New Scamp 13 owner in OH

[FJ40Jim]

The Scamp gods have finally seen fit to bless me with a Scamper of my own.
My wife & I have been looking casually for an egg for a few years. A friend happened to have one rotting in his backyard and agreed to let me fix it up and use it. If we like it, we'll pay him and keep it. If we don't like it, we give it back, and the cleanup and repairs are "rental fees".

It is a 1983 with stove, 3way fridge, furnace, elec brakes... that's about it. It has 2 new tires, but the torflex axle is all flexed out. A new Dexter 2200# axle beam is on order for it, should arrive in 2 weeks. Until then, we get to clean and clean some more.

I'll be trying the Barkeeps friend and floor wax combo on the incredibly grungy exterior.

Does anybody have suggestions for getting the sticky funk off the elephant hide interior walls?

It was towed the 10 miles home by my old Land Cruiser wagon. The Cruiser didn't even know the little egg was back there. We hope to use our 2001 golf TDI as a TV in the future. Has anybody on these forums used a small turbo gas or turbo diesel to tow an egg, without melting the turbo engine? The rest of the VW should be fine for towing, as it has stiffer shocks, springs, minor lift, brake upgrades, etc. Just concerned about detrimental effects of running under boost constantly.

Our first trip is to a LeMons race at Summit Point, WV next month. It's gonna be tight, getting the running gear & lights all up to snuff, and getting it thoroughly clean by then.

I've already learned a ton from this forum, so thanks to all for sharing your knowledge & enthusiasm.

Here's the obligatory pics, just after I got it home & on jacks to inspect (dead) axle and frame.

[john warren]

awsome. that will be the last he see's of it i bet.

[841K9]

Originally Posted by FJ40Jim

The Scamp gods have finally seen fit to bless me with a Scamper of my own.


Has anybody on these forums used a small turbo gas or turbo diesel to tow an egg, without melting the turbo engine? The rest of the VW should be fine for towing, as it has stiffer shocks, springs, minor lift, brake upgrades, etc. Just concerned about detrimental effects of running under boost constantly.

Congratulations!

Diesel engines love boost. The best part is that turbo diesels run cooler EGTs than non turbo. They are under less strain. You shouldn't have any issues as long as the Scamp's weight is kept within your vehicle's tow ratings.

[floyd]

Try this... A strong solution (3-4 times the instructions)of liquid carwash soap and a sheet of purple Scotchbrite (automotive store). Use the Scotchbrite like you would a scrub sponge, the soap solution will prevent scratching the surface.
It works great on a trailer like yours.

[Kevin K]

I had the exact same trailer 1983 13' Scamp. Just sold it in March.
Great trailer. Have fun making it your own.

[Terry R.]

Shine that thing up and bring it to the fiberglass get together at Caesar's Creek in September for folks to see.

Have fun with your project. Terry R.

[Donna D.]

Hello Jim, welcome to FiberglassRV. You scored! I hope you have a ton of fun making it your own, then use it lots and make a boatload of memories along the way. Thanks for the pics too

[Lil M.]

Originally Posted by FJ40Jim

The Scamp gods have finally seen fit to bless me with a Scamper of my own.

Does anybody have suggestions for getting the sticky funk off the elephant hide interior walls?

Hi Jim,
I have the same problem with sticky elephant hide in my '84. I think I read somewhere on the forum that some folks had good results with a cleaner called LA's Awesome found at the Dollar Store. So far I have only made it as far as getting to the Dollar Store to purchase said yellow liquid in a clear spray bottle with red lettering.
Will go home and give it a try tonight and get back to you with the results.

And congrats on finally finding your egg!

[Lil M.]

Well, I got home and gave the LA's Totally Awesome a go (yeah, I forgot a word in the product name). Just sprayed directly and rubbed with a microfiber cloth. And it seemed to work removing the sticky, tacky residue. I found I had to spray the whole area...no spray here and wipe across there. Some areas took two applications, but I'm satisfied that it didn't take a lot of muscle and sweat.
I noticed that it didn't totally remove all the grunge, like I still noticed a difference between the wall in the lower bunk and the wall in the upper bunk. A scrub brush might help here.
BTW, it has a strong scent, but I got used to it.
Hope this helps.

[RogerDat]

Here's hoping you have a most successful "rescue" mission.

I used Awsome with a large scrub brush, bucket of rinse water and some towels. Spray area brush, wipe with "rinse" rag then on to next section. Needed the brush to get into the nooks and crannies of the hide. Had to rinse rag and brush in bucket often. Worked about 2 ft x 2 ft at a time.

I had also pulled the yellowed tape off so I could scrub to seams in the elaphant hide, I had ordered some from scamp store to replace it. Others have ordered from an online source that while more expensive is thought to have a better adhesive.

You have my cushions!

[FJ40Jim]

Thanks for the info!
I'll be looking for LA's Totally Awesome stuff at the dollar store.

The guy who I got this scamp from owns several and he said that GoJo waterless mechanic's handcleaner worked well for de-sludging the interior, but it was a lot of working it into the surface, then working hard to remove it. A spray liquid seems easier to deal with than the pudding hand cleaner.

[Cyndivg11]

On my first trailer, a Trillium- the esolite was black with mold. I got a back scrubber, soft brisels and a nice long handle to get a better range when scrubbing- then I used Simple Green. It came right off and disinfected everything, the trailer smelled and looked brand new. You might want to consider just a spray and wipe down with this product as a final step to get that "new car" smell. The mold never returned.

[ScampBum]

Originally Posted by Lil M.

Well, I got home and gave the LA's Totally Awesome a go (yeah, I forgot a word in the product name). Just sprayed directly and rubbed with a microfiber cloth. And it seemed to work removing the sticky, tacky residue. I found I had to spray the whole area...no spray here and wipe across there. Some areas took two applications, but I'm satisfied that it didn't take a lot of muscle and sweat.
I noticed that it didn't totally remove all the grunge, like I still noticed a difference between the wall in the lower bunk and the wall in the upper bunk. A scrub brush might help here.
BTW, it has a strong scent, but I got used to it.
Hope this helps.

BTW...strong scent...I told my neighbor I was gonna start raising llamas.He said "what about the awful smell?"...I said "I got used to you, so will the llamas".

[melissab]

You said the previous owner "owns several", was he in the rental business or something? Just curios. GREAT Find! I'm sure he wont be getting it back. Congrats and have fun!

Melissa

Originally Posted by FJ40Jim

Thanks for the info!
I'll be looking for LA's Totally Awesome stuff at the dollar store.

The guy who I got this scamp from owns several and he said that GoJo waterless mechanic's handcleaner worked well for de-sludging the interior, but it was a lot of working it into the surface, then working hard to remove it. A spray liquid seems easier to deal with than the pudding hand cleaner.

[FJ40Jim]

A little behind schedule, we got the sCamper on the road last month. The big hold up was the PO ordered an axle for it, but it was wrong, compared to the original. It was not reverse orientation, it had hi-rise mount, and the drop angle was 22 instead of 10. On the plus side, it was a 2200#, had brake mounts, and was the correct width.

Because it was custom ordered, we were stuck with it. So I had nothing to lose by chopping it up and making it fit. The mounting brackets were plazzed off the tube so they could be swapped from side to side, and welded back on at a slightly different angle. This corrected the reverse orientation and excessive drop problems. It also changed the 1* of camber into .8* camber and .2* of toe-in. Loaded arm angle wound up at about 7* down. With the leading arm orientation of the suspension, it would be best for ride quality to have the angle about zero, so bump deflection would move the wheel up and back, but that would have made the ride height too low, IMO. The 7* angle, plus hi-mount bracket made it about equal to the original 10* with low mount bracket. Sorry, no pics of all the measuring, chopping & welding. Grinder dust & weld spatter is not a good environment for wifey's nice digicam.

After axle was installed, it was discovered that the bearings and seal would also need to be changed because the stub axle was slightly larger OD. The original bearings looked good, so the timken outer races were left in the drums, and new inners were purchased. The seals were oddball (by automotive standards) and unavailable from local parts stores. They turned out to be fairly common trailer seals, and local trailer repair shop had oodles of them, cheap. The electric brake backing plates were in good shape, so they just got some lube applied to the pivot points, and wiring reassembled with weatherproof crimps, instead of the factory scotch-lok crap. New dustcaps & bearing thrust washers completed the drum installation. A quick test-tow behind a brake controller equipped truck confirmed operation of the electric trailer brakes.

Speaking of electrical, the original 7pin trailer connector was a rusty mess. A new plastic connector was installed, and all the exterior lights were cleaned & put back in operation. After a cleanup of the inside, the trailer was handed over to my wife for cushion recovering, curtain installation and packing for our first outing. To be continued....

Everybody likes pics, so here's one about 40 miles into our trip, visiting a friend's shop on the way out of town.

[FJ40Jim]

There were other issues that had to be dealt with before the trailer was useable.

We knew we would be seeing chilly temps at our destination (west coast Michigan in April), so the furnace needed to work. The PO had replaced the regulator and flexhose into camper, and the tank was mostly full. The stove and fridge both worked on propane. But the furnace didn't sound right. Disassembly showed it had one big mouse nest in the middle of it, made from the roll of paper towel the PO had been kind enough to leave under the sink. Removing all the flammable paper towel and lubricating the motor got it fully functional.

The next problem with keeping it warm was the door seal, or lack thereof. The door seems to be coming "uncurved", so it no longer fits tightly to the body at the top & bottom edges. The little bit of crumbly old foam was removed and new self stick weatherstrip was applied, graduating from 3/4 tall at the top & bottom, down to almost nothing at the bellyband. Not a perfect solution but kept us pretty warm with air temps of 25*F and winds up to 40kts.

Another leak was the original drain hose fitting out the the hull. It was broken off inside due to age. A new one ordered from scamp and riveted into place. That's when the leaky sink trap became obvious. Disassembling the trap revealed that like the external drain fitting, the plastic was severely degraded and had tiny cracks throughout. The outer trap was junk, but there is an inner part that is sort of funnel shaped. The inner piece was chucked in the lathe, and the bottom spout of the "funnel" was turned down a little so the hose could be shoved on it, and a few grooves were added to give the hose some purchase when the clamp was tightened. Dropping the plug in the sink would prevent air from going in/out, and we had a functional sink drain for disposing of whatever.

Yet another leak was the decayed electric cord port, which was missing the doors and some of the "teeth" inside. Replacing the port assembly with a new one from Scamp was a quick and easy fix to keep the cold outside.

A visit to the local RV shop got us the thread in plug for the citywater connection, closing that hole.

Another thermal leak that concerned me was the roof vent. It is just a thin plastic lid with an R value around 1. Scrounging around in the leftover wood pile turned up a scrap of 3/4" thick foamboard w/ plastic one side and foil on the other. The piece was carefully cut down until it was a snug press fit into the ceiling vent opening. A slit in the center of it allows the thumbscrew handle to poke through, and turning the thumbscrew 90* ensures the insulation board can't fall down.

In other chassis updates, the scamper was not equipped with stabilizer jacks. A pair of gently used jacks were purchased through ebay and bolted inside the rear bumper. Now we could bound in & out of the trailer, loading it up, without having the trailer bouncing down the driveway.

[FJ40Jim]

Which brings me to the TV. There are few commercially available hitches for the TV in this country, and they are crap. Ordering a good TUV aproved hitch from der vaterland was out of my financial comfort range. So a hitch was fabricated.

A class 2 receiver (1-1/4" sq.) was bought from Amazon for ~$13. Then a simple frame was fabbed to go in the factory provided hitch mounting locations. I was tempted to use a 2" sq receiver, because of the range of accessories (bike racks, hitch haulers, etc) that fit them, but I knew the whole hitch assembly would come out much heavier. The goal was to build a class 1 hitch receiver, which would require consciously choosing lightweight materials that seemed "too flimsy" to my rock-crawling 4WD brain. The finished hitch came out plenty strong, well hidden, and cost about $40 in materials.

I did manage to take a few pics of that project:

[Donna D.]

Wow, lots of work and look at all you accomplished! Thanks for posting the pictures too

[StacyJayT]

Congrats! I got one about a month ago. "79. Mine was sticky and I read that Tilex and the scrubber (looks like an electric toothbrush, but larger, with a round brush) would work. It works great! Open the windows, major bleach smell. I love it too because I just run it across and so not much elbow grease. Have fun! Got it at Walmart for 20.00.

[Roy in TO]

Originally Posted by FJ40Jim

So I had nothing to lose by chopping it up and making it fit. The mounting brackets were plazzed off the tube so they could be swapped from side to side, and welded back on at a slightly different angle.

You only lose the integrity of the rubber which provides both the spring and shock component of the axle.