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We've got most of our pictures sorted out now and I put together a slideshow of sorts.

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Looks outstanding, Dan! I'm not even going to try to think about all the work involved.

Did you use handy-panels for your doors or did you glue them up yourself? I have had trouble with pine cabinet doors wanting to warp. How did you avoid that? The cabinets are beautiful. Do you know how much weight you added by going with wood instead of the fiberglass?

Well done and a joy to watch.

Bonnie

Rough guess...... between myself and the wife we've got around 1500-2000 hrs.





Russ... We used edge-glued panels that are pre-planned from the local Menards. Cut to size, sand, and varnish. These panels are well dried but you have to pick through the stacks to get good flat ones. A complete seal coat of spar varnish was my choice. Actually it's 4 total coats on the doors on all sides. The pine on the cabs got one coat with a spray spar before installation, and then there's 2 coats of hand spar, and 3 coats of spray spar, Helmsmans clear gloss on the exterior face.