‘76 Scamp Rescue and Renovation - Fiberglass RV
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Old 01-14-2019, 09:51 PM   #1
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Name: William
Trailer: in the market
MI - Michigan
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‘76 Scamp Rescue and Renovation

Hi all! New to the forum and fiberglass campers. I’ve been on the hunt for a fiberglass camper for a while, and stumbled across a Scamp resting lonely on a vacant lot, missing a tire and in dire need of a restoration. A few weeks later I stopped by and poked around, camper looked like it had good bones, so I wandered over to the nearest neighbor and asked if they knew the owner, got a phone number and left a message. A month later I got a call back, and chatted about the possibility of selling. I offered $1200 (no clue what the interior looked like as the blinds were drawn when I saw it), and he said he’d run it past his wife. A long 6 weeks later and I got a call back to come pick it up! So I loaded the Jeep up, bought some new tires and burned rubber! Here’s some shots of picking it up:
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Old 01-14-2019, 09:53 PM   #2
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Name: William
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Attached pictures:
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Old 01-14-2019, 09:59 PM   #3
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Name: William
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The interior looked pretty good, it’s missing the table, bunks, and all the cushions, but the stove is still there as well as a Wagonmaster type heater (that I’ll be rebuilding before using.) I’ve attached some pictures of the inside:
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Old 01-14-2019, 09:59 PM   #4
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Welcome! post lots a pics so we can follow along on your rebuild!!
Fred
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Old 01-14-2019, 10:07 PM   #5
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Name: William
Trailer: in the market
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Not sure why the pictures are getting turned!? They look fine on my phone.

The frame has been patched before, so I’ll be pulling the body and repairing it the correct way, and unfortunately the interior and exterior have been painted with crappy latex paint so I’m in the process of stripping that off to paint it correctly. The good news is the floor looks pretty solid, and I haven’t found any majorly soft spots! The door will need to be gutted and get the curve correct, but I’ve got fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin on the shelf that will work perfectly for that.
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Old 01-14-2019, 10:17 PM   #6
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Name: William
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The dimples along the ensolite are from roofrails that presumebly were for a canoe or kayak, which meant there’s a ton of holes in the roof that need to be filled (and what caused multiple roof leaks.) any ideas to fill the dimples in the celing are much appreciated, I’ll be glassing up the holes in the fiberglass but need to hide all those dimples (ensolite won’t spring back, rails have been on a loooooong time.) I yanked the carpet out (secured by no less than 100 drywall screws, no exaggeration) to find what I’m guessing is the original carpet underneath! It might bounce back with a good degrease and power wash. The plan for the interior is to do a lighter plaid to keep the 70’s alive in the tiny Scamp! I was bummed to find the roof was skimmed with tar at some point (also was on the canoe rack thing), so that stinks to remove, and upon stripping the latex exterior paint I found the gel coat sanded through in some areas, and lots of bondo skimming to cover up rock chips, etc so there’s no saving the gel coat as it’s mostly gone or almost transparent. Definitely will be getting painted now! More pictures attached:
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Old 01-14-2019, 11:22 PM   #7
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Name: Rob
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Welcome and congrats on your new Scamp. This is definitely a great community to bounce ideas off. It will be a great project! I look forward to watching your progress from here. I went through a frame-off restore last year and haven't had enough I guess, haha.
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Old 01-15-2019, 06:51 AM   #8
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Good bones, indeed! It’s a better starting point than many projects I’ve seen. Well done!

I’ve no restoration experience, so I’ll watch and learn. You seem to be familiar with Scamps and have the issues identified accurately. Hope that Wagonmaster is salvageable- quiet, vented heat without power is the Holy Grail for cold weather campers.
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Old 01-15-2019, 08:47 AM   #9
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Name: JD
Trailer: Scamp 16 Modified (BIGLY)
Florida
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I wouldn't say "good bones" but rather the new bones will be good!
You have a shell that you can make into anything you want it to be, but you have a lot of work ahead of you.
Plan on replacing the axle as well as the majority of the frame along with the floor.
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Old 01-15-2019, 09:01 AM   #10
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Name: William
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The heater looks like it can be saved, I pulled the control valve apart and got everything cleaned up in there. The thermocouple is working still, but I need a regulator to try it out and see if the burner will fire. It isn’t all rusted through like some of the others I’ve seen on the boards, so it should be salvageable. Looks like a lower hour unit. The overall build quality of the furnace is questionable at best, it’s pretty shoddily constructed at best haha so in the future I may look into building a better furnace out of stainless with a “smarter” control valve (low oxygen shutdown, thermostat, possibly a small computer fan to move air around if need be) that would fit in the same opening. It’d be nice to have a silent heater!
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Old 01-16-2019, 08:59 PM   #11
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Name: William
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Still stripping paint. The harsh painT stripper will bubble up the gel coat if left on too long FYI, but does a good job to get 80% of the latex off fast. The rest is able to be buffed off with a sandpaper/foam sanding block dipped in mineral spirits. Slow going but works well
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Old 01-16-2019, 09:00 PM   #12
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Name: William
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Also I have no idea why the pictures keep getting flipped. Doing it on both phones even though it looks fine on the phone’s camera app. Any ideas?
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Old 01-16-2019, 09:26 PM   #13
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Yes. Either shoot all the pix in landscape mode ( the home button on the right ) or download them into a photo processing program. You will have to rotate them and then save and download to this site.
The problem is that your phone automatically compensates for orientation, but this site takes what it gets from your phone ( which is sideways ).
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Old 01-17-2019, 09:56 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by charlevoixboy View Post
Still stripping paint. The harsh painT stripper will bubble up the gel coat if left on too long FYI, but does a good job to get 80% of the latex off fast. The rest is able to be buffed off with a sandpaper/foam sanding block dipped in mineral spirits. Slow going but works well
Looks like a Scamp worthy of saving there!
If you plan on stripping the entire shell there is a stripper that is safe for fiberglass & does not hurt the gel coat. Used in the automotive refinishing arena for Corvettes & it may save you some grief.

Best of luck on your resto & keep the pics coming.
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Old 01-20-2019, 11:23 AM   #15
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Name: William
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Both rear benches completely stripped, closet stripped and kitchen started. Looking a lot better!
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Old 01-20-2019, 11:26 AM   #16
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Name: William
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Photos taken in portrait mode, something with the forum is rotating them, haven’t had any problems with vbulliten on any other forums
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Old 01-20-2019, 11:49 AM   #17
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Name: William
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Interior of the camper is progressing nicely, floor is a tad soft under the table right where it meets the body. I have a heated garage, so 65 degrees F and ~20% humidity is drying things out fast! It’s 3 degrees outside right now so I don’t feel bad about staying inside and working on the Scamp! When things fully dry I’ll see how bad the rot is and decide if I want to replace the floor or not.
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Old 01-20-2019, 12:06 PM   #18
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Originally Posted by charlevoixboy View Post
Photos taken in portrait mode, something with the forum is rotating them, haven’t had any problems with vbulliten on any other forums

Download them from your phone into a photo editing program, rotate and save. That will strip the coding that causes them to rotate on this site.
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Old 01-20-2019, 06:24 PM   #19
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I found that I need to resize my pics to under the 1600 x 1600 (max size for attachments) before I attach them to stop the rotating. Works for me but YMMV.
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Old 01-20-2019, 06:29 PM   #20
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Looks like we're at about the same stage! It's great when you can actually feel like you're making progress, not just tearing stuff out. Nice to have a heated garage. No way mine would ever fit in with the stuff I have already occupying the space. Oh well.
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