1978 scamp stinks, what to do?

[Drew Bogner]

I have a 1978 scamp that i love but my wife will not go inside and I get made fun of a lot about the smell. I have tried air fresheners and they just run out and the smell comes back. I have scrubbed the walls and top but it doesn't ever work. I can rub a finger along the top and smell it and it is nasty. I think removing the ensolite would be to big of a chore. What are my other options. please help. Also, it doesn't help that my twin brother recenty bought a newer scamp in prefect condition and it smells good inside!

[MyronL]

Obvious first questions:

• You have isolated the source of the smell?
• You are willing to reveal where you think its coming from?
• Is it mildew?
• Is it rotten eggs?
• Is it rotten wood?
• Is it chemical in nature?
• Is it stale tobacco?

Maybe we can help from there...maybe not.

[Drew Bogner]

it is probably mildew, but when its hot outside you can see brown liquid like coke, that drips in spots. could be stale tobacco. It smells old! and it is a 1978 but there has to be a way to remove this odor

Obvious first questions:

• You have isolated the source of the smell?
• You are willing to reveal where you think its coming from?
• Is it mildew?
• Is it rotten eggs?
• Is it rotten wood?
• Is it chemical in nature?
• Is it stale tobacco?

Maybe we can help from there...maybe not.

[Gina D.]

It's nicotine..

Hard to get rid of, but try ozium. TSP usually works too, but it gets into the pores and is a terror.

I quit 4 years ago and still have problems in my house when it gets hot. Wood walls, it's permiated.

[Alf S.]

I have a 1978 scamp that i love but my wife will not go inside and I get made fun of a lot about the smell. I have tried air fresheners and they just run out and the smell comes back. I have scrubbed the walls and top but it doesn't ever work. I can rub a finger along the top and smell it and it is nasty. I think removing the ensolite would be to big of a chore. What are my other options. please help. Also, it doesn't help that my twin brother recenty bought a newer scamp in prefect condition and it smells good inside!

Hi: Our '77 Boler came complete with all the tar and cigarette smoke we could chew... We sprayed on Fantastic spray cleaner straight from the bottle scrubbed with a bristle scrub brush till it foamed up then wiped off the foamy brown goo with clear warm water with some white vinegar in it... Goo and smell gone but it is a very fumey job so keep the vents/windows open and a small fan running Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[JOHN PAUL EVANS]

Do you have friends in the used car business. Many have ozone generators, they usually put one in a car and run it full blast overnight or a week-end. All smoke odor will be gone. It has to be a powerful unit not a JC Whitney plug in thing. Many dealers may lend or rent you a unit. Caution, at full blast it kills everything, keep children, pets, plants etc. away. Air out after use. It smells but kills all organisms, mold, and germs. It is worth a try. Many mold removers use the units in homes that have a problem. I have used it in a used car I bought for my kid. Got rid of the tobacco smell. Just my two cents. I used one in my Bigfoot and it did in fact freshen the musty smell from being not used.

[Buck62]

Do you have friends in the used car business. Many have ozone generators, they usually put one in a car and run it full blast overnight or a week-end. All smoke odor will be gone. It has to be a powerful unit not a JC Whitney plug in thing. Many dealers may lend or rent you a unit. Caution, at full blast it kills everything, keep children, pets, plants etc. away. Air out after use. It smells but kills all organisms, mold, and germs. It is worth a try. Many mold removers use the units in homes that have a problem. I have used it in a used car I bought for my kid. Got rid of the tobacco smell. Just my two cents. I used one in my Bigfoot and it did in fact freshen the musty smell from being not used.

I once had a dealer refund $900 to me because of smoke odor in the car they sold me. I bought a used 1990 Geo Tracker that had a horrible stench of pipe tobacco with the promise that they would use the ozone generator on it and totally remove the smell.

Guess what?.... IT DIDN'T WORK!

They didn't try this just once... no, no no... they tried it TWO SEPERATE TIMES!

After the second time I told them I didn't want the car. I was smart enough to have them put it in writing at the time of sale that they were responsible for removing the odor or the deal was null and void. So the manager asked what it would take for me to keep the vehicle and I told him that I wanted them to refund $1,200 to me and I would pay somebody else to get it cleaned out. We haggled back and forth and he finally agreed to give me $900 back if I'd keep it.

The next day I armed myself with two buckets, a couple of scrub brushes, a bottle of Murphy's Soap, two cans of carpet cleaner and an industrial sized bottle of Pine Sol. I spent five hours working my butt off scrubbing out every square inch of that little truck, but she smelled GREAT afterward and the tobacco smell was completely GONE!

I found out from personal experience that the reason those ozone machines and ozium sprays don't work is because the odor permeates everything so deeply that removing the headliner and carpeting and scrubbing them and letting them air-dry outside of the vehicle is very important. That also allows you to clean the residue on the plastic or metal underneath them, which is where the odors stay trapped and linger.

I guess this is a long-winded way of telling you not to bother with machines and sprays, because they are limited in their ability to remove the stench. The only guaranteed way to get rid of the smell is the way I described... take it all apart and scrub EVERYTHING by hand.

Oh... and that $900 bought me a HUGE new stereo system for the Tracker and a weekend getaway at a nice resort with my girlfriend.

[Gerry]

I have a brother-in-law who ownes a used car dealership and any car he buys and fixes and resells he places a Fabreeze towel in the ashtray and the warm summer days even help to get that Fabreeze towel working on the odor.
Will not help with the oozing but may help with the odor.
Gerry

[Joe MacDonald]

butcher's speedball cleaner and elbow grease.
I used this on parking lot and toll gate booths, that were brown inside.
It takes a scrub brush and lots of elbow grease , and frequent rinses, but it will work.

[Terry G.]

Our U-haul sat for 10 years with busted out windows, we used Fantastic (extra strength) and soft scrub.
Oh, it sat in a place where they stored plants and fertilizer so the smell was ,well ya get the picture..
any way we replaced the carpets, the wife scrubbed all the cushions with a foam cleaner made for cushions (name unknown) and now no smell

[Donna D.]

Ensolite = PVC/NBR foams for applications in the athletic, flotation, industrial and automotive markets. It's closer to a closed cell foam (pool noodle) than a sponge (open cell foam). It SHOULDN'T absorb odors or water, however the top covering can get coated with everything from mold, cooking greases, soot from furnace, candles or tar and nicotine from tobacco.

You've received some good ideas and all it's really going to require is your time and effort. If you have any ensolite failing down, you'll need to clean behind that area as well, also behind any of the seam tape areas that are coming off the shell. Perhaps when you're done with the scrubbing you'll want to paint the ensolite to freshen up the look as well as seal in of the gunk you couldn't get to. Kilz works well for sealing...it's used in homes that have received major smoke damage from fires.

You'll need to clean the upholstery/cushions in the trailer along with any drapery or carpeting.

When the weather warms in your local, open all the windows/vents and the door, use some fans and get the air moving. This is of course AFTER you've done everything possible to wash the odor out.

[Lee Hillsgrove]

Try one of the places that specializes in cleanup after a fire, like ServPro. I believe that they have some stuff that will kill the smell. The fire department might be a place to ask, as well - can't hurt. They may have or know of a place to get a product that will work better and/or take less effort than run-of-the-mill consumer grade stuff.

[Loren G. Hedahl]

Clean, then encapsulate.

My problem was mildew. I cleaned well with Chlorox, the painted with a primer and overcoated with white enamel. I also did this to the cabinets and pulled up the vinyl flooring and painted the plywood floor before installing new flooring.

This was done last summer, so haven't given it the "Test of Time" yet.

Loren

[Faith]

Our problems were many, which included mildew and rodent nests in the S7713. Most of last winter was spent in trying to solve the problem. I took out every little snip of the ensolite. Some may be a closed cell foam, buy ours was little more than a sheet of foam with the elephant skin over it. Not closed cell foam at all. It just acted like a sponge.
Scrubbed, scraped, bleached, pressure washed, bleached, washed, scrubbed with vinegar and when that was done I used 5 pounds of baking soda and left it spread around inside for a week. Now I have gotten rid of the smell.
I slept in it for the first time in October.
Still work to get her up to being great, but we are heading back south in a couple of weeks, so there will be plenty of time to get it done.
Hope this gives you some ideas.
Faith
S7713

[Kurt in BC]

bleach.

kills everything.

I really like the ozonator idea though.

[JOE DRISSEL]

Water causes mildew. ALL LEAKS no matter how small must be corected, they will not seal themselves. After a good heavy rain I always check around the roof hatch and inside all of the lower cabinets at floor level.

[Adrian W]

I would get rid of all the old fabric that I could and the old cushions, then use one or more of the other suggestions given. We had an old late 60's Holiday Rambler cab over pickup camper in the '80's that was very stinky, we got rid of the old bed. It helped a lot. It was never a sweet smelling home, but was better, and after cooking in it, it didn't smell to bad. Best of luck.
AW

[Alf S.]

I have a 1978 scamp that i love but my wife will not go inside and I get made fun of a lot about the smell. I have tried air fresheners and they just run out and the smell comes back. I have scrubbed the walls and top but it doesn't ever work. I can rub a finger along the top and smell it and it is nasty. I think removing the ensolite would be to big of a chore. What are my other options. please help. Also, it doesn't help that my twin brother recenty bought a newer scamp in prefect condition and it smells good inside!

Hi: Remember that where you see a puddle of water and where it actually came through the "Egg" shell are usually two different places... In our '77 Boler we have a puddle that keeps forming in the forward stowage bin by the Fridg... I have traced it back to the vent window lower forward corner... I have to remove the windows and re apply the tape sealant and then re install the windows...In the spring During the winter( if we get some) I hope to replace the foam/upholstery...just not sure if I want to cut and paste or order covers from Scamp??? Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[janel.p]

i love my trailer smell

dug a path through the knee high snow just to get a whiff. then had to have hot dogs for supper that evening.

a well sealed trailer will always have its own smell. become one with it. as long as it is not mold or mildew, which can be a health concern.

the sense of smell is most closely related to memory. just like grandmas house.

janel