Leather?

[Brendie]

So, is it possible to use leather or rawhide as the outer skin of a teardrop?
Please, don't be rude. I am genuinely curious.
Just throwing ideas around.

[John61CT]

Possible? yes

Practical? hmm

Think canoes / kayaks but upside down

Traditional methods will leak, need maintaining.

Would take a lot of experimenting and really only give aesthetic advantages.

Fiberglass / epoxies, but then you lose the natural texture.

[Brendie]

Possible? yes

Practical? hmm

Think canoes / kayaks but upside down

Traditional methods will leak, need maintaining.

Would take a lot of experimenting and really only give aesthetic advantages.

Fiberglass / epoxies, but then you lose the natural texture.

Thank you for your response.

[dogcatcher]

Leather that is exposed to the elements needs a lot of attention.

[Brendie]

Leather that is exposed to the elements needs a lot of attention.

Thank you for your comment. Figured it would. Might test small pieces for fun.

[swoody126]

possibly a wooden planked side w/ leather inserts for accent ±

the maintenance would drain your enthusiasm IMHO

and 'TAINT WATERPROOF

sw

[Brendie]

possibly a wooden planked side w/ leather inserts for accent ±

the maintenance would drain your enthusiasm IMHO

and 'TAINT WATERPROOF

sw

Interesting. Thank you.

[Brendie]

I don't mind adding a protective layer as long as it doesn't kill the look.
Anyway, going to buy scraps & test them outside. See what works & what doesn't. I like that last idea of using leather inserts.
Or...just use leather for part of the inside skin instead.
Thanks for your help!

[Modstock]

As someone who works with leather all day. It would shrink. Not worth it.
Besides leather has gone up in price.

Sent from my SM-A115AP using Tapatalk

[dogcatcher]

There was a woodcarver on a woodcarving forum that carved wood so that it looked like tooled leather. It was awesome looking, you could do that. but in my mind if you started at age 20, you would be about 100 if you covered a teardrop trailer.

[Brendie]

There was a woodcarver on a woodcarving forum that carved wood so that it looked like tooled leather. It was awesome looking, you could do that. but in my mind if you started at age 20, you would be about 100 if you covered a teardrop trailer.

That would look cool but that would take a long time. Even with electrical carving tools (Dremel, chainsaw, etc).

[martymcfly]

Look up the wood butcher on here. I believe that he used marine vinyl or vinyl for automotive tops. I believe that it was a couple of years ago that it was posted on here.

[Greg M]

I used blue Naugahyde on my second trailer. It’s held up really well for over ten years. I put a layer of foam underlayment for laminate flooring underneath it to pad it out and stop any seams from showing through. I’m sure if you could find a faux leather vinyl with a good UV rating it would work well.

[PaulC]

User gone and all current posts deleted. If you would like to continue the conversation maybe you can start a new thread.
Cheers
Paul

[Tom&Shelly]

User gone and all current posts deleted. If you would like to continue the conversation maybe you can start a new thread.
Cheers
Paul

Thank you Paul! I'm good with my posts about spam being gone as long as the spam is!

Tom