Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

My wife has took a real interest in what the TD will look like once we've built the structural elements and she's keen to kit out the inside. We were talking about the exterior, and although I'm very keen on having an aluminium skin, she thinks it would be more unique and creative to use different types of wood veneer to cover it.

The last time I used veneer was to make a chess table and that was back at school... I can't even remember what type of glue we used to stick it on to be honest.

My question/s relate to:

1) What types of veneer are the best for using with regards to longevity? I mean are there types of wood that suit being on the exterior of a TD better than others?

2) With regards to applying the veneer, we're going for quite a complex pattern, what is the best with regards to glues to stick it on (glue type rather than brand, there's certains glues that aren't on sale here in the UK) and is there a particular way to prepare the surfaces before we veneer them?

3) Once its stuck on, what would be the best method of protecting the veneer from the weather? Is it best to varnish it with several coats, or is there a more effective method of protecting it? And those who have used veneer, how often do you need to revisit a coating for it? Or does that depend on how much you use it?

I know thats a lot of questions for one post, but I just want to cover all the angles before we get carried away with weird and wonderful designs that may not be able to be used.

Cheers, Dewi

As long as ya got her interested already ya gotta do what ya gotta do to keep her there!!!
Any good waterproof wood glue should work I would think.
As far as covering it, if I was going to those lengths I think I would use a layer of fiberglass cloth and plenty of epoxy to coat it then clear it with automotive clear, just for piece of mind that my work would be well protected.
That's my opinion ....others may vary.

You could buy plywood with the veneer already attached:



As far as adhesive, I think on an exterior project you should stick with urea formaldahyde (sp?). I use old fashioned hide glue and hammer veneer for interior projects, but the hide glue will fail with too much moisture.

For surface prep just make sure it's flat and drag a saw across the substrate (plywood) sideways to roughen it up - or use really coarse sandpaper.

For protection Epoxy is the only way to go in my opinion. Almost any other finish will let water vapor through no matter what you do.

Eric

She's more than interested now... showed her what I've designed so far and I think that's done the trick... she wants to design the inside in a particular style, which I'm happy about because I can spend more time on the technical sides of building it. The outside as well... I wanted to go for either a print or some vinyl to partially cover the aluminium, but I reckon her ideas are better. It'll definately be unique.

With the fibreglassing thing, I presume the fibre glass is like a clear coating? I just did a search for the cloth and found some stuff called Bondo 499... is that the type of stuff I should be looking for?

Eric, I can't really go for pre-covered ply as the design we want to do is going to be quite detailed... not entirely sure how to go about it yet, but its another challenge.

When I put the formaldehyde into Google it came up with a product called Gorilla Glue... says its 100% waterproof, bonds in a couple of hours... sound about the right stuff?

Just been looking through the available veneers and my wife suggested 2 types, rosewood and ebony, I picked beech (we're going for 3 colours) and it turns out that the rosewood and ebony are the most expensive per square foot to buy... not overly sure with that yet... although another suggestion was my wife pinstriping it with one shot enamel. Doing the design, sanding and fibreglassing, then pinstriping the black lines in and doing away with the ebony veneer altogether... finally lacquering it with a few coats for shinyness.

Actually, can you lacquer over fibreglass?

Cheers, Dewi

I doubt you're gonna want to use GG for the veneer, that stuff foams up as it cures and I'd think it would tend to push your veneer around. Maybe Titebond III would be a better choice.

Something like this for the cloth would do you I would think.

Ahh Titebond... I can buy that over here! Right, thats added to the shopping list for tomorrow then.

Could I ask (and I realise I probably sound like a complete gorp with this) but the epoxy resin and fibreglass cloth... that will be clear won't it? What I mean is, I don't want to go to all the trouble of picking out veneer with a good grain, cutting the design and laying it all up to have like a misty coating over it.

The only fibreglassing I've seen done recently was on a VW camper bus to patch up a whole and it looked like a snotty gloopy type of stuff and it dried looking like something that had leaked out of a tree.

Cheers, Dewi

If you use epoxy and light glass cloth it should be perfectly clear. It takes a little work to get it nice but if you check Hodder's and Juneaudave's stuff (there are others too!!) you'll see where the work pays off.
Just keep in mind you have to overcoat the epoxy with something, it's not very UV resistant!

I’ve done some veneering for indoor stuff, but outdoor is a whole different deal. If it’s exterior, I would have it vacuum bagged with exterior rated marine glue. My buddy made a really nice bed and had a guy put the veneer on high-grade plywood (he used a vacuum bag). The guy who did the vacuum bagging did a lot of conference tables, and architectural wood stuff etc. There has to be someone in your area who does that sort of thing. You are talking about what is some of the most costly and exotic wood out there. It’s not worth putting that at risk with an untried glue method. With the vacuum bag you get a nice flat product that is bonded permanently to the substrate. If you are anywhere near a port there is probably a custom shop that caters to high-end boat building and that’s IMHO exactly who should put the wood on for you. I’m one of the biggest DIY guys around and I might be being overly paranoid, but that’s not something I would do if I wanted to make it super nice. Since you picked the most expensive wood out there [virtually] then I wouldn’t skimp on the process.

After that you can follow similar procedures to the ones that have been used successfully.