Thrifty Alternatives ..Building Foam Campers

[linuxmanxxx]

Read the whole thread. What do i get ?....

So what's the best glue to glue the foam to Aluminum. I want to have aluminum sides.

I use 3M 30NF Fastbond contact adhesive green color to stick my luan to foam and then aluminum to the luan and it holds very good haven't done the straight to foam as it would show the ripples between the foam sheets and support members too bad without a luan substrate and haven't actually built a foamy yet to try it directly on the foam but it sticks the luan to the foam like crazy strong and same with the aluminum to the luan. It's little over 100 bucks a gallon but a gallon covers a lot of area when you use cheap hvlp from harbor freight to spray it for application we did all walls in and out and outer being 2 layers being glued and it was about 3 gallons for the whole camper so a ffoamy should be right at a gallon to do the whole camper.

[linuxmanxxx]

Lurking all over a lot of the other construction tip threads I don't think the polymer will work as its a varnish which doesn't have any uv protection built in and will yellow badly in direct sunlight. There are huge theories and discussions on what to use for UV protection and varnish fails miserably by itself.

I still think the colored epoxy for garage floors would be our answer if it was placed directly over the canvas that was applied with a glue or the soon to be tested lagging compound.

Glenn can you find someone with the garage epoxy left over sitting around or some clearanced off from lowes or HD and try it on your little miniature you built or has anyone else built a model foamy?

[Wolffarmer]

You read the whole thing!!!!!!!

Why is Tom Lehrer's "The Masochism Tango" playing in the back ground?

Randy

[linuxmanxxx]

You read the whole thing!!!!!!!

Why is Tom Lehrer's Masochistic Tango playing in the back ground?

Randy

It took me 8 or 9 months to read and absorb about 80% of the construction tips threads and man at times it was painful indeed.

[GPW]

Acrylic polymer ... Just thinking I’d use it as an adhesive and then Paint over it with Latex house paint (compatible ) I did some outdoor signs , Rock star portraits on 4X8 plywood sign board for a local Music shop , painted with the Acrylic artist paint , coated with the Gloss medium , and it lasted outside about 10 years before it started to get dry and chalky, ... That was in the intense western sun and the usual heavy rains we have here... and was next to a major roadway with all the fumes ... I thought that was pretty good ... Garage kept should last for some time ...

3M 30NF Fastbond contact adhesive really does sound like an excellent product ... Must try that !!!


Bonnie , the heavier the fabric , the better the skin , good thick canvas being the Thrifty choice ... Like Steve said , the better the skin , the stronger the trailer ... Luan on the inside would be Very Strong , and give the interior a nice wood look ...

Bird strikes Never thought about that ... but after the Hammer test , i doubt they do much more than a dent ... unless you ran into a Turkey ...

Moulded fiberglass ... as many old boats around here show , fiberglass doesn’t last forever... it does crack and leak over time .. Dulls quickly in the sun unless waxed... especially in our intense tropical sun ...

[Ratkity]

snip..

Bird strikes Never thought about that ... but after the Hammer test , i doubt they do much more than a dent ... unless you ran into a Turkey ... snip ...

Gotta watch out for the frozen turkeys. They do the most damage!



Hugs,
Ratkity

[GPW]

Guess up North , a frozen Turkey is a possibility ... Ouch !!! No bowling balls either ...

Guess if you drive really FAST , the poor birds don’t have a chance to get out of the way ... The speeds I drive , a tortoise could avoid me ...
Don’t recall ever having a bird strike , other than a couple months ago when a domestic (yard ) duck flew smack into the side of my PU truck ... Scared the holy .... outta’ me , but the duck just shook off the “Quack Upâ€

[eaglesdare]

Read the whole thread. What do i get ?....

So what's the best glue to glue the foam to Aluminum. I want to have aluminum sides.

sorry, we do not have any kinds of awards to hand out. but i bet you now have a good feel for what we foamlings are all about. welcome to our crazy world.

speaking of birds, hubby had a bird fly into his opened van window. he did not think it actually flew inside the van though. poor bird, it wasn't til we all noticed a odd smell eveytime we got in the van. finally hubby couldnt' take it anymore and took it to the cleaners. found the poor bird then.

i have had several seagulls hit my car windshields here, crossing the causeway. so for me the bird attacks are a reality.

although, i have never been hit with a turkey, frozen or thawed.

[GPW]

Anybody whose read the whole thread probably knows more about us (and our pets) than we do ...

You could have used that time to read The Brothers Karamazov ... just not as much Fun ...

[linuxmanxxx]

So then with what you said it must still be an acrylic based product and not varnish and that ad only means you use it as a surface protectant and they stupidly used the word varnish to describe what it can be used as. Not a great ad nothing about what is in the product or warnings or anything just here buy lol.

Can you put some on cloth over foam and see how much it stiffens the cloth Glen? If it stays very flexible then still need something harder than just latex paint over it for some strength to pass the hammer test.

You wanna zing it up you can use that 30NF and stick a strip of diamond plate on the lower front for rock protection and bling a ling.

[bonnie]

The garage expoy was on a wood floor in the trailer i had. I don't know for sure but i believe it didn't take the expansion and contraction well. It was spider cracks.

I'll look tonight to see if there's any left. May not be the best test since it has been sitting for quite awhile. I only have 3/4 inch white foam right now.

Will let everyone know either way.

Many fiberglass people are using the red max floor finish to renew the fiberglass shine. Wonder if it would work for foamies?

Bonnie

[linuxmanxxx]

Yeah unless your floor is very stiff there is no way to put that garage epoxy down and not have it crack on you walking on it. I think it would work very well for stiffening the outside of a foamy if a couple coats are applied.

[GPW]

Steve, yes, pure acrylic “usedâ€

[linuxmanxxx]

Glen I use the thinnest the 1/16" and it works perfectly get a 4' x 10' sheet for like 160 bucks here locally

[GPW]

Wow... I never knew it came that thin ... That’s even Better !!!