Another Skamper 072S budget build

[mbroughton02]

The rest of the screens are finished! I have probably 30 hours in them. It sucked. But it's done!

The past few days I've been working on the canvas. I bleached the whole inside. I have stains on the roll up "shades" that appear to have come from the exterior brown vinyl rubbing against the interior cream colored vinyl while in transit:

At first I thought it was mouse urine (this camper has definitely had mice) but then I realized that the brown stains were found exclusively on the roll up shades and nowhere else. Since the roll up shades are the only thing inside that could possibly contact the exterior vinyl, I think my theory is sound. When I thought I was dealing with urine I tried vinegar, soft scrub w/ bleach, comet w/ bleach, tilex w/ bleach, mr. clean magic eraser, ammonia, and even some carb cleaner (closest thing I had to acetone), and nothing was working. Once I determined it was dye from the exterior side of the vinyl I figured it got on there by rubbing, it must come off by rubbing. And bleach should be a solvent for the dye...so I tried the soft scrub w/ bleach again.

This time I applied it and scrubbed vigorously with a scrub brush for several minutes in each spot. The stains started to fade. Then I called it a night but just left some soft scrub on a spot before I left, as an experiment. When I came in the next morning I scrubbed away the dried soft scrub, and the stain was noticeably faded even more, but with much less elbow grease. So I went with that method for the rest of the stains. They are faded, but they definitely are not gone. Good enough for now...I can't stand to breathe in any more bleach. I forgot to take an "after" pic but if someone is interested I can take one later.

Then I used the tilex to clean the entire exterior side of the canvas. Left side is before, right is after:

Next up were the holes. I had a big mouse hole almost 3" across in the front left bottom corner and several smaller holes. Previous owner had patched with duct tape but I wanted to do better. I took @MDM54 's advice and looked on sailrite.com for some vinyl I could use to patch holes. After browsing their site I realized that you can buy 4"x4" samples of their vinyls for $1.00 each. I needed to order HH-66 vinyl cement anyway, and their price on that was good too. So I ordered 3 samples of the closest I could find to the interior cream color Mobern Seabrook Gel White and 3 samples of the brown, which I went with the Naugahyde Universal Doe.
Here's what the samples look like:

They are much thicker than I needed, but I'm okay with it. The color isn't an exact match either but I didn't expect it to be. For $24 including cement and shipping I'm pretty happy with my patches; they are much stronger and look a lot better than duct tape:

That's it for now.

 

[Canufixit]

Thanks for the Update - I was waiting for your next post. All this looks GREAT. In summary, IMO, you have an old camper that needs a lot of TLC. You have fixed/repaired and cleaned it all - and it all looks great. I'm sure you will get great pride in using this - and I'm my opinion - the more you enjoy it the less you will see the minor color /repair difference. I'm also sure that most all persons who get a good look at your work will not even notice most - if not all - minor stuff. They will probably just want top go camping !!!

Keep up the great work and great Posts !

 

[mbroughton02]

Been working on the camper on and off the past few weeks. I installed new tie down hooks that will line up with the front bed D-rings I will be installing in my Tacoma, and I had to cut 2 new access holes so that I can get to them. Once I get the access holes trimmed out I will post pics. I'm waiting on parts.

In the meantime I decided to take up the linoleum floor today. Getting the glue up was not fun. I went with a heat gun and a 3" scraper and it took about 2 hours. My wrists are sore and my fingers are burned, but it's done. The linoleum was in good shape and I suppose I could have just put new flooring on top of it, but I don't want to add unnecessary weight.

I'm getting close to being able to paint the interior. I'm going to go with Zinnster Cover Stain primer, and then satin finish grey latex paint. All my cabinet doors and drawer fronts have peeling faux wood stickers so I'm just going to cut new pieces out of 1/2" BC Plywood rather than try to remove and clean up the stickers on the existing pieces. I'll probably go with a darker grey on those pieces.

 

[Canufixit]

Been working on the camper on and off the past few weeks. I installed new tie down hooks that will line up with the front bed D-rings I will be installing in my Tacoma, and I had to cut 2 new access holes so that I can get to them. Once I get the access holes trimmed out I will post pics. I'm waiting on parts.

In the meantime I decided to take up the linoleum floor today. Getting the glue up was not fun. I went with a heat gun and a 3" scraper and it took about 2 hours. My wrists are sore and my fingers are burned, but it's done. The linoleum was in good shape and I suppose I could have just put new flooring on top of it, but I don't want to add unnecessary weight.



I'm getting close to being able to paint the interior. I'm going to go with Zinnster Cover Stain primer, and then satin finish grey latex paint. All my cabinet doors and drawer fronts have peeling faux wood stickers so I'm just going to cut new pieces out of 1/2" BC Plywood rather than try to remove and clean up the stickers on the existing pieces. I'll probably go with a darker grey on those pieces.

As My Skamper has almost a foot of snow on it - I'm jealous that I still need to wait until Spring before I begin working on my Torsion bar system. Looks Like you are making good progress !!

 

[mbroughton02]

Is this going on your tacoma when finished?

Yes.

 

[Canufixit]

Is this going on your tacoma when finished?

On Mine as well - 2012 Base I4 4WD. Only hauled it home in the fall. Fits fine (with tailgate down It's a few inches from the end of the tailgate), Ride OK with Stock Suspension fairly level and not on the bump stops. I'll add torkins in the Spring so I can not worry about adding a few pound of Gear.

 

[mbroughton02]

Lots of work on the camper happening...It was 70 degrees here today, so I'm feeling the pressure to get this thing ready for camping

As mentioned earlier, I added two tie down points at the front of the camper, closer to center than the original ones. I will use these to secure the front of the camper to two D-rings I am adding to the front of the bed of my Tacoma. In order to do that I will need to be able to access in front of the Tacoma's wheel wells while the camper is on, but unfortunately the Skamper's existing door for accessing that area does not line up with my truck. So I needed to make a new opening.

Well, that part was easy. Then I tried to trim out the opening with 3/4" C-Channel from Home Depot, but it wasn't meant to be. The wall is every bit of 7/8" thick. I looked all over and eventually ordered 7/8" C-Channel from McMaster-Carr.http://www.mcmaster.com/#9001k26/=11h189z

Now what? The Skamper's access doors hinge down, but these openings fall inside of the storage compartment where I intend to put my water tank and battery, and hinged doors require space that I wasn't willing to give up. So I decided to go with a vertical sliding door. Maybe it's overkill, but it's the best idea I could come up with. I used the 3/4" C-Channel that didn't work out for the trim, 1/2" plywood, and 3/16" weatherstripping to give the plywood a tight, weathertight fit in the channel. I also went all around the inside of the 7/8" c-channel trim with weatherstripping.

In other news, I have painted the entire interior. I just need to do a few touch ups before taking photos, then I will post them here.

 

[andytruck]

Thanks for the post and pics especially. I am doing a restoration project on a 10 foot Skamper and it helps to see your photos with things taken apart so I have a clue what is under mine. I am pretty far along. I had a terrible roof, does not leak, but crooked as a politician and is not a perfect fit. Canvas is in great shape. I had to rebuild portions of the floor in the very back as I was concerned about the jack attachment.
I am turning a closet into a shower now and will be adding a fridge and water heater soon.
I have pics of some of it in a post somewhere, I will try to keep it updated as I go…

 

[Canufixit]

Since this thread is discussing the older Skamper. Does anyone have the Electrical Schematic for this (or close style) Skamper?? I need to do some electrical work on my camper this Spring and before try to recreate this info I'd thought I'd ask. The Wiring should be fairly straight forward - but the wire colors, 12v converter hook ups etc. would be easier to work with if I did not have to strip down the panels/wiring to learn the connections.

Thanks!

 

[mbroughton02]

Since this thread is discussing the older Skamper. Does anyone have the Electrical Schematic for this (or close style) Skamper?? I need to do some electrical work on my camper this Spring and before try to recreate this info I'd thought I'd ask. The Wiring should be fairly straight forward - but the wire colors, 12v converter hook ups etc. would be easier to work with if I did not have to strip down the panels/wiring to learn the connections.

Thanks!

I have this pic that you emailed to me...It is accurate to what I've found in my 072S, except I don't have turn signals.

 

[mbroughton02]

Got the interior painted.

What appears to be white is actually a light grey, it's just way too light. I used it in one of the apartments that I rent out and liked it a lot, so I wanted to try it in the Skamper. Well, it is going to show a ton of dirt. Oops. I might repaint next winter. But for now it'll do.

Then I used peel-n-stick tiles from Home Depot to redo the floor. 88 cents each...not bad.

 

[mbroughton02]

Now for the electrical project...My truck's tow package includes 12v power in the 7-pin trailer connector that only comes on when the ignition is on. It's a 30 amp circuit. I wanted to utilize that so that I didn't have to add another relay to the truck. So I added a 7 pin socket at the back of the Skamper. I will build a 36" 7-pin male to male cable to go between the camper and the truck.

For the cable I used 10/3 (10 gauge 3 wire). One wire is the 30 amp battery charge circuit +, one is negative, and one is running lights.

I removed the original Skamper fuse panel and added an ATC fuse block from Amazon. I went this route because I was adding several circuits and this fuse panel has a negative bus, which makes the wiring a lot cleaner. You can see I put an inline fuse for the power coming in from the truck. It's a 30 amp fuse. Also there is an inline fuse for the running light circuit, which is totally isolated from the fuse panel.

Next I ran 10 gauge cable from the fuse panel down to the battery. I also put an inline fuse at the battery. It is also 30 amp.

The battery is a group 27 deep cycle from Tractor Supply. Had good reviews, and for less than $100. AGM is nice, but I'm on a budget. The battery is in a vented box acquired from Amazon:

I added a voltmeter and 3 12v "cigarette lighter" type outlets, separately fused at 15 amps each. It's overkill, but I had lots of extra space in my fuse panel, and it's cleaner to run them that way than trying to splice them together into one fuse in parallel. The voltmeter was from Amazon, and I put it in a cheap Radioshack enclosure with a cheap Radioshack switch.

 

[mbroughton02]

On to the seat cushions. The Skamper came with 2 cushions with very dated, stained, and smelly upholstery:

I took the covers off and ripped the seams apart so that I could copy the pattern. I also salvaged the zippers. Cut out the fabric, pinned the zippers in place (not fun), and then sewed the zippers in:

Once the zippers were done the rest of the sewing wasn't too bad. I didn't take any other in-progress shots but here are the final products:

My corners leave something to be desired and I may go back and work on them some more. Hard to tell what you're doing when you're working with the cover inside-out. So for me it's kind of trial-and-error. I did the long rectangular cushion second, and those corners look better than the ones on the odd shaped one, so at least I'm getting better. This is the first time I've sewn any kind of cushion.

One more pic, the cushions in the camper:

New curtains are next. I got 3 of the 8 done tonight, and I hope to finish the rest tomorrow night. The list is getting shorter... Finish curtains, build new table, build bed extension to allow for a full mattress in the cabover, finish one piece of vinyl insert on the exterior, fix exterior light, wash exterior, go camping?

 

[Canufixit]

On to the seat cushions. The Skamper came with 2 cushions with very dated, stained, and smelly upholstery:

......


New curtains are next. I got 3 of the 8 done tonight, and I hope to finish the rest tomorrow night. The list is getting shorter... Finish curtains, build new table, build bed extension to allow for a full mattress in the cabover, finish one piece of vinyl insert on the exterior, fix exterior light, wash exterior, go camping?

Nice Job ! Looking good! and looking closer to being done.

 

[mbroughton02]

Made new curtains...

Also got my bed extension and table built today. Pictures soon.