72 Boler

[BillNKC]

Good morning, last night I brought home my new aquisition a 1972 Witchita American 13' Boler. She has sat neglected for 2 years and the exterior shows the lack of love, and the interior is ever so vivid of the flashy oranges of 1972. How i thought those days were long gone.


I have called Scamp this morning and ordered 2 new door hinges 2 rolls of Butyl tape and 2 rolls of the seam tape to cover the cieling seams. Its obvious over the years the previous owners have used every imaginable glue. Scamp says with the new seam tape all one needs is to paint the cieling and use a hot glue gun to stick the new seam tape to the cieling material. If its that easy the inside will be gorgeous in no time.

Here are my 3 questions: First what techniques are used to remove the jalouse (sp) windows and what problems can i expect? I want to pull them reseal them as they have tons of silicone sealer and look like cr,,,,,,.

Second: When sealing over the pop rivets on the exterior of the shell do most Boler owners simply paint the rivets with Fiberglass resin and then paint over them?

Third: and this is the hard one. The back to the front Gaucho Couch is gone. As in no where to be found. Does anyone have one they no longer want that I can buy? Or does someone have one removed where i could get a traced copy of its outline and photos to show me what t looked like and how it was built and installed?

Any help in these 3 areas is greatly appreciated. I dont think I did to bad on the old lady as the floor is solid, the frame is in great condition. Its just the exterior looks terrible, the door sags, and it is going to need the cushions recovered ASAP the orange has to go.

PS: For the moderator if I were to post pics what methodolgy should I use to attach them here?

Thank you

[Donna D.]

Congratulations on getting the "new" Boler

I'll answer the photo question. First read this tutorial: Photo Upload Tutorials, How-Tos. If you still have problems, let us know. We'd love to see some pics!

Covering rivets. Use Snap Caps! Here's some pricing information from Scamps price list (2005):



Remember, you may need to replace a broken rivet and will want to be able to get at it...so, you don't want to fiberglass over the top of any of them.

[Al Stansell]

Congratulations Bill! But please, don't be too hard on those 70 colors!

[Lizbeth]

#1. If your windows are riveted in like mine you can look forward to drilling out all the rivets. It's not real hard work but the were TONS of them.

#3. If you are not in a big hurry (3 weeksish, upcoming surgery has lifting out for that long) I can get mine out of the garage attic and measure it and photo it for you. It would be really easy to make it's just a piece of plywood with "wings" on the very ends. Do you still have the plywood fiberglassed in place under the front window to mount it on?

Congratulations on you new project!

[BillNKC]

#1. If your windows are riveted in like mine you can look forward to drilling out all the rivets. It's not real hard work but the were TONS of them.

#3. If you are not in a big hurry (3 weeksish, upcoming surgery has lifting out for that long) I can get mine out of the garage attic and measure it and photo it for you. It would be really easy to make it's just a piece of plywood with "wings" on the very ends. Do you still have the plywood fiberglassed in place under the front window to mount it on?

Congratulations on you new project!

First I hope you recover quickly.

I have what looks like a 2x4 that was fiber glassed in under the window. Rather poor workmanship. Must have been some aircraft factory workers who did this when the factorys were shut down.

I am not so concerend with making it a operable bunk bed as I need the pattern and photos to make the bach of the gaucho so any help and assistance is GREATLY appreciated.

As to the 70's colors YUCK, and I hated drilling rivets out when I worked at Cessna aircraft but guess I can do it again on the windows. Just gotta buy a bucket load of acorn nuts. YIPEEEEEEEEEE