Wood veneers for exterior

[_Ryan_]

My plan is to build a true woody teardrop and I was wondering if anyone has had luck applying paper backed wood veneers to the outside or their trailers? I wanted to have a darker color on the exterior and found out that birch is a pain to stain, especially with the limitations introduced by later applying epoxy, mainly no conditioner and only water based stains.

To give some more detail, I will be skinning the exterior walls and roof with 1/8" birch and applying the veneer to that. I will also be using epoxy and spar varnish to protect and finish the exterior after the veneers are attached.

One problem I can foresee is applying pressure to the veneers which will need to have very even and total coverage. I was thinking I could use veneer glue which after being applied to both surfaces could be reactivated with an iron. I have heard this is a very effective technique.

Again, thanks ahead of time for your suggestions.

Cheers,
Ryan

[KCStudly]

Sorry, I don't have any answers to your questions, but early in my build thread Linuxmanxxx recommended a laminate product called envirawood.

Here's a link to his post with a link to the website http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?p=909338#p909338.

[_Ryan_]

Sorry, I don't have any answers to your questions, but early in my build thread Linuxmanxxx recommended a laminate product called envirawood.

Here's a link to his post with a link to the website http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?p=909338#p909338.

I had a look and called their help line and it looks very nice although it is 3x the price of a wood veneer. They are technically rated for indoor use but are waterproof and have significant UV protection and the rep I spoke with said it would probably work although they couldn't back up the warranty. Because of my trailer dimensions I would have to splice a couple sheets together so I would still need to epoxy at the very least.

Thanks for the info!

[doug hodder]

Rather than the price of the veneer and work associated with it to cover the material...why not just get a sheet of veneered ply to begin with. I don't know about 1/8" but you can easily get 1/4" material that is already veneered. 1/8" might not have much "punch resistance". I've used an aniline dye on my woodies rather than a stain, it's easy to apply and you can doctor it up for as light or as dark as you want with a damp rag. It's more UV resistant, but over time will lighten a bit, even under an epoxy with UV protectant and auto clear over it all. Just a suggestion. Doug

[bdosborn]

I'm with Doug, why make what you can buy? But, if you have to veneer, I would us vacuum clamping. Its how I installed the filon on our camper and it worked very well.



Bruce

[_Ryan_]

Rather than the price of the veneer and work associated with it to cover the material...why not just get a sheet of veneered ply to begin with. I don't know about 1/8" but you can easily get 1/4" material that is already veneered. 1/8" might not have much "punch resistance". I've used an aniline dye on my woodies rather than a stain, it's easy to apply and you can doctor it up for as light or as dark as you want with a damp rag. It's more UV resistant, but over time will lighten a bit, even under an epoxy with UV protectant and auto clear over it all. Just a suggestion. Doug

Thanks for in info on the aniline dyes, I might have to experiment with some scratch birch and see what I can do.

I did think about using 1/4" ply but since my walls and roof will be the same I don't see how I could bend something that thick to the curves in my profile. Vacuum bagging might work for the walls but the roof would be to large. I could possibly apply the veneer to the birch roof panel beforehand and then attach to the roof but I would be afraid of it cracking.

[nevadatear]

Why do the roof and walls need to be the same? We use vennered 3/4 ply on the walls and 1/8 ply on the roof, two layers.

[_Ryan_]

Why do the roof and walls need to be the same? We use vennered 3/4 ply on the walls and 1/8 ply on the roof, two layers.

I was referring to the veneer and not the thickness of the underlayment skin. I would like them to match in color, grain, etc, but maybe that is a tall order.