Floor repair on '83 Scamp

[DennisM]

I'm restoring my '83 Scamp and have a question about the floor. I just found that the upper floor (where the table/bed is) has a serious rot problem caused by a long time leak in the water tank. The OSB is sandwiched between the exterior fiberglass. It does not appear possible to replace the OSB exactly as it came from the factory (the lower floor looks easy to replace because of the metal angle all around).

It looks like I can cut out all the of soft OSB and cover the whole floor with CDX (which I intend to paint with enamel on both sides). That leaves me with the seats now 3/4" higher than original resulting in the to bracket missing the seat by 3/4".

It looks like I have two choices.
1) Cut the fiberglass seats down 3/4" so the outside bracket on the top will fit.
2) Raise the outside bracket by 3/4" so the seat will fit the floor and attach to the outside bracket.

I'm leaning toward #2 because I really don't want to start cutting the fiberglass if I can avoid it. Any thoughts? Thanks Dennis

[Darnelle]

If by "raise the brackets" you mean to add a 3/4" piece of wood to the top of the existing bracket, that's what I'd do. If memory serves, the fiberglass seats have a flange or an attached wood block on the bottom that you will want to keep for strength and for attaching to floor.

[DennisM]

Yes, that's what I intended. Thanks for the reply. Dennis

[sugermc]

Yes, that's what I intended. Thanks for the reply. Dennis

I too had to replace the floor in my 85 scamp, I did the latter but I glued and screwed the additional 3/4" onto the tabbed partical board. I used 3/4 plywood, cut to matched the curve of the scamp and then fiberglassed the two pieces together from the bottom, so the fiberglass patch was enclosing to cheesy partical board lip, because mine was blown out in a few places due to previous leaks

[Raya]

Dennis,

I don't have a Scamp (the Boler has a slightly different, fiberglass floor), but as I understand it that section of floor is tabbed (with fiberglass) to the shell.

Rather than raise the floor 3/4" and deal with the extra weight, height problems, etc., I would cut the rotten floor out and fiberglass tab the new one in at the same height. You can use marine plywood, or perhaps an exterior ply - and you could seal either with epoxy resin if you wanted to. That said, keeping freshwater leaks out of the interior is the main thing.

I know a number of people here have replaced that back section of Scamp flooring at the stock height, using fiberglass (cloth in "tape" form plus epoxy resin), and it should not be too difficult, IMO (probably easier in the long run - and better - than dealing with all the side effects of raising the floor).

Raya

[Nita F.]

Dennis,

We had to replace flooring in our former Scamp 5th wheel standard due to a leaky rear window. We removed the benches by unscrewing them from the floor and seat cleats. Then we removed the rotten OSB while leaving the fiberglass lips attached to the rear and side walls. A Dremel tool helped trim the edges. 3/4" OSB sealed with resin before installing fit back in between the lips. The OSB was also screwed to the frame from above. Then we used fiberglass cloth and resin on top and bottom twice to tie walls and flooring and along seams between the boards. Messy work but it was solid.

Best of luck with your repair.
Nita

[MyronL]

'86 Scamp: I skim-coated all sides of 3/4 plywood pieces with liquid fiberglass before inserting these sections. I glued in at fiberglass walls using PL Premium Polyeurothane construction adhesive and then next day packed in short strand Bondo wherever I could, then used Bondo and fiberglass cloth strips to totally seal all seams.