The Astroliner

[Atomic77]

Good to know. Thanks Tom!

[Atomic77]

The Filon is on! After a lot of research and good advice from this forum we decided to float the Filon. First we epoxied every square inch of Luan on Friday night. Saturday we made templates of the front tongue and the rear taillights and license plate recess. We laid out the Filon (check the pictures to see what 208 sq. ft. of Filon looks like!) We used 3M 5200 as a giant gasket all the way around the perimeter, windows and fans. We used some big straps to hold everything in place. OP I used your suggestion and drilled two holes, one on each side through the Luan under the Filon. I put the holes in the section that already had the hole for the light over the dinnette...which will be hidden by the base cover for the pendant light. Now to just let her sit for a week while the 5200 does it's thing. Next weekend I'll route out the windows and start epoxing the seams...

[noseoil]

Way cool Michael. How much weight does this stuff add to the build? Also, curious about the thickness of what you used. Looks like it went very well and should be there to stay. Are you going to shoot it and do a flashy paint job, or just leave it alone & do white as the finish? Plenty of room for a nice paint job. Any plans for tail fins?

[daveesl77]

Michael, that is really, really sharp! On I think it is the first picture there are two lines (probably cut lines), but think about it as if they were two thin stripes. Just a thought.

dave

[dales133]

Looks wicked gonna look great all routed up.
What do you do in the recessed areas? Glass the Filion down?

[Atomic77]

Thanks guys...

Noseoil and Dave- I appreciate your enthusiasm! I don't even have the Filon completed and you guys are already planning the paint job! Awesome!



Actually, I've been planning the paint for a long time. So no, I'm not leaving the Filon white. But... Nothing "flashy" either, really. I'm going to keep it fairly simple. I don't want to go too crazy... trying to keep it retro. The only spoiler is, it will be two-toned. No tail fins in the plans (yet)... But still a great idea!

The roll of Filon was 8'x26' and weighed 68.64 lbs. About 1/16th " thickness. It's about 6oz per sq ft. The Filon for the walls weighed roughly 20lbs or so by the time we cut away the radius. So all in all, 100-110 lbs of total weight was added. Which sounds like a lot, but really isn't much when considering the size of the camper. (8.5'Hx7.5'Wx14'L) Also, very worth it considering the toughness and durability of Filon, and the ability to custom paint it. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the Filon really gives it that factory new look that I wanted.

Dale- The recessed areas in the picture really aren't recessed even though they seem that way. Actually, when I made the plates for the tail lights, I installed them with a 1/16" raised area all the way around. This was to accommodate the Filon's 1/16th" thickness. Now it is perfectly flush. The Filon is glued down all the way around the plate, then yes... I will come back and fiberglass/epoxy the seam and make them all go away. It will all be totally smooth when finished.

[aggie79]

As always, fantastic job on the filon Michael!

I'm looking forward to the epoxy seam details.

Take care,
Tom

[dales133]

Cool looking beautiful mate

[Atomic77]

Thank you both.Getting close to being enclosed and I'm happy about that...

[KCStudly]

Big milestone, and looks good.

She's coming right along.

[Atomic77]

10-4 on the big milestone KC!

[Atomic77]

And it's not a good thing...

After a long period of research, we made the decision to "float" the Filon on the roof. When we left on Sunday, it was beautiful! When I arrived at the shop yesterday, not so much. The Filon had warped and buckled. It was a horrible mess. The really strange thing was, the front had warped into a weird "cross-hatch" pattern. (See picture) And you could not only see it, but feel it too. So... I spent about 8 hours with a knife, cutting through the 5200 and removing the Filon.After I got it cut loose, it relaxed and laid flat just as before. I guess floating a piece this size, (8x26) doesn't work. Grrrrrrr.

[OP827]

MIchael, sorry for this. I think I know how bad it feels, had to re-work as well.
What was the ambient temperature when you installed the filon and when you saw it warped? It looks like a thermal expansion to me, but I can be wrong.
BTW even slightly darker colors will heat up significantly more while under the sun than a pure white.

[dales133]

That is wierd, must have got a bit of a twist in it as the glue went off.

Sorry to hear that what's your plan off attack now?

[Atomic77]

Temps have been mild here... 60's. It sat in the shop the entire time. I pulled it out to take pictures. It happened in the shop with relatively low temp changes. Everywhere the Filon was glued down, it looked nice and flat. So I will come back next weekend and use red glue to glue down the whole thing. What a pain.