billboards hauler: homebuilt fiberlgass composite popup for flatbed tundra

bphang10

Observer
Great boat building skills there in that camper, it's going to be a beauty I'm sure. Might as well post a pic of the board(s) you've made while you're at it....

funny, i toyed with the idea of building a boat a few years ago and wrote it off as too much work. easiest to check my blog that eric posted above for surfboards, but here's one of the boards that will go on the camper for sure:

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any idea what it will weigh in at when it's completed?

the million dollar question! of course, i'm hoping for as light as possible. the total weight of all the nida-core was about 400 lbs on the truck. i'm guessing i've added somewhere around 50lbs and 100lbs in laminations and frp trim. i'm hoping for about 500 lbs for the bare shell. add actuators(6lbs x4), fridge(45lbs), 75 lb battery, solar(26 lbs), jacks(alot!), sink, stove, heater, h20....it all adds up. i'm not going to put a number on it yet, but i'm confident i will save a good bit over the 1200 + lbs of my current camper.

Last question, what do you want for that Coke sign or cooler in your shop?

i think that one stays with the barn.
 

jrfromafar

Adventurer
Will you hot coat the bottom unit also?

Does the hot coat materiel come in colors or just white or clear?

And besides making it look uniform in color & smoothness does the hot coat add to the durability of the exterior?

1,000 questions!!
 
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jrfromafar

Adventurer
Concerning weight - is Nida-Core substantially lighter than building a camper through a traditional layup of fiberglass using a quickie mold made mainly out of melamine with the following layup using vinyl ester resin:

1. Gel coat (no wax)
2. 1.5 oz chopped mat
3. 1708 biax
4. Diviney foam core
5. 2nd layer of 1708 biax
6. 3/4 oz chopped mat (while the 1708 is still wet if possible)
7. Gel coat finish
 

Ozarker

Well-known member
Bphang10, very nice work, wish I had your skills!

Looks like you have a twin keel motorsailor (maybe?) or sailboat on your property, love those as they sit on the hard. Is that a project too? Don't need to build a boat with that!

Keep it coming! :)
 

bphang10

Observer
Will you hot coat the bottom unit also?
Does the hot coat materiel come in colors or just white or clear?
And besides making it look uniform in color & smoothness does the hot coat add to the durability of the exterior?

i did hot coat most of the the shell, i did not hot coat the underside of the cabover or underside of floor......too hard to do on a downward facing surface. it does add to the durability by adding a bit of thickness and stiffness, an also sealing the cloth better. not sure if it's necessary because it will be primed and painted, but it seemed like a good idea to me, and now's the time to do it.
hot coat(aka sanding resin) is just laminating resin with wax solution added. no need to buy both, just get plenty of laminating resin and a quart of wax solution and mix it as you need it. no colors. you can use pigment to color resin, either in the laminating process or hot coat, but won't work well in this application because you will be sanding into it and removing the color in places leaving a very uneven looking finish.

Concerning weight - is Nida-Core substantially lighter than building a camper through a traditional layup of fiberglass using a quickie mold made mainly out of melamine with the following layup using vinyl ester resin:

1. Gel coat (no wax)
2. 1.5 oz chopped mat
3. 1708 biax
4. Diviney foam core
5. 2nd layer of 1708 biax
6. 3/4 oz chopped mat (while the 1708 is still wet if possible)
7. Gel coat finish

i don't have any experience with this method. however, based on helping to beach launch plenty of pangas in mexico, that seems pretty dense. i also think of lifting standard fiberglass pickup caps, and those things are heavy. if i remember correctly, 1" nida-core is somewhere around .9 lbs/sq ft, 1 1/4" about 1lb/sqft. reinforcement weight is minor in that it's primarily just on the edges/corners and not the whole field.

Bphang10, very nice work, wish I had your skills!
Looks like you have a twin keel motorsailor (maybe?) or sailboat on your property, love those as they sit on the hard. Is that a project too? Don't need to build a boat with that!

thanks! no, not my boat. if it's the photo from my blog, that was a shot i took in new zealand this winter. that's a huge boat, and based on how long my camper is taking, that boat would keep me busy til i was too old to sail it.
 

d110pickup

SE Expedition Society
Hey Bill, Ya got any updates coming? I'm really interested in seeing more of this process.
Thanks,
Mike
 

bphang10

Observer
Hey Bill, Ya got any updates coming? I'm really interested in seeing more of this process.
Thanks,
Mike

thanks for checking , mike. camper has been on hold for awhile in order to complete some surfboard orders. i did order the softsides and getting together some other supplies. hope to be back on it early september and i'll post as i make progress. i needed a break, but now i'm really itching to get back to it.
 

bphang10

Observer
well, i had a couple of months back on the camper this fall. weather has been spotty, but i've made some progress.
i decided to paint the roof in late sept before nights got too cold. i ended out using easypoxy 6149 primer and easypoxy topside paint. semi-gloss for the inside and gloss for the outside since the roof will take the most beating of sun and rain. on the outside, i went 2 coats primer and two coats paint, one of each on he inside. rolled on the primer using 3/16 mohair roller and sanded with 120 between coats. i'm not much of painter, usually loathe it, but this was pretty straight forward. i used the roll and tip method to apply the paint. found that an 1/8 foam roller worked better than the mohair as it applied a thinner, more even coat and was easier to control. roll on a small area, then lightly tip, or drag a dry, soft brush over the rolled area, then continue on down the line. was my 1st time, and though hesitant, it was pretty easy and yielded a good job. far from perfect, but something i could do myself. it works for the boat guys, that's good enough for me.
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whenever there was a warm enough day, i got at some of the remaining tasks requiring lamination. glassing up the nose was next. i had originally hoped to round this, but when it came down to it, the piece i had fabricated felt very heavy, i had a hard time visualizing the corner joints, and just decided to go with angles. the compound cuts on that were complicated enough.
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kitchen was next. it has two main supports in the middle where the fridge will go and i wanted a pretty tight tolerance on that. i also lammed up the propane box, accessed from the outside and sealed from the living space. stove will be directly above and wave 3 heater just to the rear, so propane lines will be nice and short. that's a luan mockup of the counter. just needed to see it in place and get the sink and stove in the right place before cutting into my last piece of nida-core for the counter. $10 piece of luan vs $100+ piece of nida-core.
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more soon.
 

jason77

Adventurer
Excellent work. My family has had a fiberglass business since before I was born, and this thread has got me thinking...
 

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