Refurbishing a 1975 13' Scamp

[AM Moats]

Hello. I’m excited to say that I’ve joined the ranks of a Scamp camper. With the help of my parents, my husband and I are going to refurbish a 1975 13’ Scamp. There is a ton of work to be done. I’ve been doing research on this site, and have been very impressed with the community here and how eager people are to help. I’ll try to record my progress here.

So far we’ve stripped everything out of the inside, including the ensolite. I've attached some pictures of our progress, including a cool picture from our night time work session.

Next up:
Replace the axle.
Find replacement windows to fit the sides and the door.
Decide what to do with the interior…replace the ensolite, have it upholstered, or just paint it
Learn how to work with fiberglass so we can patch the side and put new braces inside for cabinets.

Any advice you may have is welcome!

[slavandheather]

Welcome! It should be a fun process, at times frustrating, but overall awesome!

We are working on a 1978 Boler, still seems like pretty early in the game.

Check out Scamp's website for parts...lots of good stuff there, but plan on fiberglass modifications.

Cheers,
Slav

[Otters]

Hi and welcome Michelle. You've got a big project ahead of you. I've been working on my '77 Scamp and it's been a lot easier having the support of this group. I love the evening picture from outside the trailer with the light shining through the thin fiberglass. Good luck on your project and keep us posted on the results.
Linda

[GMike A]

Welcome aboard. I'm like a bunch of others in restoration mode. Take lots of pictures and then some more. I upload mine to the free photobucket site and I think there are others too. The great thing about this forum IMO is all the free advise and then once you find a good thread, scroll to the bottom and you will hit suggested links for more items. Its awesome.
Mike

[CliveAlive]

Welcome to the site and good luck with your resto.

If / when you do replace the windows, please save the old jalousie's and make them available for someone else who may need / want them. The jalousie windows are very desirable.

[jcham1970]

Hello and welcome! I too am new here, but I agree with you, everyone is so helpful here, so much info and support! I am in the process of restoring a '77 scampers have been posting the progress as I go along. I can't wait to have it done and be able to use it to join in on the groups gatherings, seems like it will be so much fun!

[jcham1970]

Darn auto correct on the iPad, lol. Supposed to say '77 scamp in my reply!

[Donna D.]

Hi Michelle, to FiberglassRV! Cooool pics, thanks for sharing

So, what's wrong with the jalousie windows? We can help you rebuild them. Which I would do as they fit the fiberglass cutouts and are neato!

[AM Moats]

Thanks for the welcome. Donna - we are going to take your advice and try to salvage the windows. I haven't had a chance to search yet for hints on how to clean them up. If you have any good advice, please let me know. We've also decided that we need to replace the floorboards which we believe will require taking the shell off the frame. I need to research the best way to do that. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks!

[slavandheather]

Originally Posted by AM Moats

Thanks for the welcome. Donna - we are going to take your advice and try to salvage the windows. I haven't had a chance to search yet for hints on how to clean them up. If you have any good advice, please let me know. We've also decided that we need to replace the floorboards which we believe will require taking the shell off the frame. I need to research the best way to do that. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks!

Michelle, have a look at our 1978 Boler reno, I have a good writeup with pics of taking it off the frame. Should be similar for you...just make sure the weight is distributed on the supports. Use boards or 4x4 posts as to not crush any of the fiberglass.

Slav

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by AM Moats

/// we are going to take your advice and try to salvage the windows. I haven't had a chance to search yet for hints on how to clean them up. If you have any good advice, please let me know.

COOL! Good decision. Check out this great thread by DannyH, he gives all kinds of advice and part numbers for your style windows: http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...ows-41003.html

[AM Moats]

We’ve made a lot of progress since my last post. I finally feel like we can start planning our first camping adventure. (My husband is going a bit crazy waiting for all of the work to be done so we can actually use it, as you can see in the picture!)


She (I’ve decided it’s a girl – no name yet) took up residence in my father’s garage when we removed the frame from the shell. She lived there from March until July when she finally had her big “coming out” party.

Here’s what we did during that time… (I’m going to put this into multiple posts so it doesn’t get too big and yes, I’ll include pictures.)

[AM Moats]

We had the frame repaired, reinforced, sandblasted and painted. Fortunately, we had decided to take remove the frame because we found some bad holes in it that we may not have found otherwise. We also replaced the axle. (Here’s a picture of us removing the floor and shell., and a picture of the doorway reinforcement that we did before taking it off the frame.)

[AM Moats]

Once inside the garage, we removed the windows and all rivets made through the shell, and began the fiberglass patching. Here's a picture of the bare shell being supported with jacks.

[AM Moats]

Once the frame was done, we mounted supports to help hold the shell in place, laid new floorboards, and began fiberglassing the shell and floor back together – one dixie cup at a time. (You can see my father holding the dixie cup of resin. He’s been the brains and workhorse behind most of this.)

[AM Moats]

Next came the task of finally deciding what to keep and what to rebuild on the interior. We had already decided to build a permanent bed in the back and to replace the couch/bunk with a dinette. We moved the fiberglass cabinets back inside and did some trial runs, testing out the spacing. (I’ve included a picture of my mother and me testing out the dinette seat and table height.)

[AM Moats]

Although we didn’t plan to use the old table/bed seats, we put them back in to use as a template for measuring the plyboard for the bed. The concept worked like a charm and the new bed fit on the first try. Once the board was cut to size, we (my dad!) cut an opening in the top and installed a piano hinge so we could open it for storage.

[AM Moats]

After dragging my feet on making the cabinet and fridge decisions, I finally committed to a direction. We purchased a new fridge (NovaKool R3800 to accommodate our aspirations of going solar someday) and decided to reuse the fiberglass cabinets, just replacing the doors and countertop. We are avoiding putting any rivets through the shell so we screwed the cabinets into supports on the floor and then fiberglassed the cabinet to the shell. (Here’s a picture of my dad cutting the new opening for the fridge – I hope it fits…with a long lead time, we couldn’t afford to wait for it to arrive. There’s also a picture of the cabinet fiberglassed to the wall. I expect the edge to be covered, but the exact solution still remains a bit of a mystery to be uncovered. )

[AM Moats]

With the bed and cabinets put in place, the next step was to build the dinette seats. I marveled at my father’s creativity in measuring the curves as he cut the pieces. (I didn't get a picture of it as my hands were also helping, but here are a few pictures of the work-in-progress and the finished product.)

[AM Moats]

I had decided early on to keep the jalousie windows (thanks Donna!) but cleaning them was quite a chore. Although I could remove the scale, I couldn’t get a clean surface no matter what I tried, and I think I tried about everything recommended on this site. I finally decided they were “good enough” so we could keep things moving. They needed to be ready to install as soon as she came out of the garage. Here are a few pictures.