Seems to me you'd need a double-decker system. The largest panel size you can use is 3'9" high (that will fit across the teardrop inside) by about 3' wide (that will fit vertically through the teardrop door). I know the inside of the teardrop is bigger than that, but I don't think you'll get anything much bigger through the door.
So a three-panel assembly is going to make three sides of a space 3' square. Stack another one on top and you've got any height you want up to 7'6". Add a separate roof panel, and possibly a separate modesty panel that covers the gap from the ground to the bottom of the teardrop sidewall, and you've got a fully enclosed coffin, er, space.
I reckon the walls wouldn't be strong enough unless the foam is maybe 2" thick - that would make the folded stack 16" thick, which is perfectly reasonable. To stop the foam getting punctured, I think I would skin it with Coroplast (same trade name in the US?), the thin ultra-light double-walled plastic used for making signs.
It would be convenient if the folding joints between the panels would fold both ways (so the three-panel assembly can be folded up in a 'Z' shape) and they need to be very low stress - I don't think I could come up with a way of sticking piano hinge on the foam, as the hinge would just snap off, taking a little bit of foam with it.
I suggest the old-fashioned fabric hinge - this folds both ways, is super light and spreads its load over as large an area as you like. This is also exactly the sort of hinge that used to be used on movable draught/privacy screens just like Bledsoe posted.
It is made from, say, 3" wide strips of material that are stuck onto the opposite sides of adjacent panels over a length of, say, 3". Next to the first strip is another strip stuck the
other way around. This diagram (looking down from on top) shows the first strip on the left in red and the second on the right in blue:
You could even make the hinge out of duct tape alone, although you would have to carefully stick two pieces of tape sticky-face-to-sticky-face (that's not going to line up every time, is it?) with the overlap in the middle of the joint - you can't use one piece of tape as it has to stick on opposite sides of itself to the two panels.
To stick the roof panel on, I would use Velcro, though it would need to be carefully thought out, as there's a risk the Velcro would be stronger than the foam!
Them's me first thoughts.
Gan canny
Andrew
by Spadinator » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:32 pm 
