Scamp floor repair

[Vanover69]

Hello all
I'm working on a 96 scamp 16ft that had a tire blow out and damaged the wheel well and floor. I've removed most of the damaged but have a question

It seems there is a fiberglass lip (sandwitching osb) where the osb board meets the camper shell and where it meets the wheel well...are you to cut these off and apply new fiberglass?

Looking for someone that has replaced their floor

Also is the floor thickness 3/4 osb?

Thanks for any help offered

[Eddie Longest]

I cut the top tabbing off flush with the wall. I leave the bottom tabbing as a guide for alignment of the new floor. I mix up resin to peanut butter consistency and put it on the old bottom tabbing just before dropping in the new floor. I then add self tapping (PK) screws from the bottom to pull the floor and tabbing together. Let the resin set up them fill the gap between the floor and wall with more peanut butter resin. Then add the top tabbing. Strips of mat not cloth work best for tabbing. I have seen 1/2", 5/8" and 3/4" scamp floors. I usually use 5/8" exterior plywood for floors. I coat the floor bottom with resin before installing the floor. If installing a front or rear floor sections I block up the shell between the frame rails and belly band to get the shell off the frame rails before glassing in the floor. I use a multi tool for cutting the tabbing and a twisted wire brush for cleaning up the shell before glassing to it.
Apply adhesive sealant between the frame and floor around the drop floor area. I use wood to metal big head self tapping screws to attach the floor to the frame. You want to drill small pilot holes for the self tapping screws.
Good Luck
Eddie

[Vanover69]

Eddie...thanks for the clear description on repair...helps a ton
New finding last night, there is a weak spot under the large cabinet (microwave & refig). There is a cabinet door that allow clear viewing to the area, but not so much room for larger tools. I'm hoping I don't need to remove the cabinet to repair...the weak spot is where the wood meets the wall
Any advice?

[Borrego Dave]

Howdy, you may find that a multi tool is your best friend for repairs and cheap at Harbor Freight too.

[Eddie Longest]

Check out Git Rot, lots of You Tube videos. I like to replace the wood but sometimes you can't without a lot of effort. Put something under the bad spot to hold the epoxy in place. With OSB the epoxy can run straight through to the shop floor. Jamestown Supply also has other products and videos.
Eddie

[buff30]

I had rot under the cabinet from a cent leak. I was able to keep both the top and bottom tab and slide the new wood in. I also had a crack where the wheel well meets the wood. I repaired that with chopped strand mat and resin.

[stevebaz]

You could just build up a new wheel cover with heavy cardboard and a hot melt glue gun. remove it as a shell. mix up resin and hardener and liberally coat the card board with resin and hardener and let it set up to make it hard. Check the fit again and if good to go encase the thing with glass fiber and resin mix and make a new fiber glass cover. When cured and happy with the shell transfer the unit to your trailer and then glass it into place. It will be much better than the scabs of wood and crap that was originally in place and you can modify to your hearts desire.

[redbarron55]

Perhaps more than you have in mind, but I installed steel wheel wells. More for clearance for larger wheels and tires, but STEEL.

Of course this was for a frame and up modifications

[Paul O.]

Originally Posted by Eddie Longest

Check out Git Rot, lots of You Tube videos. I like to replace the wood but sometimes you can't without a lot of effort. Put something under the bad spot to hold the epoxy in place. With OSB the epoxy can run straight through to the shop floor. Jamestown Supply also has other products and videos.
Eddie

Eddie, thanks for mentioning GIT-Rot. I never heard of it, but that is exactly what I need. During our spring trip I found a leak around the roof top fan. I thought I had that one fixed right after I bought my Scamp four years ago, but it sprung on me again. It turned out that half of the screws holding the inside trim around the roof vent leaked and rusted. It seems water also flowed behind the Reflectix and down to the left rear corner. Over the years that corner of the OSB floor developed a little bit of rot. I am drying it out now and since I am not looking for a huge project, GIT-Rot sounds like the cure.

Those screws were only sealed with a dab of caulk over the heads when the fan was installed. The rivets appear to be well sealed. These screws were leaking more and more as they slowly turned into nothing but rust. They are now stainless and I applied the sealer in the hole before installing them as well as under and over the heads.

I discovered that rot because I had to get under the bench for another reason - the converter is the fritz (lights were flickering and the red LED on the panel was on). Its exact (American CS2000XL) replacement should be here in a day, or two from E-bay. Just another project.

[Raspy]

Epoxy works magic with wood. Seems like anytime a new floor goes in it should be soaked with penetrating epoxy first. There are a lot of brands of penetrating epoxies too. Marine stores are good places to find various types of epoxy, but most likely more expensive than Amazon.

One issue is once you use epoxy and then want to tab that piece onto the polyester wall, for instance, you'll find that the polyester won't adhere well to the epoxy. Epoxy to polyester is fine, but not the other way around.

So you may end up using epoxy for everything once you get started with it. For filler/thickener, I've used a lot of mahogany dust from a catch box under the table saw, or doug fir, or whatever was being cut at the time. Regular viscosity epoxy will do everything beyond penetrating through a board and would be much better for glassing in a bulkhead or floor to wall joint, than the water like, penetrating stuff.

[Vanover69]

I contacted Scamp and they told me they have only ever used polyester resin
I was planning on using polyester to coat the replacement boards and to apply the fiberglass (bondo stage 2)
I was thinking it was a good idea to stick with the factory polyester resin
Any thoughts?

[Raspy]

Yes, polyester is what the whole body is made of. Eddie made the point that a rotten section of floor could be saved with penetrating epoxy that is the viscosity of water and soaks into the wood. Soaking new wood this way is also very affective for waterproofing exposed pieces. If you do this, you then may have to use epoxy to tab the waterproofed or rotten pieces to the body. That's all. Not recommending that you switch away from what the factory used, just suggesting that, in some cases, epoxy will do what poly won't. And that you might save a section of floor without the big hassle of getting that piece out.

[buff30]

I agree about sticking with polyester resin. That is what I did. I don't think it needs to be the resin sold by Scamp if that is what you mean by factory resin. Just make sure you understand the difference between laminating and surfacing resin.

[Darral T.]

Fiberglass resin is what you're looking for and can be found at most any good hardware store- especially the "big box" stores.

When I purchased my Scamp new in 2010, I was warned by a previous Scamp owner that Scamp leaves RAW sawcut OSB underneath the trailer. Sure enough, I have the bathroom and underneath where they bring out the drain was an open/raw hole! I've heard tales of mice and other unwanted wildlife getting up in the hole underneath the shower! Why Scamp did/does this is still a mystery but I took care of it as shown in the photograph below by fiberglassing the hole and filling it with the brass scrubber. 7 yrs later, it's all still there and looks new with no problems of rot and/or little "animals".

The coating on the exposed OSB underneath the Scamp that you can see is coated with the fiberglass resin that has been mentioned. It's still holding up very well also- BUT, my Scamp only sees outings about 4x a year for apx 1 week intervals. The rest of the time is under a carport. Alot of people will coat underneath their Scamp with a rubberized coating.

Here's the resin I used:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Bondo-127-9...Repair/3371928

[sokhapkin]

I'd use caulk in that under shower area. By applying resin you made troubles yourself to make possible repairs in the future...

[Raspy]

Originally Posted by Darral T.

Fiberglass resin is what you're looking for and can be found at most any good hardware store- especially the "big box" stores.

When I purchased my Scamp new in 2010, I was warned by a previous Scamp owner that Scamp leaves RAW sawcut OSB underneath the trailer. Sure enough, I have the bathroom and underneath where they bring out the drain was an open/raw hole! I've heard tales of mice and other unwanted wildlife getting up in the hole underneath the shower! Why Scamp did/does this is still a mystery but I took care of it as shown in the photograph below by fiberglassing the hole and filling it with the brass scrubber. 7 yrs later, it's all still there and looks new with no problems of rot and/or little "animals".

The coating on the exposed OSB underneath the Scamp that you can see is coated with the fiberglass resin that has been mentioned. It's still holding up very well also- BUT, my Scamp only sees outings about 4x a year for apx 1 week intervals. The rest of the time is under a carport. Alot of people will coat underneath their Scamp with a rubberized coating.

Here's the resin I used:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Bondo-127-9...Repair/3371928

If your shower drain fitting leaks, what happens to the water trapped between the shower pan and the OSB floor?

[redbarron55]

I am a young guy at almost 70, but the rotten floors I have seen and the floors in mine were rotted from the inside, the bottom doesn't seem to be so bad since it drys, but inside the water pools and sits, soaking into the wood.

[Darral T.]

You talking about the resin that i put on there???? If so, you have no idea what I did and what it's like. Why would I use caulk? I'm lost on that one. All I did was apply resin to a raw hole edge that could absorb water from the road (and DID on my buddies Scamp)!

Originally Posted by sokhapkin

I'd use caulk in that under shower area. By applying resin you made troubles yourself to make possible repairs in the future...

[Darral T.]

What I used is not a "solid" as I'd already thought about that and used what was recommended. Water can run out of it. At this point, I wouldnt think of changing the way I did it. Scamp is the one that needs to rethink that setup!

Here's what I used and it shows NO sign of deterioration.
Chore Boy® Copper Puffs (10811435002159) - Scouring Pads - Ace Hardware

Originally Posted by Raspy

If your shower drain fitting leaks, what happens to the water trapped between the shower pan and the OSB floor?

[Raspy]

Darral,

Oh, I see it now. Didn't know what you meant by "brass scrubber" That will let water out, keep bugs out and the resin protects the edge. I like it.