Scamp Remod story - Fiberglass RV
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Old 03-09-2013, 03:08 PM   #1
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Name: matt
Trailer: 1995 16' Scamp
Texas
Posts: 12
Scamp Remod story

Here is my scamp story....

We bought a 16' 1995 Scamp from LowPaidNurse, who has submitted to on this forum in the past. It was a fair deal, definitely not a steal.

I drove it home and after the first camping trip with my son, I realized I needed to get rid of the cigarette smoke/old scamp smell before taking my wife and daughter. I didn't want their first trip to turn them off.

Well somehow I started ripping up the carpet. I guess I thought that might be where the smell was. Once I got the carpet up I noticed that the floor was not flat and looked under the trailer and part of the angle iron was bent. So, I cut a small hole in the floor and bent the trailer back with a sledge and fixed her up. Also, I decided that this would be a good time to take out the bathroom. I wanted the extra room. So I took it out and patched up the hole.

Since I had the carpet out, I figured I'd make sure the rest of the floor looked OK. After taking out the benches, I found a couple of small rotted out places and fixed them. Sound familiar to anyone?

...to be continued...
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Old 03-09-2013, 03:27 PM   #2
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Name: matt
Trailer: 1995 16' Scamp
Texas
Posts: 12
Scamp Remod story continued

OK. I got a bit sidetracked, but the smell was still not gone, so I figured it must be in the rat fur. I tried everything - Fabreeze, and uphostery cleaner - still smelly.

I had to get rid of the smell, so the only thing to do at that point was to tear out the rat fur! (this project peeled like on onion). Of course, to take out the rat fur EVERYTHING needs to be removed. I took the rat fur in to the local cleaners and they washed it with some enzyme soap and it worked like a charm - no smell!!!!

It was a good thing I gutted it. I found a couple more rotted areas in the floor that required patching. Also, I noticed that the wooden supports for the benches were broken in places, so I made some supports for them.

Oh yeah! now I remember....I started all of this because the rear marker lights had a short!

Well....I re-did a lot of the wiring and found several additional shorts and bad splices. I also found that the wiring was not properly set up to utilize the fuse system. So I also fixed that.

The underside of the trailer had some surface rust, so I painted it with some rustoleum. Then I took it in to have the electric brakes serviced and to make sure that the bent angle iron (that I fixed) was not foreshadowing worse problems with the trailer chassis. (everything looked OK - whew!).

Mind you, I bought this hoping to go camping! So...here I am at Christmas with a gutted scamp! Luckily, my 80 year old father was visiting and he loves to fixed things up, so we had a ball.

..to be continued....
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Old 03-09-2013, 04:00 PM   #3
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Name: matt
Trailer: 1995 16' Scamp
Texas
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...continued...

Well.... now I had to get a plan. I was sort of bored with the all white & brown interior. So I started painting some of the fiberglass furniture with spray paint from Lowes - after scuffing up the gel coat a bit. It looks pretty good. After the paint cured it bonded pretty well to the gelcoat too. It may show some wear over time, but for now it looks good.

I also wanted better lighting so I put in some wiring for overhead LED lights. I also placed some additional wires in for a future rooftop fan vent. I glued the rat fur back up, and it looked great. No old camper smells!!! I also installed the overhead LED lights. They have both white & red light settings, which will be nice when someone needs to get up at night or if we are stargazing and want to maintain our night vision. I put another LED over the cooking area.

I had some new tires installed and installed an electric brake controlled in our '96 sienna.

The bunk bed had been taken out of the scamp before I bought it. Since I have 2 kids, we need the bunks. However, by this time I was pretty tired of scamp repair and my wife was accusing me of having a new girlfriend. So, I just called up my friends in Backus, and they sent me new cushions and a bunk. Installing that bunk was the easiest part of this whole ordeal.

For some reason there is a cutout on the bottom left side of the front couch/bunk. My dad & I tried to re-fiberglass it, but it was too cold over christmas and it turned out that the hardener I bought was bad anyway. We made a BIG mess. I ended up just making a little door for that cutout and it looks great. Also, since I removed the bathroom, the side of the cooking counter area was exposed. So I made a wooden cover for it out of 3/4 in oak plywood. I made the cover so that it would provide some extra support for the roof. That was kind of fun.

I installed all new cabinet doors and made a new table top - oak plywood stained with minwax gunstock color stain.

Since the floor was a bit uneven, I figured that if I tried to install regular wood flooring, it might start peeling up over time. I also didn't want carpet. I ended up putting in 1/4 in birch plywood. I think it looks great (so does my wife - she looks great, that is ). It was also cheap. I think it cost me $40 + $20 for the sealer.

So....that's my story. I'm sure I left a few things out, but that is close to complete. We're heading out to White Sands, NM and then to Gila National Forest next week for the maiden voyage.

Thanks to everyone on this sight. I've been following it through this entire remod, and I found a lot of helpful tips here. I hope my experience can be helpful to someone else.

See you at the campsite! happy trails......
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Old 03-09-2013, 04:10 PM   #4
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Ooh, I love the colors! Very fun. We just picked up our first FG trailer today, so this is great inspiration.
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Old 03-09-2013, 04:30 PM   #5
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Looks great.

I want to change the tail lights in my Scamp, but I'm not looking for a dominoe effect!
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Old 03-09-2013, 04:33 PM   #6
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Excellent job for a newcomer, your Scamp is starting to look like the "Deluxe" model Scamp offers with all the pretty wood inside.
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Old 03-09-2013, 05:29 PM   #7
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Love it! Your hard work and effort paid off big time. A question about the "electrical box" picture. Was your wiring originally tied together with endcaps and taped together in a bundle before, and then you installed the "electrical box" ?
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Old 03-09-2013, 06:21 PM   #8
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Name: matt
Trailer: 1995 16' Scamp
Texas
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electrical box

Hi Alice,

That electrical box is the transformer for AC-DC conversion. I can't remember the details anymore, but I think that all of the DC coming out of the transformer was running through a single fuse. I set it up so that different systems - water pump, front interior lights, back interior lights, frig - are running through different fuses. I'm not sure it is important, but it seems like since all those fuses are there, I might as well use them!

one more pic attached.
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Old 03-09-2013, 06:41 PM   #9
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Your Wife and daughter didn't want a bathroom? I sold my Trillium 4500 because I couldn't get my gal to go with me without a bathroom. I eventually ended up with my Scamp 19' and all is good now.

PS love how you finished the end of the cabinet and gave the upper cabinets some support.
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Old 03-10-2013, 05:28 PM   #10
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Talk about one thing leading to another! It looks great though! Have fun camping - White Sands is awesome.
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Old 03-10-2013, 05:37 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by msolson View Post
I started all of this because the rear marker lights had a short!


How well we all know that slippery slope!

You've done a great job...

Francesca

P.S.

Didja ever get around to fixing the marker lights?
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Old 03-10-2013, 05:50 PM   #12
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Matt, you did a great job! You and your dad!

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Old 03-10-2013, 09:07 PM   #13
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I always thought the bathroom was a structural component to help support the roof and keep the sides from bowing out? I'd hate to see your egg start to "deflate!" What are you going to do with the bathroom space? What is the little step there for?
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Old 03-10-2013, 11:17 PM   #14
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Great colors. And very creative design. I also like the end cabinet end pieces you built. Can't wait to see more pix as you progress.
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Old 03-11-2013, 08:18 AM   #15
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Name: matt
Trailer: 1995 16' Scamp
Texas
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structural component

Hi Bryan,

I also was/am concerned about maintaining a structural component to support the roof and side wall after removing the bathroom. This is part of the reason I built the wooden support that goes from ceiling to floor to cover the end of the cabinets. It is made of 3/4" plywood, so is sturdy. It also fits fairly tightly and I tied it into the wall and ceiling with some screws from the outside. I have seen these sorts of supports/covers in pictures of other scamps, but they look like they are made of white plastic.

I am no expert, but after some research and deduction, it seems like the cabinet near the door is much more important for maintaining structure than the bathroom cabinet is. That makes sense since it is next to a gaping hole in the side of the fiberglass structure (the door). It also has that metal brace at the top of the cabinet, which I'm sure is important for structural integrity. Also, if you look at the scamp layouts from our friends in Backus, all of the layouts have the cabinet near the door. Layout #3, however, has a bunk and no bathroom closet - only a table where the closet would go. Thus, layout #3 doesn't seem to have any support for the ceiling on the bathroom side, unless there is something next to the cabinet, like I made. So....after seeing layout #3, I figured I'd be OK to take out the bathroom closet. I hope I'm right! I'll let you know if I notice any sag or deflation.

Thanks for all of the positive comments....whew, there were some days when I was wondering what I had gotten myself into! But there is light at the end of the tunnel - perhaps my story will encourage others who are in the middle of a long project. My wife calls it my $20,000 scamp. It didn't really cost anything near that much, but they know me by name at the hardware store. Oh, and I did finally get that marker light fixed!
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Old 03-11-2013, 09:12 AM   #16
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Nice work Matt. Wish I had those wood working skills. The spot where the bathroom came out would be crying out to me to fill with some additional storage cabinets. GREAT idea by the way to take the rat fur off and have it cleaned by a pro so you could reuse it - would never have thought of that!!!
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Old 03-11-2013, 10:03 AM   #17
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Name: matt
Trailer: 1995 16' Scamp
Texas
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step

Hi Bryan,

that step where the bathroom used to be is part of the structure of the trailer. I cut off as much as possible of the 3/4' plyboard that made up the floor of the bathroom to make more floor space in the "lower" floor of the scamp. If you have a bathroom in that area you will notice that the floor of the bath extends pretty far over the lower floor and there is just an open space under there.

Cabinets in that space is a great idea. I think I'll live with it for a bit before doing anything else.

matt
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Old 03-11-2013, 08:50 PM   #18
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Interesting about the supports being diffent on both sides of the trailer. I'm glad that you got it all figured out! Thanks for the update. With two smaller boys, I would sure miss our bathroom so it will have to stay in ours.
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