Removing door handle and lock on 13' Scamp

[Gary Little]

I am trying to remove the door handle and lock on my Scamp so I can repair the door. I have heard a lot of talk about the Warped door problem on the Scamps. I got real brave Saturday and actually cut the entire inner skin off my door(cut around the lock) and you would not believe what was inside. I knew the door had water trapped because I tried the hole drilling trick to no avail. After 3 weeks of trying to dry it out , I gutted it. The inner core and OSB was completely rotten. I will post pictures at a later time. Please advise if there are ant ideas on removing the lock and handle.

Thanks,
Gary Little

[John & Sandy M]

Hi Gary: Where in NC are you located? The door mechanism should just be mounted with screws and easily removed but pictures would be helpful. I think that the door never fit properly to begin with or, due to the compound curvature, "warped" very soon after mfg. judging by the number of questions about the door. On our 99 Scamp the lower front of the door simply does not match the curve of the hull while the lower rear does and it leaves a gap. I was able to get a good seal using garage door seal. Restoring a compound curve to the lower part of the door is more than I want to take on and from a functional stand-point my "fix" works great.

[Brian B-P]

Gary, do you have a make and model, or a photo, for the lock? The Scamp owners may say that's obvious, but some of these things change year to year and some of us with other brands may have the same hardware, but don't know it.

In the specific case of the Bargman L400 on my Boler, there is clip under the outside handle that is easy to miss, and has frustrated a number of owners - I'll post specific instructions if that's what you have.

[Donna D.]

I removed the outside door handle on the Scamp a couple of years back. The only thing holding it on was the two screws through the cover plate into the door (and of course the shaft going through the door into the inside lock mechanism. I removed the two screws and pulled the door handle off/out. I believe the inside is held on with four screws into a block that's been fiberglass into the inner door skin. That should do it. However, if the trailer is older it's possible to it may need some encouraging. Sometimes they stick like glue!

I don't think Scamp has changed the door lockset since 1971, when they starting making the trailer.

[Gary Little]

Hi Gary: Where in NC are you located? The door mechanism should just be mounted with screws and easily removed but pictures would be helpful. I think that the door never fit properly to begin with or, due to the compound curvature, "warped" very soon after mfg. judging by the number of questions about the door. On our 99 Scamp the lower front of the door simply does not match the curve of the hull while the lower rear does and it leaves a gap. I was able to get a good seal using garage door seal. Restoring a compound curve to the lower part of the door is more than I want to take on and from a functional stand-point my "fix" works great.

Hi John,
Thanks for your reply. I am located in Hickory NC. Home town of Dale Jarrett if you are into Nascar. He is a great guy. I removed all screws from the lock and actually hit the center square shaft with a hammer and punch but it would not move. I will try to post a photo.
Good idea on your seal problem on your door. I'm glad it worked. I just cut the new floor panel for the main area last night and guess what I found out? There is in fact a 1/4"(shorter) difference in width between the outer edge at the front of the door opening to the toe kick area under the cabinets compared to the width from the outer edge at the back (locking side)of the door opening to the toe kick area. This tells me the problem is not the mold of the door but the lower half of the hull itself.

Thanks,
Gary Little

[Gary Little]

I removed the outside door handle on the Scamp a couple of years back. The only thing holding it on was the two screws through the cover plate into the door (and of course the shaft going through the door into the inside lock mechanism. I removed the two screws and pulled the door handle off/out. I believe the inside is held on with four screws into a block that's been fiberglass into the inner door skin. That should do it. However, if the trailer is older it's possible to it may need some encouraging. Sometimes they stick like glue!

I don't think Scamp has changed the door lockset since 1971, when they starting making the trailer.

Thanks Donna,
I'll soak it up with "Knock er Loose" (great penetrating liquid) and get a larger hammer.I have approx 100 photo's of my restoration, would it be ok to post some? I took the floor down to the bare frame.

Gary

[Donna D.]

You'd like to post pics! GREAT, woohoo we love looking at pics. Just be kind to those of us on dialup and get the resolution down to 72dpi if you could please.

This new software allows more than one pic per reply (isn't that neat!), before and after shots in the same reply would be perfect (if you've gotten that far along).

Good luck on the lock set...just don't use too big of a hammer

[John & Sandy M]

Hi Gary; The door latch looks to be identical to mine and mine came apart as Donna described. How old is your Scamp? A bit of history would be interesting as would pictures.

John

[Gary Little]

Hi Gary; The door latch looks to be identical to mine and mine came apart as Donna described. How old is your Scamp? A bit of history would be interesting as would pictures.

John

It is a 1986. I started putting the new floor in tonight. I had a local guy(Slim Line Truck covers) fiberglass the underneath side just like factory. But I use 3/4" grade A exterior Fir plywood. I'll try to post a picture.

Thanks,
Gary

[John & Sandy M]

From the pic. it appears you bought it from a RV lot. It's interesting that the fiberglass trailers are worth renovation after 20 years of use! I don't think many of the "stick" units make it anyplace close to this age. When you get to working on the exterior you might want to try this (courtesy of Popular Mechanics Mag).

"Fading Fiberglass
I have an old, crimson-colored fiberglass football stadium bench that is starting to fade. What can I use to protect it from further sunlight damage?
STEVE ELLIS Euless, TX
I contacted The Flood Co. (flood .com) to answer your question because it makes a variety of paint additives and liquid surface-treatment products that protect wood, fiberglass and vinyl. The company recommended a two-step process. First, you should clean the bench with Dekswood Deck Cleaner and Brightener and then apply Penetrol Oil-Based Paint Additive.
I was surprised to learn that although Penetrol is used primarily to make oil-based (alkyd) paints easier to apply, it also can be used by itself to restore and improve the luster of fiberglass.
Flood recommends a yearly application of the products when needed to protect fiberglass in harsh environments."

I was going to give it a shot on my outboard this spring as it's an 87 and used for inshore fishing... hasn't been waxed for years. If it works on it it will work on about anything!

[John & Sandy M]

By the way, this is a pic of our 99 Scamp and it's tug.

[D Shubel]

Gary, thanks for the pics! It is interesting how clean your floor came out, makes me wonder about the construction of a Scamp floor and how the egg is secured to the frame.

My 17' Burro is as follows:

The outer shell has a 2-3" bottom lip that goes under the trailer following the floor. The floor (plywood sandwiched by fiberglass) appears to have been laid down on the lip of outer shell, fiberglassed in spots underneath, mostly just resined, then fiberglassed to outer shell's inner wall, then inner shell set on top and screwed to flooring. The flooring was then screwed to frame from inside with 45+ panhead phillips screws. See updated drawing below.

When replacing my floor I cut the bottom lip of finished fiberglass underneath to allow only 1/4 to 1/2" lip. Cut out the old floor and had to chip it away in places where the resin was thick. Lifted up the shell from frame and slid the one piece precut flooring underneath. We used 4 sheets of exterior grade plywood, butted up together, sandwiched between 3 layers of fiberglass on both sides and bottom side sprayed with gel coat. Cut a pattern out of large pieces of cardboard taped together. Then placed the complete sandwiched fiberglass/plywood floor on the frame and lowered the egg onto it. It was a tight fit in some places but with a little finesse the egg sits on the flooring nicely. Now we have to wait for warmer weather to finish the fiberglass.

It is also interesting how the lower edge of the Scamp has trim loc edging. The Burro just curves underneath and the exposed edge is…well…exposed.

[Gary Little]

[quote]Gary, thanks for the pics! It is interesting how clean your floor came out, makes me wonder about the construction of a Scamp floor and how the egg is secured to the frame.

My 17' Burro is as follows:

The outer shell has a 2-3" bottom lip that goes under the trailer following the floor. The floor (plywood sandwiched by fiberglass) appears to have been laid down on the lip of outer shell, fiberglassed in spots underneath, mostly just resined, then fiberglassed to outer shell's inner wall, then inner shell set on top and screwed to flooring. The flooring was then screwed to frame from inside with 45+ panhead phillips screws. See updated drawing below.

When replacing my floor I cut the bottom lip of finished fiberglass underneath to allow only 1/4 to 1/2" lip. Cut out the old floor and had to chip it away in places where the resin was thick. Lifted up the shell from frame and slid the one piece precut flooring underneath. We used 4 sheets of exterior grade plywood, butted up together, sandwiched between 3 layers of fiberglass on both sides and bottom side sprayed with gel coat. Cut a pattern out of large pieces of cardboard taped together. Then placed the complete sandwiched fiberglass/plywood floor on the frame and lowered the egg onto it. It was a tight fit in some places but with a little finesse the egg sits on the flooring nicely. Now we have to wait for warmer weather to finish the fiberglass.

It is also interesting how the lower edge of the Scamp has trim loc edging. The Burro just curves underneath and the exposed edge is…well…exposed.


Attachment 1117

Thanks for your interest in my project. It was a lot of hard, messy,noisey, dusty work cutting the floor out. I think it took longer to clean up the garage than it did to actually cut out the floor. I cut around all the frame rails and outter edges with a jig saw first leaving about 2" of floor around the outer edge. Then I used a 4" angled grinder with a cut-off blade to cut the floor loose from the hull. This was very dusty and time consuming. Then piece by piece I removed the floor edges from the hull and frame rails. The worst part of the floor was at each rear corner. It was rotten.
It sounds like your Burro is built a lot better than the Scamp. (inner and outter shell).I think I have around $200.00 in my new floor not counting my labor. I only gave 750.00 for the whole Scamp. I installed a new Stainless Cook top and Bar type sink in it today. I plan on plumbing it tomorrow.

Gary Little

[Gary Little]

By the way, this is a pic of our 99 Scamp and it's tug.

Hi John,
I actually bought the the Scamp at Bill Plemmons in Winston Salem. It was exactly what I was looking floor. A Scamp that was Cheap with a good hull that needed so TLC. This is my first RV. I am a big time Do-it-yourselfer. I'll post a picture of my customized vacation home I built for our "Yorkie".
Your '99 looks great. Did you buy it new? How long have you had it?

Gary

[Gary Little]

You'd like to post pics! GREAT, woohoo we love looking at pics. Just be kind to those of us on dialup and get the resolution down to 72dpi if you could please.

This new software allows more than one pic per reply (isn't that neat!), before and after shots in the same reply would be perfect (if you've gotten that far along).

Good luck on the lock set...just don't use too big of a hammer

Donna,
I finally got around to removing my lock set. It wasn't to bad after all. Thanks for everyones input.
I attached a shot of the new rear floor.
Thanks,
Gary