Hey folks, it's been awhile! Inspired by some other trailer threads 'round here -- when _are_ you going to update that Shasta thread, Margie? -- I thought I'd share what I did this year: bringing a 72 Eco back from the brink.
So what's an Eco? It's a Boler clone, made in Nebraska for a few years in the early 70s. Which means it's little fiberglass "egg" camper, and a close cousin of the modern Scamp.
The fiberglass shell was in really good shape other than some cosmetic damage by the passenger side wheel, where it had apparently suffered a blowout at some point, and the frame looked both straight-ish and solid, which is a minor miracle with these things. So figuring the bones were good, I paid Challenge money and drug it home.
While the bones were good, the inside was final-resting-place-to-a-pack-of-feral-hobos nasty.
It actually photographed better than it was. All of this was disgusting, falling off, or both.
How do people find these gems??? Not sure if I could find space for one of those, but it would be an ideal tool to circumference the Great Lakes
8 a.m. on day 1. By noon the junk pile was larger. I honestly didn't know you could pull this much crap out of a 10-foot-long trailer.
alfadriver said:
How do people find these gems??? Not sure if I could find space for one of those, but it would be an ideal tool to circumference the Great Lakes
I had been looking for one for a month or so, mentioned it to a friend who said "Hey, I think Jim (another mutual friend) has one of those". And he did! Practically in my backyard, and Jim was motivated to sell. I got lucky.
I did uncover some pretty epic original linoleum under the nasty carpeting. And mold. And ant homes. And ... I don't even know what.
Very cool. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.
It fit in my garage with about an inch of clearance, though, so that was a win.
Ripped out anything fibrous. All the carpet, all the cushions, curtains, all of it. Then kept going down through the linoluem. Eventually, it started smelling a little better.
The Electrical converter box may have lost a few parts over the years 
And this bit of romex was found patched into the shore power, running up to the front of the frame, by the hitch, where it just rested there, unterminated, waiting to terminate anyone who might touch it. 
I had to cut the hole a bit taller, then trim it out, to properly fit the new electrical box. You can also see some of the many, many holes that had to be filled.
So, so many holes to fill.
There were also plenty of extra speed holes in the countertop to deal with. At least by this point the cleaning and dumping was mostly done, and I could get deep into priming and prepping.
I think this was first coat of paint. I used latex on the "elephant skin" wall insulation, and thinned-out enamel rolled-on to the fiberglass cabinets. Honestly, if I were doing it all again, I'd probably enamel all of it. The latex has a tendency to go a little "sticky" if it's humid. But because the enamel was thinned, it took quite a few more coats than normal.
Fancy new electrical bits
... which let me power up the LED pucks I picked up dirt cheap on Amazon. It was something like 12 bucks for 6 lights, with a remote. I just cut off the wall wart, threw it away, and wired them right into the 12V system. You can't see them well in this pic, but they're great. Super low profile, plenty of light. Great buy. By this point, I had most of the interior walls painted, too.
By this point, I'd had it a month, and I had done about as much cleaning, prepping and painting as I could stand for awhile. So it left my garage for the first time to go to a trailer shop for a thorough inspection, new bearings, and to get that "trunk" thing cut off the back bumper. Yeah, I could have done all that myself, but I didn't want to. Plus, I wanted another set of eyes on that frame and running gear.
This was about when I discovered that some of the bolts that hold the body to the frame may have outlived their useful life. They were replaced with some nice stainless stuff. I used stainless for all the fasteners. This thing is so small the cost difference is nothing, but I'll be a lot happier when it's not all rusted together.
And since I was getting some pretty sideways glances from the neighbors and the spouse, having this potato-looking THING in my driveway, I figured I had nothing to lose by trying to paint it. So roll-on Rustoleum enamel to the rescue. Y'all know the drill with this stuff. Thin it, good rollers, lots of thin coats.
This, I like.
My uncle has a Scamp, and it is sweet. Everything you need, and little else.
Pro tip: if you get an old fiberglass trailer, put a couple of drain holes in the bottom of the door and let that water be free.
A few coats in, and it's looking better already.
And the inside was looking whiter and whiter, too. The marching orders were "make this inside all white and shiny. Like a space-egg. I don't want to even wonder if it's gross in there".
So, yeah. Lots and lots of gloss white.
