Thrifty Alternatives ..Building Foam Campers

[Wobbly Wheels]

GPW, it's probably too late at this point....but if you take a pair of shears and cut along the serged edge of the tape, it will fray. Not sure if it would work with the glue, but with resin it allows you to feather the transition without that edge showing.

[GPW]

W2, too late for this one... happy with the ironed edges... primer should make them hardly apparent , the straight lines doesn't distract the eye the way a ragged frayed edge would ... like mine was before applying the FG tape ...

[GPW]

Had a little acrylic primer , painted the seams... they pretty much disappear with the primer... and yes, that un-sized canvas really soaks it up .... Think I did more dipping than brushing ... Roller would have been quicker.. Need more primer...
Eagle , almost used up my second gal. of T2... have to get more of that too ... HD tomorrow ..

[mikeschn]

So what is the comparison?

$600 of fiberglass resin versus $45 of T2?

Mike...

[GPW]

Gosh !!! Is the resin really THAT expensive .... Yikes !!!

[mikeschn]

Gosh !!! Is the resin really THAT expensive .... Yikes !!!

I don't know, that's why I was asking...

Mike...

[eaglesdare]

i used a roller and only used about 1/2 gallon of primer on mine. but a full gallon of paint.

its looking good with the primer on it.

[eaglesdare]

Had a little acrylic primer , painted the seams... they pretty much disappear with the primer... and yes, that un-sized canvas really soaks it up .... Think I did more dipping than brushing ... Roller would have been quicker.. Need more primer...
Eagle , almost used up my second gal. of T2... have to get more of that too ... HD tomorrow ..

see you are getting there using up that t2! what did i use 4 gallons? yours is smaller than mine and i also did the diluted t2 on mine.

[GPW]

Eagle , all mine was diluted for the inside work , only slightly diluted for the outside (brushed better) still, 2 gallons ...
Mike it's been 5 years since I bought any epoxy ... I think a gallon with the hardener was about 80 bucks, but I got it from a friend who supposedly got it wholesale ... supposedly... I dunno' ... Wonder how many gallons you'd need for a full glass job ??? Probably not That much ... Curious !!

I full remember glassice's fiberglass foamie build ahd how frightfully messy and Labor Intensive it was... Didn't he quit after that ? I was just getting good at translating his unique literary style

Canvas and T2 looks better and better to me all the time ...

Ps. even the wife who knows of "these projects of mine " is starting to approve...

[Ratkity]

Had a little acrylic primer , painted the seams... they pretty much disappear with the primer... and yes, that un-sized canvas really soaks it up .... Think I did more dipping than brushing ... Roller would have been quicker.. Need more primer...
Eagle , almost used up my second gal. of T2... have to get more of that too ... HD tomorrow ..

Looking VERY good there Bear!

Eagle might have used less primer, but she used more T2. Copious amounts of T2. That might be the difference in the amounts of primer needed.

I really like the lines of your foamie!!

Hugs,
Ratkity

[eaglesdare]

i was not being thrifty with the glue.

[GPW]

I was ... trying to be thrifty... just needed all that glue ... and more ... It was cheap enough really ... I just thought I'd get more "mileage" from a gallon ... now we know ... Buy more Glue !!! Not like it will go to waste , I use the same glue for my guitar making ...

[eaglesdare]

yeah i should have stocked up when that t3 was 18 something for me last week. who knows what the prices will be next month.

[GPW]

Wonder if T2 comes in a "fiver" ... ? Probably cheaper in bulk ... not like it would go to waste around here...
Eagle , at least now we and others know , or have an idea about how much glue to buy up front ... Saves a trip back to the HD ... which for me is about 30 miles round trip ... That's 6 buck in Gas .. Thrifty is as Thrifty does ....

[GPW]

One recurring theme is the floor to wall joinery... Why that seems to be a problem , I don't know .... Nothing has been written in stone here, so just brace/ reinforce/ fiberglass/whatever that area till you feel confident ...
For my simple little build , it 's like fixing an ice chest to a board ... I believe the whole shell weighs less than the plywood floor, and I can still pick up the trailer ends with one hand ... So little Inertia to want to rip the foam off the flooring ... Far as stuff bouncing around inside , well, we secure all that anyway , right ??? As far as accidents go , any form of vehicle would suffer... that's like asking if it's Bear proof .... er, NO !!! But you'll find that damage to a foam structure is very localized, not as with a wood trailer that cracks and splits everywhere.. just cut away the damaged bits , and glue in new material ... As a silly example , on my foamie RC planes, I usually make a "spare Nose" ... so when the inevitable happens , I just cut off the crunched part and glue the new nose on ... despite high speed crashes from great heights , the nose is the only thing that suffers... the rest is fine... Foam is a lot stronger in ways that we don't give it credit .... yet ..