As I said in my previous post, when I found this Scamp, it looked like it hadn't been moved in years. But remarkably, the interior was in pretty good shape. The "rat fur" walls were decent, and the cushions and upholstery were great. All just needed a thorough cleaning.
Not so good were the fiberglass furniture modules. The aft benches were fine, but all three overhead cabinets, the galley unit, and the front bench had each been badly/carelessly modified by screw-in "additions" (fans, cassette player, paper plate holder, etc.) or extra cut-outs of one kind or another. I thought I could cover the damage with thin panels of relatively inexpensive plywood (3/8" "Euro" or Baltic Birch 7-ply).
But as I got into it, I realized that the galley and front bench were beyond repair and I would have to remake them completely. This presented the opportunity to redesign and reconfigure the front half—to create more storage and better use of the space by my wife and me.
So, here are some details about the work on the interior.
1) I drilled out all of the hold-down rivets and removed all of the furniture modules from the inside.
2) I removed the existing carpeting, the 10-gallon water tank, and trashed all of the original plumbing.
3) I cleaned and prepped the existing subfloor, then painted it with a quality two-part epoxy
paint. I wanted a good and dependable waterproof seal on the subfloor just in case I had any water issues later on.
4) I next inspected, repaired, rewired, and wired anew for all of my
electrical needs—both 120v and 12v—and including a new converter. Likewise, I ran new PEX water lines to accommodate all my future hot and cold plumbing. (More on all of the mechanical details in a following post.)
5) My aft benches, and front and back overhead cabinets were dressed up with plywood panels—hiding the damage and scars made by the PO. New doors, hinged horizontally with piano hinges, went onto the uppers. (The idea to use "holes" instead of cabinet pulls came from my brother's sailboat!)
6) The single floor-to-ceiling vertical cabinet (fairly standard with most 13-footers) on the curbside came next. Inside this cabinet is where the new hot water heater, outside shower plumbing, and "Wave-3" radiant space heater would be housed. I had to do some customizing here to keep everything tidy.
7) The new Dometic 1.9 cu.in.
fridge required that I cut openings in the shell for access and ventilation. Just as important, was designing and building a thermal "shroud" which keeps the ambient room temperature from affecting the cooling function of the
fridge. Sheesh!
8) Now came the really hard part: what to do with the galley and front bench area? I considered trying to design a front dinette, but decided I'd rather have the space for storage. Since switching the original table set-up in back into the bed is easy (and I'm not tired of it yet) the front dinette was not imperative.
In front, the Scamp is built with two sturdy, wooden, side-to-side horizontal "braces," glassed permanently right into the shell. These provide wall-side support to the front bench and an optional upper bunk. But in my case, they were just in the way. I had to design and build around them. The lower brace I could hide behind the cabinets and use as a shelf bracket. For the upper brace, I built a box to shape that surrounds the brace, and creates a nice shelf under the front window. This also provides anchoring points for the new cabinetry below. My wife sewed the cowhide cushion that covers the potty hideout...
9) The galley countertop is 3/4" Birch ply, laminated with white Formica. (As is the fold-down table in back.) I found (thanks to someone on this Forum) a SMEV stainless steel cooktop/sink combo pretty cheap on EBay. The swiveling faucet is a bathroom fixture from IKEA.
10) Many have asked about the stainless steel backsplash. This was a functional choice for two reasons: besides working as any backsplash does, the metal panel also hides the one area of original "rat fur" that was in dismal condition. I found a fabricator here in my town to cut it to size as well as the window opening. I got a second piece to use for my
fridge door. Simple. Looks great.
IMHO, the dark wood doors that typically come stock with many of these trailers are all wrong. Keeping the wood color on the
light side works better with the white gelcoat/fiberglass modules, and keeps everything inside looking brighter. Also, you can see that I prefer to keep the design of the wood work very straightforward and simple. Such a small space demands clean lines and a minimum amount of ornamentation.
Here are a few more pics to illustrate some of my notes above.
Perris Pacer
Scamper
Trailswest Campster
Bigfoot Silver Cloud
Howie - now sold
Wish I could have seen your 
Bean
Compact II
Casita
1979 Boler B1300
1987 Bigfoot F20 5th wheel
Cafe Egg
Linear Mode
