Portable man cave. 1972 13ft Boler camper.

Moar interior progress... The fridge, microwave and electronics cubby starts to take form.
The backside...

profile..

Test fitting....
The bottom cutout is for the fridge. The bulk of the fridge weight will rest on the wheel well. The middle cutout is for the microwave. Some internal brackets need to be fabricated for additional support.
When the framing is complete I'll have a buddy laminate it with black Formica.

The chosen fridge is actually a high end ice-maker for a motorhome. Picked it up at a garage sale for $8.00. The ice making junk was removed and I rewired the unit accordingly. I also had to change the thermostat so the unit wouldn't freeze everything. In the end it worked out great. The fridge ran for a few weeks in the garage to confirm the surgery was successful. Plans are to have a remote exhaust fan kick in whenever the compressor starts up... this should help pull the heat off the condenser.

The microwave is a Sharp half pint. $10.00 at yet another garage sale. I covered the outside with carbon fiber vinyl... that was a mistake. I'm going to have to re-work the sheet metal jacket to include a flange so the microwave has a better mounting system.

An exterior LED porch light was added because it gets dark at night.

More to come!

A little more progress was made on the appliance closet this weekend.

The plywood fascias are going to be attached to the old Boler closet using this bolt and anchor nut arrangement. The nut will get buried beneath the Formica surface for a seamless finish.

Some stuff needed laminate the Formica. My buddy Jeff did all the Formica inside the camper a few years ago. Jeff is a master when it comes to formica, he used to build custom cabinets for the rich and famous.

Jeff trims one of the edges using a router and a guide.

Quick clean up with a sanding block.

Painting on some rubber cement. Both the plywood and the formica get three coats of cement.

Fast forward a bit and the formica was applied then trimmed with a router.

Some inside edges cleaned up with a file.

Back inside the camper and ready to test fit the finished panels.

Photobucket is pissing me off right now.. lets see if I can upload some more pics....

The panels loosely fitted. The exposed corner will be finished with a black aluminum angle.

The $8.00 fridge and $10.00 microwave are test fitted.

Now for something completely different....

The Saturn wagon had a dead battery and I used the camper generator to jump start the car. Awesome!

Looks good. You may want to paint the front edge of the red microwave if it stays viable. Slick generator!

Thanks!

100% agree, the red on the microwave has got to go.

Hello. Just found this on a google search for bolers as I am restoring a 74 at the moment. I have been searching high and low for the original side windows like you pulled out. You wouldn't have these still would you. If do interested in selling one? For whatever reason this site won't let me message you directly but feel free to email me at mike.schoby (at) outdoorsg.com.

Thanks

Hi Mike,

Sadly, the windows were hauled off by the scrap guy a few years ago

Geez, for some reason, I never connected two of my favorite projects to you, Doc.

But it makes me try to put another bad project into your head....

Making a mini boler for your stealth Miata.

Ahh that's too bad but thanks for responding. Btw very nice work on your boler project. In reply to Doc Brown:

Hi 'ya Mike,

I forgot to welcome you to the forum. You may want to stick around.... there are plenty of enablers (looking at you Alfadriver).... and lots of great ideas and advice.

Edit... Sorry, the coffee hasn't reached my brain yet..perhaps you could start a build thread on the Boler..

how did I miss this thread from before.. it is very pertinent to my interests.

So how is the Boler holding up?

The Boler (Scamp ) is getting plenty of use this summer. The camper is currently parked in the back yard and is an air conditioned haven during this heat wave. I reckon sometime in August or September I'll drag it to a private campground for a weekend or two.

My 2002 Saturn SL1 pulls it with ease up to 50 MPH... then the car starts working hard. Not really an issue at this point.

Back yard camping

Clearly you need an F350 Dually diesel. This is 'Murica after all!

now I just need to find one. I keep finding "restored" ones on CL for too much money.. I need to find a $600 one like yours

In reply to mad_machine:

At the time, I didn't realize what an awesome deal this camper was. A few years ago I stumbled across a genuine Scamp an a garage sale for $1000.00. It had the interior removed, but allegedly all the bits were to be included. I passed on the deal only to realize latter what a dumb ass I was.

Anyway, this past spring I did some work on the A/C to correct a drainage problem. I shot a bunch of pictures but have been too busy to update this thread. I'll go ahead and post an update in a day or so.

Stay tuned!

in reading through your build thread.. you mentioned using plywood to fix the door.. as somebody who works on boats as a hobby, you did that right. Most glassfibre boats use a plywood (or balsa) core for strength.

Hi Fujioko. I don't know if you still are on this site, but I recently bought your 1972 Boler.  I'm really enjoying reading the journey you took to get her in the condition I purchased her in. I'm loving this blog as I was able to have peace of mind knowing her story. Thank you and maybe one day I could touch base with you about your work and the history. 

I'm pretty sure he is still on here.  I think he recently posted a for sale thread for the small Ford engine setup for a miata.

He goes by doc brown now.

Funnily enough I was re-reading this thread the other day and DM’d him asking for a link to his Photosuckit site so I could see them non blurred out. He got right back to me so he’s around. 

In reply to wvumtnbkr :  Thank you for the information on his name.  I'll try to look him up using doc brown.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson :  Thank you for the update. His last post to this thread was in 2016 so I was crossing my fingers hoping he might still be around.

I'm still around, as a mater of fact I look through the build threads every day.

Congratulations on  acquiring the camper, I  was beginning to wonder what ever happened to it.

Anyway, if you have any questions, feel free to ask

In reply to Doc Brown :  It is wonderful to hear from you!  Thank you for responding.  I'm looking forward to many wonderful years camping with my (your) Boler.  I know I will have a few questions down the road so don't be surprised if you hear from me.  I know for one that the door still isn't lining up perfectly and has some gaps.  I will have to figure out what to do.  I have been following a Boler group on Facebook and so far have been very helpful with tips and suggestions on various topics.

I simply wanted to thank you for taking on this project and bringing my "Sweet Bee" back to life.  You saved another vintage camper from a horrible demise and brought it back to life.  Thank you is to weak of a saying but it is all I can offer.  Thank you!

I hope you enjoy the camper as much as I did.  It certainly was a lot of fun restoring it as well.

As I understand, the cabin door will never be perfect due to the way the camper was originally constructed.

Anyway, enjoy!