Maintenance & Restoration

Isaac · 03-25-2008, 10:43 PM

Hello all,
I was wondering if the doors on a 1980 scamp and boler are the same?
Some time back I saw how Con rebuilt his door using aluminum square tubing as a new frame for the skin.
I am thinking of doing the same thing if they are constructed like a scamp door.
I've seen the scamp website photo section where you can see a door in the building stage and I think it should be easy enough to do except out of aluminum.
Building the frame shouldn't be a problem since I'm a welder but my concern is reattaching the skin to the new frame. Has anyone tried this?

Donna D. · 03-26-2008, 08:31 AM

I'd think they are about as similar (shaped) as you can get without being the same. But the Scamp door has a core where the Boler door is hollow.... isn't that correct?

Pete Dumbleton · 03-26-2008, 04:34 PM

The Scamp has a hollow core filled with some sort of hard paper product called Buffalo Board. There was a (pre-hack?) thread about rebuilding a Scamp door that had gotten wet and heavy.

Isaac · 03-26-2008, 04:53 PM

Maybe if I make the frame out of 3/4 aluminum tubing, I could use 3/4 foam board insulation from the local lumber supply to fill in the spot.

Alf S. · 03-26-2008, 07:05 PM

Hi: I have had the door apart on our '77 Boler and taken out the window for re-building. The Boler method was to glass in some strips of plywood across the door in various horizontal places. The Scamp door on the other hand was filled with Buffalo Board ( Tentest) compressed paper board. If the window ever leaks the Buffalo Board becomes like soggy bread.
A good quality tube of construction adhesive would bond the door skin to an alum. frame!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

DanPatWork · 03-27-2008, 04:28 AM

Quote:

Maybe if I make the frame out of 3/4 aluminum tubing, I could use 3/4 foam board insulation from the local lumber supply to fill in the spot.

This is exactly what we did with our Scamp door. We used the foam board with mylar as insulation in the voids, and we used 3M marine adhesive to glue the outer skin to the frame. After that we used the adhesive to glue the inner skin to the frame and then glassed the seam shut. The door ended up being about 1/2" thicker than it's original dimension but only in the opening area. Worked great and it's lighter than it was when we took it off, couldn't compare to original because we took several gallons of water out, along with soaked buffalo board.