Portable man cave. 1972 13ft Boler camper.

This is the story about my 1972 Boler travel trailer. This camper is 800 lbs empty and can be towed by a midsized car. The Boler looks nearly identical to the Scamp and a lot of Scamp parts will fit.

I have always wanted one of these campers, I really don’t know why because I’m not really a camper type person. I grew up in New York and to me camping is a hotel without room service.

Anyway, last year I was out on one of my epic journeys and found this little camper by the side of the road.. The paper plate in the window that was affixed with Band-Aids indicated the seller wanted $600.00.

Long story short… I bought the camper.

The interior was covered with mildew and the plywood floors were rotted along the edges. The stove was rusty and the refrigerator was berkeleyed. Overall, it was in almost move in condition.

Realistically, camping has evolved into parking your trailer next to an outlet and “hooking up”…. So I figured I would modernize the little camper with accessories that fit modern times. The original floor plan accommodated four people. No thanks, this camper is too small for four people. I like my personal space and I decided to ditch the extra two people from my rolling condo.

I do not like to suffer and camping is all about suffering.…. Or something like that. I want WiFi, air conditioning, flat screen TV, a microwave and a high end coffee maker. I also wanted lots of storage space and a toilet. A word of caution, if you go #2 in my man cave, you are sleeping under the stars. The toilet is for the ladies and quite frankly I would prefer they use a bucket outside. The toilet is mostly there for insurance.

The project started out with the idea of repairing the rotted plywood floor and morphed into a complete rehab.

The entire interior was gutted. All the floors were replaced. A new custom mini dinette was constructed in the space formally occupied by the bunk beds/ couch. The main kitchen cabinet was pulled out and the crazy gas/electric refrigerator was tossed.

The space that was formally occupied by the fridge was converted into a complicated air conditioning system. I used a brand new $100.00 5000 BTU window air unit and constructed intake and exhaust plenums so the AC unit could be hidden within the camper shell.

The rear full size dinette/bed was scrapped and a full time sleeping area was constructed.

I tinkered with the camper all summer long and by late august 2012 it was ready for a trial run. The first night was awesome, so was the next and the next…. I camped every night until mid-October.

I had planned on finishing the camper over the winter, but I spent most of my free time on the Mazda.

The porta-potty is stored in this cubby.

The air conditioning intake and exhaust plenums.

.

So….. I finally dug the camper out of storage and I’m ready to start working on it again.

Plans….

The windows leak and look like E36 M3. I picked up some modern windows at a local RV salvage in Hudson Michigan. I gave $175 for two side windows and a new door window. The front and rear windows may be salvageable, I haven’t really investigated them yet. The interior is about half done and I’m going to finish it as well.

I am on a 10 day Glacier NP trip. I am looking for this when I get back next week.

Different, that's for sure. Cool thread!

Very Cool.

Restoring/modernizing old campers is the latest trend. A friend of mine sold his 27' 5th-wheel bunkhouse when his youngest kid moved out and bought an old camper. He restored the old camper to include reskining the outside and uses it regularly now.

Datsun310Guy wrote: I am on a 10 day Glacier NP trip. I am looking for this when I get back next week.

I’m a bit ignorant to what is a Glacier NP is so I looked it up. Damn! That is some serious stuff. Bears and Big foot lurk out there.

I like to camp New Jersey style… that is to roll the camper in to the garage and close the door. BTW, Connecticut style is to leave the garage door open.

Actually, my back yard is some sort of semi-urban freak show. I have deer and wild turkeys running through the yard all the time. The wild turkeys scare the E36 M3 out of me… they are huge!

Anyway, good luck on the trip!

That is awesome!!!!!

Thanks for the comments!

Today I had time to install one of the new windows. The new windows are not the same size as the old windows. I had to do some fiberglass work to make the window fit. the good news is these windows look exactly like the ones found on newer Scamp trailers.

Old window out and now I have a big hole in my camper.

Template marks the location of the new window. I justified the window to the left because there are rivets that pass through the shell to hold the closet in place. I didn't want the rivets under the window edge.

New hole in camper.

I cut out a filler panel from some fiberglass junk I had left over from the interior. The filler panel was glassed in with three layers of random matrix cloth on the outside and three layers of cloth on the inside. Then I slogged on some bondo and finished the repair down to 220 grit. this is a large area to repair and it took four hours to do.

The finished repair is feathered into the gel-coat and is undetectable to the touch.

It may be hard to see, but this is the new window.

Next is the door window.

nice work.....that looks really good

that is pretty cool, nice going

Fiberglass repair is no fun.

Tow with a mid size car? Looks like a mid size mower is doing the job fine Cool build.

Nice!

DoctorBlade wrote: Fiberglass repair is no fun.

I agree!

So.. dinner was running late and I had a chance to do a little more work on the camper.

The door fits like E36 M3 and a new one is out of the question. I did some investigation and discovered the door is filled with water. I'm thinking it froze many times over the last 20 or 30 years and distorted the door.

I drilled about 20 holes on the bottom of the door to encourage the water to drain. Then I put two relief kerfs in the door in approximately the right location. The kerfs will allow the door to bend back with the aid of some turn buckles. This is all temporary and once I get the door to fit properly, I'll repair the fiberglass damage.

Door gap is big enough to let out all the ice cold air conditioning....can't have that.

Temporary braces to get the door back into shape.

Door back on and adjusted. The water will want to drain for a few days before I put in a few more kerfs and adjustments. Its probably going to take a week of tweaking and some more holes to get the door to fit.

Door window in.... slightly crooked. There is plenty of wiggle room to get the window in alignment.

Very cool.

I'm diggin this build. Keep up the good work!

This is great. Definitely keep it updated.

Nice! I've always liked those Bolers. Too small for my family sadly. They have a bit of collector following too.

Am I reading these pictures right? Do you crap right at the dining room table and can swing the door open at the same time to get a view of the full moon or significant, much needed, ventilation?

Very cool build

In reply to JohnRW1621:

Yes, that is the plan in an extreme situation, however not likely to happen.

I trolled the internet to find the best floor plan for the casual camper and this is the best location for the porta-potty.

Think of it like a fire extinguisher.... it's there if you need it.

I like how the exterior is just ratty enough for people to leave you alone, hiding the swanky goodness (for a camper) that hides within.

Mitchell wrote: I like how the exterior is just ratty enough for people to leave you alone, hiding the swanky goodness (for a camper) that hides within.

While nice, that is not swanky goodness for a camper. I've seen some that go for as little as $15,000 in nice condition that are nicer than my house, albiet smaller.

I keep a casual eye peeled for a semi-ratty airstream (for the cool stainless outside) that I can redo – want to make a guest house for my folks to stay in when they come to visit. I have the space in the side yard to put it, just haven’t lined up the right candidate and a few grand to buy the trailer yet. My grandparents had a few small-ish trailers a lot like this one. 12-15ft little trailer pulls just great behind a Town Car or a Caprice (etc), and is still small enough to stick in the back corner of your property and not be a huge eyesore...

Anyway. Love it. Pretty cool looking little mini-trailer – keep posting up your results.

Slinged on some moar fiberglass and bondo this week. I’m getting most of the big stuff out of the way and now I have to go back to catch all the little things. This camper should turn out pretty clean when it’s done.

My dad taught me how to do bodywork and paint when I was a kid. As I recall, dad would take a lot of shortcuts with aluminum foil. He once reinforced a car door with pressure treated wood. He was old school and used nails instead of drywall screws. I have un-learned some things over the years.

I totally dig the rat-rod look, but find it difficult to leave the camper looking distressed…. Especially since it will spend some time in the driveway. The plan is to shoot it with a two stage enamel next weekend (weather permitting).

For practicality reasons the camper is going to be all white. I’m toying with the Idea of putting Scamp decals on it, but that is so wrong…. That would be like putting BMW decals on a moped.

According to the internet, a Scamp and a Boler are essentially identical. The decals only cost about $50.00 including the red racing strips…. Hmmmmm. The Scamp spare tire cover is only $22.00. Hmmmm. On the other hand, Boler decals would need to be custom made. Hmmmmm.

Anyway, I focused on the door today and discovered the lower hinge area was warped and the hinge needed to be moved a little bit. I grounded down the area and built it back up with many layers of random matrix cloth. I re-drilled the holes and mounted the hinge to confirm the door alignment was better. This area carries a lot of weight and I think the repair should hold up well.

Lower door hing area needed to be re-worked. The gel-coat was ground off and I slapped on many layers of fiberglass cloth.

Re-drilled the hinge holes.

Traced around the hinge. This area needs to be flat.

60 grit paper knocks down the fiberglass pretty quick. Gorilla hair type filler was next.

slogging on the filler.

Filler sets up pretty quick. Before it fully cures I knock down the area with a hacksaw blade.

Edges cleaned up with a razor blade.

Wait.....and wait a bit more until the filler cures. Then knock it down with 60 grit.

Top coat the base filler with a light weight product.

Before the top coat fully cures, I hit it with the hack saw blade and discovered a shallow area. Damn!

MOAR bondo!

hacksaw blade, razor blade, 60 grit, then 120 grit. .... done for now. I'll let the fillers gas off for a day then come back and block the area.

Door back on.

Inside of the door. I put a second cut on the inside and temporary installed a second set of turn buckles. The door was pulled into shape and two layers of fiberglass was laid down. Tomorrow I'll release the new turn buckles and see how the door reacts.

stay tuned!