Thrifty Alternatives ..Building Foam Campers

[GPW]

As we’ve heard here , some folks are having trouble getting materials for Foamies , and are ending up having to pay much coin for them ...
Might we take a moment (again )to discuss the “Fine Art of Salvage “ ... As you might recall , a lot of the materials in my Foamie , I either already had on hand or “found” ... the foam was some scrap lying in an architect’s fab shop.. I asked about it , he gave to it to me ..
Although I don’t plan on starting my new Foamie until the weather gets cooler (* and less rainy), I’m already gathering bits and pieces for the new build (the Scavenging phase) ... Looking around in places like local , Craig’s list , newspaper ads... Can’t pass a construction site where a bit of Foam is used without stopping and asking questions... Found some Huge blocks Cheap , surplus from a concrete worker... Got gallons of paint waiting , left over from painting the house ... Finding bits of heavy canvas at the ladies fabric stores (on sale ), lots of good deals for skinning material both outside and Inside (decorative) .. My friend is bringing over some scraps of sail making material ... just gathering what I can at the time ... who knows what will get used in the final construction , but considering that most everything is salvaged , it’s good to have on hand for maybe something else ...

If you plan a build start looking around Early !!! Amazing what you can find for merely the effort of looking around...

Last minute material builds are usually not the best , as you have to pay the MSRP , and may have to compromise materials for just what you can get quick ...

[atahoekid]

As with many other things in life the art of creative salvage is born of necessity or is handed down from generation to generation. I have had the advantage of neither. My mindset has always been buy it when you can afford it. I was always taught that way. I know this thread has always had a context of being thrifty, I came to this thread with the mindset of trying to learn a new way to build and a weather "proof" way to build.

So from where I sit, it's a matter of the method satisfying more than a single need or philosophy. GPW is the champion of this method and he has his reasons why. I understand that many are uncomfortable and doubtful about venturing this far from the norm, but it certainly works for GPW, Louella, Bonnie, myyself and a few others but it may not work for all. So those who wish to follow us may do so and with our hearty "Welcome Aboard". If you choose the conventional method "thanks for visiting and good luck on your build"

Just my 2 cents worth

[Wolffarmer]

I would just like to salvage my youth.



Randy

[Rosey]

I would just like to salvage my youth.



Randy

Wouldn't we all!

[eaglesdare]

I would just like to salvage my youth.



Randy

[GPW]

Youth , for me , is a bird long fledged the nest Just enjoying the memories

Just trying to say that you can get by without Buying everything ... Gotta’ remember what the first word of the Title is ... In our Capitalist society , we’re taught to Buy everything , then discard it when you’re tired of it , have no space to store it , or because it got dusty .. So if someone is discarding something you can use , why not ? The Art is finding that someone ... With the large Corporations/Billionaires trying to squeeze every last penny out of us, why not take advantage of the Freebies (or cheapies) that come along ... I’m certainly not out to impress anybody , my Foamie (s) built for a very specific purpose , no matter what it looks like or what it’s made of ... it has a special purpose ... Not that I don’t want it to look Cool , but even a simple paint job can make most anything look Much Better ... a premise I’ve exploited most of my life as an Artist

Just saying , Foamies are so much More than just Foam and canvas, it’s an “experience” , requiring one to exercise their mental processes (thinking out of the box) to achieve Their specific camping needs , and based on the old theory of “making it Last”, and making it for a reasonable cost of materials and labor ... something we haven’t seen in the RV industry for sure , or any other corporate effort lately , everything “disposable “ , too complicated or expensive to repair ... ( hey, I even used to work on my own car , try that now )
Foam , canvas , that’s nothing really ... just an available material used to make known structural constructions that meet our specific parameters... With enough thiking , we could probably make a trailer out of most anything ... not saying it would be “practical” It’s the thinking that counts , and you can see with the Foamie trailers already built there has been Much thinking , and great successes ...
Foam and Canvas just “happens” to work , and well for my (our) humble needs anyway ! It’s readily available if you just keep looking around ... I use The Religious method : “Seek and ye shall find!” True Dat !!!

[atahoekid]

I agree with your points. I just wish I wasn't so well "taught" to be a disposable consumer. Wish the "reusing" thing came to mind more naturally.

On another topic, does anyone else notice that this particular thread takes a pretty long time to load? Or is it just me? Is it time to create Part II of this thread?

[eaglesdare]

i haven't had any problems with it yet.

[GPW]

Threads with a Lot of Pictures take a long time for me ...

[GPW]

" Canvas is just too hard to get and too expensive” ... We’ve heard that before ... Well, there is an alternative , and right under our noses ... Newspaper ... (this should certainly stir up some discussion ) ..

I keep reading about the Foamie airplane guys using common newspaper and T2 as a covering material .. All reporting excellent results and achieving some Nice looking finishes , when painted ... and the usual strength/adhesion tests have been done on paper covered panels , the result similar to canvas ...
If you think about it , it’s not too far fetched .... Canvas is made of Cotton , cellulose fibers .... Newspaper is made of wood reduced to a pulp of , you guessed it , cellulose fibers ... In canvas , the fibers are woven , in newspaper the fibers are interlocked , same thing basically ...
Now admittedly , canvas is stronger , only because it’s thicker ... so to get the same strength , paper would have to be thicker , or just several layers of it applied ... The glue and paint make it waterproof ... The airplane guys apply the flat sheets to flat areas and for compound curves , use strips , and with plastic squeegees or old credit cards to do the smoothing ... The paper does tend to shrink slightly , similar to canvas, and results in a tight covering ...
Applied the same thickness as canvas , it would have similar strength properties , but the only advantage to paper is it’s sand able after it dries ... so smoothing becomes easy ... and being applied in thin layers , there would be no seams showing , so it would make a seamless finish ... something I’ve yet to discover with canvas , which frays when you cut it ... So with a little sanding and a couple coats of primer , it should be easy to get a smooth uniform finish which would defy analysis . We’ve seen many MG floats done this way , and they look smooth as any fiberglass .. some Quite Old too ...

For those that would balk at the strength , of paper on the roof , one could easily imbed some steel chicken wire or hardware cloth under the covering on the roof ... which would pretty much eliminate any worries of stray falling limbs , meteorites , or frozen turkeys... That would work with canvas too ...just for the overly cautious...

Food for thought ... Just a couple weeks of recycling should be enough material to make a nice smooth hard covering for most any Foamie trailer (or wood too) ... You already paid for the daily news , might as well just get some use out of it other than wrapping fish ...

Just another Thrifty Alternative ...

[TJinPgh]

I don't doubt that it would work from a strength aspect.

One thing I'd be curious about, though. As you say, to get any amount of real strength out of it you'd need to do a lot of layers. Wouldn't you also need to put glue between each of those layers? I'm not sure it would soak through well enough to stick multiple layers with one coating of TB.

If so, then, given the cost of the glue, I'm not sure about the over-all cost savings.

[linuxmanxxx]

Tight bond is not expensive and goes really far 3M fast bond is expensive at 150 a gallon.

[GPW]

Just saying .... if you want a trailer , there are Many possibilities ...

[eaglesdare]

i think this line of thinking would work quiet well actually. i think the brown paper bag would work also, using poly not tb2. not sure if it is thrifty, but i think it would work, giving a totally different look compared to the canvas look. wraping the paper around curves, and cut outs would be a whole lot easier than canvas. repairs i would think would be that much more easier also. i might actually give this a try on the second build. i read this thought last night and wanted to post, but decided to sleep on it. so i have been thinking about it all night. i know the floor i did is still just sitting outside in the weather. we have had lots of rain and 3 digit temps. the floor is still holding up.

[GPW]

Eagle, I really believe the T2 would be the best glue for paper , because of the shrinkage idea , which really tightens up the paper making a smoother finish , and the T2/paper “grabs” much quicker than the poly .. easier to apply .. Both are waterproof so no problem there... Brown paper works great if you dampen it first , then it shrinks tight over gaps ... After seeing that really THICK brown paper used as a protective floor covering (Hdwe. store, Ironmonger) , I’d consider using that too ... But for the ultimate in Thrifty , old newspaper is hard to beat in the bang per buck dept. Once it’s smoothed and painted , nobody will know what it’s made of ...
The glue like T2 could be thinned 50/50 and still work just fine for the job ... More Thrifty ...
Repairs would be pretty quick , using the same color paint as the glue for a patch ... since the edges (in fact ALL the edges) are “paper thin” , it should , when primed and sanded be perfectly smooth ... everybody wanted a perfectly smooth shell ... here’s a most Thrifty way to get it ... GREEN too .... Recycle !!!