1993 Scamp 16' repair and remodel

[shaggydoink]

Happy Birthday Bill, it's great to hear you guys were able to enjoy some time out in the wild with Ziggy!!

Jonathan

[TheWanderers]

Shag, thanx for the birthday greeting. We had a fantastic time; it's amazing how much fun you can have when you're not worrying about things not working correctly. First question after we returned home was, "when can we go again?"

[TheWanderers]

Update on the Yeti: we chose a Yeti 50 and I think this might been a little too small. It worked perfectly for only one night, but if'n a body wanted to have all the food stuffs in one place for a two/three night weekend trip, it'd be too small. However, we still have our old Igloo that'll stand in for carrying dry goods like pancake mix and chips, keeping them protected, and leave plenty of room in the Yeti for cold stuff. I transferred the chips and marshmallows to the Yeti as the food stores were eaten allowing the Yeti to remain "full." Yeti suggests keeping the "empty space" to a minimum to prevent cooling the void of air in your cooler. I think I'd chose a 65 for a weekend cooler for two people.

Final review on the cooler: Success! All the stuff in the cooler, including the remaining soft drinks were still very cold when we returned home after being actively used (no restriction on access to cooler) for over 28 hours. I had put some cubed ice into a zip lock storage bag and while that melted, it was still very cold water.

[TheWanderers]

When we bought our camper, the storage units above the dinette were in bad shape due to excessive moisture in the cabin. The pressed wood had swelled and was falling apart so we ripped it out.

This week, I'll be purchasing a piece of fiberglass from Lowe's that I intend to cut up for the face panel to the new bench/sofa that I've installed and used the remainder of the panel to replace the overhead storage above the dinette.

Stay tuned!

[TheWanderers]

I was able to get a few hours to work on Ziggy this evening while Laura was fixing a great dinner that included fresh beans from our garden. So, I jumped in and made up a cardboard template for the storage cabinets that used to be located over our dinette.

The old cabinets were so swollen from water damage that I pulled this out and threw them into the trash. If'n I'd been a little smarter, I'd have saved them long enough to use them as the template for this replacement work. Doh!

Scamp uses mounting blocks of wood, screwed through the shell to the outside for attaching these cabinets to the ceiling so I figure why mess with this formula. I plan on using this same idea for mounting the replacement cabinets. I'll need to replace two of the four mounting blocks that Scamp installed because the genius with the screw gun at the factory missed the block on two screws so the mounting block is split. I'm not worried since we've been very successful re-sealing all of the snap cap holes using butyl tape.

I've including two images for your review. The first one is of the mounting blocks on the driver's side of the camper and the second image shows the cardboard templates mounted to the passenger side of the camper. This looks like a successful dry fit of the templates. Now, all I need is a dry day when I can run to Lowe's and pick up a sheet of fiberglass stock that they show online, provided it's stout enough to carry the weight of things we're likely to store inside these cabinets. Otherwise, I'll be using 1/4" plywood. I think we already have doors painted to color match Ziggy's interior.

[shaggydoink]

That looks like a fun little project! Is the material you're referring to the white FRP sheet that's bumpy on one side?

Jonathan

[TheWanderers]

Hi Jonathan!
This is Laura... yes we thought we wanted that, until we met it in person. It's too floppy. Do you know where we can get white fiberglass sheets that are substantial enough for making a shelf / overhead?

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by TheWanderers

Hi Jonathan!
This is Laura... yes we thought we wanted that, until we met it in person. It's too floppy. Do you know where we can get white fiberglass sheets that are substantial enough for making a shelf / overhead?

Maybe a shower stall from Craigslist? Or contact a home remodeling company. Tell them you're helping keep something out of the dump by repurposing.

[Borrego Dave]

Laura, you may see if you can find a somewhat local company that makes FG shells. The window openings are cut out after the shell is layed up. I think Scamp sells theirs but camper shells generally have longer side windows. I picked up a bunch of cutouts a long time ago and made many things out of them. They are also thicker than a FG shower unit but that may not be a problem for your use.

[shaggydoink]

Originally Posted by TheWanderers

This is Laura... yes we thought we wanted that, until we met it in person. It's too floppy. Do you know where we can get white fiberglass sheets that are substantial enough for making a shelf / overhead?

Yeah, that's why I asked... I got some for patching things on the interior of my Casita and finding that it works great when the pieces are small, but not so great when the pieces are larger.

Perhaps the greatest surprise I've encountered to date on my project is how hard it is to source fiberglass sheet material, and I'm afraid I don't have any magic solution for you. Donna's and Dave's suggestions are two of the best options from my personal perspective - in addition to checking with local camper/RV manufacturers, you may also poke around and see if there are any boat manufacturers or repair/salvage yards, I checked a couple in my area and they said they had sheet material available from time to time, just none when I happened to call them.

The only other thought is to build the main structure out of wood then add a layer of the FRP material which is what I'm doing for the additional kitchen unit I'm adding... it's sort of a pain as it's basically like building the same thing twice, but was the only way I could figure out how to have a solid structure that has a matching exterior to the other fiberglass structural pieces.

Jonathan

[TheWanderers]

The rain pattern we've been experiencing seems to have changed so we enjoyed a great evening for working outside. I picked up a sheet of Maple plywood from Lowe's for $24 and used the templates that I'd developed to transfer the shape to the stock and cut out the pieces. I did a little light sanding to clean the edges after cutting and to remove stray pencil marks. Laura and I dry fitted them and I'm pleased with the fit.

Next step to seal the plywood before installation, so we've carried the pieces into the basement so we can used the controlled environment to apply the finish. We've decided to apply the same clear polyurethane that we used on the dinette table because the table simply glows with the wood grain and looks great. I think this soft touch of color warms up the interior of the Scamp without taking away from the easy clean white.

Shag: I know of a fiberglass producer in Somerset Kentucky, about 20 miles away, that produces store fixtures and I know they'd fab up anything I was willing to pay for, including flat sheets, but the cost would really kill the project. So, I'll use what we can get. I can only imagine what a sheet of fiberglass would cost.

[shaggydoink]

Looks fantastic from my vantage point, and really like the idea of keeping the wood exposed. Nicely done so far!

Jonathan

[TheWanderers]

Originally Posted by shaggydoink

Looks fantastic from my vantage point, and really like the idea of keeping the wood exposed. Nicely done so far!

Jonathan

Jon, thanx for the encouragement. Laura has been very busy putting the polyurethane on the shelving for both the inside of the closet, above the A/C unit, as well as the new extended storage that will reach from the back wall over the dinette to the above the sink and the closet. It's lookin' really nice and we're excited to have a potential solution to the MAJOR problem of too little storage in Ziggy. Pictures coming...

[emij]

Looks wonderful! You are doing a fantastic job! Love seeing your progress, solutions and 'watching' you work on your camper!

[TheWanderers]

Thanks Emily!! Hope you are enjoying this camping season! We are headed out again in a couple of weeks for a three nighter. CAN'T WAIT!! Hope we have these cabinets done and in by then!

[TheWanderers]

Laura has been very busy sealing the cabinets with polyurethane and she's almost done. We have dry fitted the smaller cabinet on the driver's side and it looks pretty good. During that fitting it occurred to me that I'd forgotten to cut out the quarter circle that is the end of the cabinet that faces the space that was the stove/refrigerator. The meant that the cabinet would have been open on the square end and things could have simply fallen out when I hit the breaks as we were driving. I've cut that last piece and Laura is sealing that now. The last few pieces are almost ready and we'll be mounting the entire assembly very soon.

Edit: I pulled out my tool cart tonight to begin mounting the replacement rails to find that I am out of #8 stainless steel pan head screws and dangerously low on Snap-caps. Guess I'll need to make a run to Lowe's at lunch tomorrow so I can get this project moving forward tomorrow night.

[TheWanderers]

Well, we pushed through the installation of the smaller dinette cabinet this evening. Literally we just finished, while dark outside, using the 12v camper lights to see what we're doing inside.

Laura held the cabinet in place while sitting on the dinette seat while I mounted the cabinet using stainless steel screws and stain steel washers. We decided to use the cabinet doors from the old overhead cabinets and Laura had already repainted them to match color and hardware of the other cabinets.

I told Laura this evening that this entire cabinet project has caused me a large amount of anxiety and stress because of the curves present as well as the lack of consistent points to measure to/from for fitment. I was really nervous because of the amount of work involved getting the cabinet to be ready for mounting and the potential for messing up all the work both Laura and I had completed by doing something really bone-headed.

We still want to add a strip of molding to the lower front edge of the cabinet but we're satisfied with the results.

The larger cabinet on the passenger side of the camper still needs to have the upper hanger block mounted through the roof so maybe we'll get that one finished this weekend.

[shaggydoink]

You guys did an incredible job, it looks sensational!!

Jonathan

p.s: and I completely feel your angst about the nebulous nature of the structure. I'm slowly learning how to adapt to the odd curves and planes in mine, but still go into any cut or drill hole feeling like I've got a 50/50 chance that it'll end up being right.

[TheWanderers]

Ladies & Gentlemen;

Witness the installation of the second of two, count them, two cabinets reconfigured from the cheap crappy press wood installed by Scamp to maple plywood with polyurethane sealant (with UV protection).

[TheWanderers]

We took Ziggy out for a shakedown campout to Breaks Interstate Park in Virginia and the cabinets worked FANTASTIC! Home run!!!

I put all my clothes, for the three day weekend, into the smaller cabinet and Laura put all her clothes in half the longer of the cabinets, with lots of extra space left over for other things. These new cabinets worked so very well and we are extremely re-excited about camping again. What a difference a small amount of storage space can make to the entire camping experience. It's simply unbelievable how much things like having enough storage can change your perspective about camping.

We may have actually have had extra space because we didn't use all the space we had effectively. We were really enjoying having our personal stuff close without needing to move our clothes and hygiene kits outside simply to get room for lunch or dinner.

It is significant to note that the addition of the extra overhead storage space did not make us feel like we were being closed in because of the extra furniture. We enjoyed the warm glow of the wood grain that matched the table top.