Interior Closet Walls

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The interior walls of the closets & cabinets in our '77 Scamp have been getting very sticky when the temp and humidity are high. (And in Illinois, that's most of the summer.)

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this and what they've done to fix it. All we've come up with so far is either contact paper :r or paint and if paint, what type?

I've tried to search with as many key words as I could think of and I haven't found this particular problem addressed. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dina (& Jim) Schulz

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Boy, thats a new one on me, Jim.

We'll just hang around a bit and see if some of the owners of the older model Scamps have run into this before.

I'm sure a solution wouldn't be that difficult, but I'm really curious about its cause and any solutions others might have found.

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Dear Jim

My ol' 76 scamp does the same. I noticed it when a pillow I stuffed into the closet would not come out on a hot day. It had stuck to the green inside closet walls. At first I thought of the fiberglass threads may have cought, but that was not so upon closer inspection. Next thought is that Fiberglass resins soften in heat, like epoxey glues do. Maybe the tackiness of that is what was grabbing my pillow.

Anyway, instead of moving to Alaska as the solution, I decided to put shelves in with rubbermaid square containers with lids on each shelf. All my stuff goes into containers and they sorta act like drawers with dust-proof lids.

I sorta like your contact paper idea except that the inside of closet is not very smooth and contact paper would probably be irregular and lumpy.

I want to solve it too, so I'm going to try coating it with polyurathane finish leftover from my cabinet woodwork.

WIll keep you posted, but it has dropped lower on my priority list.

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Can you glue a small piece of carpet to the already sticky wall?

I know Casita carpets the exterior closet wall.

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Hello,
In my '78 Boler the inside of the shelves were also sitcky when I got it. The upper front, rear and over kitchen shelves were all sticky inside. At first I thought it was residue from the previous owner's contact paper that he had put on those area's. But the inside sides of those areas were also sticky. After reading about gel coat applications and deducing (right or wrong) that the stickness was caused by uncured gel coat and I was taking all of those pieces out anyway to rerivet, I carefully applied paint stripper to those areas and removed all of the guck from them as I could. This brought the surface basically down to the chopped fiberglass. I then recoated all of the surfaces with polyester resin only. It took 1 quart to do them all.
Apparently, gel coat will not cure unless it is totally removed from air. For this application, they would usually overspray the gel coat with a poly vynal alcohol (PVA) coating to seal the gel coat and allow it to cure. This is only my opinion of what the problem was and it appears to have worked for me as the stickyness has not returned and my inside cabinet surfaces are smooth and easy to clean. I also use that rubbery stuff on a roll that keeps things from sliding around in the cabinets.
good luck,
Rick D.

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Rick,

Thanks. Your theory sounds right to me, since the inside walls look original. Have thought about trying a melamine paint but don't want to make the problem worse by putting paint on an unstable surface. Sounds like I'll have to get my paint stripper stuff out again! :o And here I'd convinced Jim that shabby chic meant never refinishing!;)

Thanks everybody for letting us know we're not the only ones!


Dina-the typer (& Jim-the one who thinks he's in charge:o ) Schulz