Aluminum painted roof thoughts?

[bennelson]

Hey everyone.

I am working on getting my roof cover on soon.

I have insulated the teardrop and bent a 1/8ths" sheet of plywood over the top and glued and stapled it down.

I haven't had real good luck locating 4'x10' sheet aluminum yet. The one place that said they could order me some is asking $234 for two sheets of 4'x10'x.032.

The one good lead I have is when I stopped at a semi-truck trailer repair shop. They have 4'x10'x.050 sheet aluminum IN STOCK. This is the standard material that almost every semi trailer is made of. They want $90 per sheet.

This stuff is pretty thick. Will I have any problems with weight or bending it? It is also pre-painted white. I thought this might be great because I was considering painting the roof anyways.

My wall exterior is oak 1/8 plywood covered in spar varnish.

I also saw that RUSTOLEUM has a few specialty paints that look pretty cool. They have a metalic green that might be nice.

My car is a crappy blue 4-cylinder, and my wife's is a decent metalic green Pontiac Sunfire. I thought it might be nice to have the trailer match the tow vehicle. I plan on having my teardrop longer than my car.

Anyways, I thought either metalic blue or green would look great with the oak sides and tow vehicle.

There is also a HAMMERED FINISH Rustoleum available. I think it looks really cool! But, would this be appropriate for a teardrop roof? It would be easy to touch-up, or help cover any real small dings on the front.

Do you think a hammered-finish paint would cause any problems with water run-off or other problems? (I don't think it is going to make the whole thing any less aerodynamic.)

Lastly, I would love to make this trailer have the woody contrasting color trim. Can anyone tell me how thick "standard" woody trim would be, or what thickness you used? I have to figure out how to add that much to my roof to make the 4' sheet cover the then slightly more that 4' width.

Thanks for your thoughts,

-Ben

[mikeschn]

The one good lead I have is when I stopped at a semi-truck trailer repair shop. They have 4'x10'x.050 sheet aluminum IN STOCK. This is the standard material that almost every semi trailer is made of. They want $90 per sheet.

Hey Ben,

It sounds like you hit the jackpot, and already painted too! woo hoo!

I can't remember if mine was .040 or .050, but I had no problem bending it around any curves. And white is a good choice to keep the heat down. I'd go with it!

Mike...

[ssrjim]

Hey everyone.

I am working on getting my roof cover on soon.

I have insulated the teardrop and bent a 1/8ths" sheet of plywood over the top and glued and stapled it down.

I haven't had real good luck locating 4'x10' sheet aluminum yet. The one place that said they could order me some is asking $234 for two sheets of 4'x10'x.032.

The one good lead I have is when I stopped at a semi-truck trailer repair shop. They have 4'x10'x.050 sheet aluminum IN STOCK. This is the standard material that almost every semi trailer is made of. They want $90 per sheet.

This stuff is pretty thick. Will I have any problems with weight or bending it? It is also pre-painted white. I thought this might be great because I was considering painting the roof anyways.

My wall exterior is oak 1/8 plywood covered in spar varnish.

I also saw that RUSTOLEUM has a few specialty paints that look pretty cool. They have a metalic green that might be nice.

My car is a crappy blue 4-cylinder, and my wife's is a decent metalic green Pontiac Sunfire. I thought it might be nice to have the trailer match the tow vehicle. I plan on having my teardrop longer than my car.

Anyways, I thought either metalic blue or green would look great with the oak sides and tow vehicle.

There is also a HAMMERED FINISH Rustoleum available. I think it looks really cool! But, would this be appropriate for a teardrop roof? It would be easy to touch-up, or help cover any real small dings on the front.

Do you think a hammered-finish paint would cause any problems with water run-off or other problems? (I don't think it is going to make the whole thing any less aerodynamic.)

Lastly, I would love to make this trailer have the woody contrasting color trim. Can anyone tell me how thick "standard" woody trim would be, or what thickness you used? I have to figure out how to add that much to my roof to make the 4' sheet cover the then slightly more that 4' width.

Thanks for your thoughts,

-Ben

Too bad your not in Phoenix. I just bought 4x12 .032 sheets for 75.00. I even had an extra I'd love to sell you...

[doug hodder]

Ben....I covered up the remaining edge from the 4by material that didn't fit on the 49" width of my roof by using 1/8" by 1 1/2 aluminum strap....check my photo album....I can't remember, but I think on some of the Rustoleum trick finishes...hammered...wrinkle...that you need to use some heat to get them to cure for the exact finish....I know that you get a lot better finish from wrinkle by doing that....I think that if you were to do it all over the roof...you might want to find it available in quarts rather than a rattle can to do the roof....dry edges might be a problem...and that is a lot of square footage to do out of a spray can..better off shooting it with a spray gun....if the top is already painted...scuff sand it to give the paint some tooth to attach to...at least 220 grit.....you may also want to do a sealer coat prior to the final paint application...the sealer may not be necessary depending on what the white paint is....Wind resistance is a non issue either way....I built my woody using maple framing resawn from 3/4" material...planed it down to about 1/4"...then installed it on the sides using screws and epoxy...pulled the screws after the glue cured, countersunk them and installed bung plugs 3/8"....Check out my album for pics....Doug

[IraRat]

Check out Len's TD. I don't know if he painted it or bought it prepainted.

[ssrjim]

<---This one is painted. It started as the white preprimed metal.