Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

We’ve been watching the RC forum for years now and them going on about Newspaper covering for their foam planes , painted with polyurethane … Canvas or paper , it’s all Cellulose fibers , and if you have a ready source of newspapers , Your covering material costs nothing , leaves no seams , and newspaper ( any paper ) sticks to foam like crazy … Thinned TB2 or polyurethane could be used to adhere it and it could be built up extra thick in stressed areas … And you can sand it smooth …
For those that need added strength ( ? ) , you could incorporate thin fiberglass like the kind used for sheetrock …
Repairs , should be pretty easy , add new paper , sand it smooth and paint … Paper mache done this way dries to a pretty hard surface …

Just an idea … I’m always thinking of the THRIFTY aspect of trailer building … especially these days …

This is something I have been rolling around in my mind for a while. I was thinking of building a treehouse using paper mache as an outside covering. The idea would be to do something that would easily allow for more of a sculptural look with complex curves and contours. Foam could be used for the substrate and carved to the shapes wanted or an interior framework could be made then covered with screen or chicken wire, then lay on the paper mache using TB2 and exterior paint.

This is from the Library of Congress. In WWII, Western Trailer Company made wartime trailer housing - essentially travel trailers - using molded paper components. From the LOC website:

"Overcoming metal shortage is a big problem in trailer manufacture. Western Trailer Company of Los Angeles has been able to replace metal fenders (wheel wells) successfully with plastic material made by a new process. Paper of forty pounds weight runs from rolls to a tent containing a glue-like solution. After it absorbs this solution, the operator breaks its stiffness by wadding and squeezing."



"Wadded-up paper, impregnated with a glue-like solution is smoothed into place over molds in continuous layers. The material is self-hardening and self-compressing. When dried, it is sanded, sawed and drilled, and may be installed with nails, screws or bolts."





"Here, a worker shows a finished wheel well ready for installation. It is made of successive layers of paper impregnated with a hardening solution. The finished wells are covered with an asphaltic preservative paint."



In this picture, you can see the trailer corners that were also made using this process.



I don't know why something like this couldn't be scaled up to do a teardrop or tiny travel trailer.

aggie79 wrote:This is from the Library of Congress. In WWII, Western Trailer Company made wartime trailer housing - essentially travel trailers - using molded paper components. From the LOC website:

Cool! thanks for sharing that. Scaling up would to make trailers would be little different than making them out of fiberglass, but paper is more reachable to the average DIYer

Maybe where this gets interesting is being able to use paper for mold making...

Alternative to canvass...

Somebody invented fiberglass last year. I have yet to see a peel test on it though.

Tony

tony.latham wrote:Alternative to canvass...

Somebody invented fiberglass last year. I have yet to see a peel test on it though.

Tony

Still LOL... Leave to you Tony!!

Paper layups is around everywhere. Mostly I see brown paperbag or drafting paper (large media printing now). Saves on doing many, upon many layers. Then comes the issue of the hardness of the final product and if, when said and done, it's as strong as fiberglass & resin.

I know one person that did a floor with TBll and paper bags. Then urethane over. Lasted for a couple years and the cracks appeared on the plywood seams. I was pretty excited about it and almost did my dining room floor (it looked like leather at first). Happy I waited.

Test this out before just jumping in! I see the seams as the weak points.

The Library Of Congress article said,

Paper of forty pounds weight runs from rolls to a tent containing a glue-like solution.

https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-20818/Specialty-Paper/Butcher-Paper-Rolls-Unbleached-18-x-1100?pricode=WB0444&gadtype=pla&id=S-20818&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhPT9o67f6wIVR-DICh1VdQ4kEAQYASABEgLwFfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
$35 for 1,100 feet of 40 pound paper

The finished wells are covered with an asphaltic preservative paint."

That sounds like the Fence Post paint we use for the bottom of our trailer decks.

This could be very cheap.

Good Thinking there.

RJ Howell wrote:

tony.latham wrote:Alternative to canvass...

Somebody invented fiberglass last year. I have yet to see a peel test on it though.

Tony

Still LOL... Leave to you Tony!!

And thus the wink.

Tony

RJ Howell wrote:Paper layups is around everywhere. Mostly I see brown paperbag or drafting paper (large media printing now). Saves on doing many, upon many layers. Then comes the issue of the hardness of the final product and if, when said and done, it's as strong as fiberglass & resin.

I know one person that did a floor with TBll and paper bags. Then urethane over. Lasted for a couple years and the cracks appeared on the plywood seams. I was pretty excited about it and almost did my dining room floor (it looked like leather at first). Happy I waited.

Test this out before just jumping in! I see the seams as the weak points.

They had cracks because they failed in the preparation of the floor. I was gone on a business trip about 30 years ago, when my wife did our entry way with paper sack flooring. It is stayed there for about 14 years before she decided she wanted tile. I had the honor of scarping up the paper, glue and a lot of polyurethane. I would have been happy with keeping the the paper. But the second part of the story, she did the walls in the bathroom, but crumpled the paper leaving a rough texture then painted over with latex paint. That brown paper sack wall texture is still there. It looks like a good stucco finish.

Around Easter, my wife "miss craftsperson" makes "giant Easter eggs", from plastic bottles, using paper mache, using white glue instead of flour. About 2 layers of newspaper and then painting with acrylic paper. They lay out in the garden and the flower beds until she gets tie of them. It is amazing how well they stand up to the weather. One year she made a paper mache duck, using white glue mic paper mache, again painted with latex paint, an awful looking pink duck, but again it lasted for along time, before she got another crazy idea.

Properly painted and maintained, paper mache can be durable. But a leak? It becomes history...

Use epoxy instead of TB2 and it will be water proof. Maybe use glass cloth...........

Seriously, been covering foam RC planes with paper and diluted glue or WBPU for years. Very strong for the added weight. If you could get the paper free (newsprint works well)you'd save the cost of canvas. Plus since you need many layers, it would be easier to cover compound curves. Think rounded corners and edges.........

I used the paper bag method in my galley. Turned out nice.

I think it does add to the strength of the foam, but I don't think I would trust it as a outer coating. Once there is a failure in the paper it rips pretty easy and it certainly does not give the canvas protection against pokes and cuts like the canvas does.

George.

On another forum a person made a bicycle sidecar using PVC pipe, chicken wire for the frame, then covered it with news paper and finally used fiberglass cloth. Unfortunately all of the pictures were lost to the photo bucket screw up. But some of the pics are on Google images, if you Google "led-sled sidecar project" and look at Google images some will show up. Even reading the thread without pictures is informative. http://ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php? ... ect.26096/

tony.latham wrote:Alternative to canvass...

Somebody invented fiberglass last year. I have yet to see a peel test on it though.

Tony

Fiberglass costs money though. You know Glen... THRIFTY!!! In days of yore it might be said that he tends to squeeze his nickels until the Indian is riding the buffalo!





Seriously GPW, interesting idea... particularly in light of the above article about the fenders made during WW2. I wonder how durable those ended up being? I have some foam scraps out in the garage and a fair amount of newsprint on hand. I might see about a ...TEST!!!