Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

The teardrop I'm building will be spending most of its time in very dusty, alkali desert conditions (when it isn't in the garage at home).

I'm afraid that the mill finish aluminum will quickly look like garbage. Scratched, corroded, dented garbage.

Does anybody have any experience with Chemetal for use on the outside of a trailer?

http://www.chemetalco.com/700.htm

Here's Ed's teardrop. The picture doesn't do it justice. It's glued on to plywood. Danny

Beautiful! Thanks for the pictures.

After reading the tech data; it's not for exterior use; will likely scratch easily; not made for horizontal apps.

Ageless wrote:After reading the tech data; it's not for exterior use; will likely scratch easily; not made for horizontal apps.

I think it would be a tougher finish than mill aluminum.

How happy are people with mill finish aluminum in harsh environments?

Tackett wrote:

Ageless wrote:After reading the tech data; it's not for exterior use; will likely scratch easily; not made for horizontal apps.

I think it would be a tougher finish than mill aluminum.

How happy are people with mill finish aluminum in harsh environments?

It is not "tougher" that mill finish aluminum in my opinion. If you scratch it you can not repair it. The layer of aluminium is very thin. It also would depend on the alloy of the mill finish aluminum. If you wnet 6061 it would be soft. If you went 7075 it would be harder. Most of what you see is 5052. It also depends on the temper of the aluminum.

Jeremy

I've used it on countertops. Does scratch very easily. I wouldn't even think about using it outside.

Best,
Tom

tk wrote:I've used it on countertops. Does scratch very easily. I wouldn't even think about using it outside.

Best,
Tom

Thanks for the info!

Speaking of laminate, here's another one of Ed's teardrops with wood grained plam.
Ed uses the gloss finish. This one is about 3 years old and still looks great. Danny

...to protect your mill finish Al http://www.sharkhide.com/sharkhide_metal_protectant.htm I've not used myself BUT it is a highly though of product on aluminum fishing boat forums...we do have member here who has used it and I hope to get a report on how it is doing during this summer...keep in mind, plain ol' mill finish AL will scratch easily...you can almost "look" a scratch into it and it will weather/oxidize without some sort of protectant on it...Steve(sonnetpro) beach camps regularly and uses an anodized AL he got from www.saf.com and it has held up very well to the salt environment.....
madjack

rainjer wrote:

Tackett wrote:

Ageless wrote:After reading the tech data; it's not for exterior use; will likely scratch easily; not made for horizontal apps.

I think it would be a tougher finish than mill aluminum.

How happy are people with mill finish aluminum in harsh environments?

It is not "tougher" that mill finish aluminum in my opinion. If you scratch it you can not repair it. The layer of aluminium is very thin. It also would depend on the alloy of the mill finish aluminum. If you wnet 6061 it would be soft. If you went 7075 it would be harder. Most of what you see is 5052. It also depends on the temper of the aluminum.

Jeremy

The 5052-T32 or T34 is about as structural as it gets unless you want to start paying for aircraft-grade structural sheet. Both 2024-T3 and 7075 -T76 etc. (there are a million of them) cost WAY more than the 5052. Additionally, the formability of the 7075-T6/T76 is very low, so forget about bending it -- it would be very difficult to form at home. Anywaym if you got the 5053 it would probably hold up OK (I'm guessing based on strength). I'm pretty sure it is one of the better cosmetic allows that still has decent strength. It fairly easy to find also. (I found that out since I was looking to form a car body out of it)