Good Find? LL Bean Edition-Old Town Camper 16ft

[jason.talley161]

I found this the old town camper for $500, what do you guys think if I plan to restore completely?

 

[Alan Gage]

Looks like a good candidate to save. New seats, thwarts, yoke, and a good cleaning should about do it.

Alan

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

The Camper was made in a 15' and 16' version. Both were stable and popular family and cottage canoes. Which is this? I assume a 16' would be worth a bit more than a 15'. The HIN will tell you in what year it was made.

It looks in pretty good shape to me, so I'm not sure there's much to restore. The central seat is removable option. I think $500 would be a good buy unless there's some defect not shown in the photos.

 

[jason.talley161]

Yeah I'm not positive on the hin number unfortunately. I asked the lady to look on the canoe and even gave her an example and she wasn't able to find it. So I'm going to go ahead and make the hour drive based off a good pictures. Not really sure what year model this is but looks to be in pretty good shape. I've been restoring three layer Poly canoes but I've never worked on a royalex before. Fingers crossed there won't be anything outside of replacing the seats, yoke, and thwart.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Looks like at least the one stem hasn't been ground off. That's a good sign. If the wood isn't rotting, the seat frames could be cleaned up and refinished after cutting away the old caning, then turn them over and give them polyester webbing. Check for end rot on the frames and the yoke before you decide what to do, but lacking any, I would just refinish and use them.

I'm kinda out of the loop on the price of royalex canoes these days, but 500 for a Camper with plenty of life in it seems reasonable. Push on the hull all around and listen for crunchy sounds. If you hear much of that, negotiate a lower price.

 

[canoekevin]

I bought my 16’ camper nine years ago for $200. I decide to replace the seats thwart and yoke with all new parts. I think that parts cost me about $200. I love the camper. Very stable and bulletproof.
I decided to get creative with the old seats. I removed what little was let of the cane material and turned the seats into picture frames for my office.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

@canoekevin, what a great idea! I have a few of those around here too. Now I know what to do with them.

 

[jason.talley161]

Picked it up, it was a 2004 model. I assume it may have been kept on its side because one side was more dull vs the other side that looked almost brand new. The dull side had some of the golden pinstripe faded versus the other side that looked almost new. There was no issues whatsoever. The yoke and thwart need to be replaced but I already have one spare at the house and maybe able to use the original seats after I clean it. I have never owned a royalex so not quite sure whether the dark stain on the interior is from being left out in the sun but I was able to give it a very brief wash before putting it up and it was just a stain that seemed to fade a little bit from that wash. Any ideas on what to use to try and get this to return to its color? I have simple green at the house which I plan to scrub with.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I don't know how you'd get that stain out, but I wouldn't let it worry me. Should be a lot of life left in that Camper. And BTW, it's a good place to start learning to pole.