POD: Homebuilt foam core fiberglass skin pop-up camper build thread

[leebonfiglio]

you need to vent the foam or you will have delamination problems

you will need to vent the panels with either small holes along the edges or through gortex vents. the foam will outgas under heat and cause the fiberglass skin to delam from the foam. the foam is closed cell so you can have exposed foam to the elements and it will not absorb water or go with the gortex vents used in the surf and stand up paddle board industry. there are a few surfboard manufactures that build with xtr foam and they drill small holes all along the rail line of the boards and they seem to last as long as any other board construction. good luck with your project.

 

[pods8]

Any updates? :ylsmoke:

Not really, the garage is more organized now so I can get rolling again but we're traveling over the holidays so I'm thinking I'll get moving after the 1st of the year. Some other projects are also competing but I feel a strong motivation to get the dang shell done for spring, we shall see.

you will need to vent the panels with either small holes along the edges or through gortex vents. the foam will outgas under heat and cause the fiberglass skin to delam from the foam. the foam is closed cell so you can have exposed foam to the elements and it will not absorb water or go with the gortex vents used in the surf and stand up paddle board industry. there are a few surfboard manufactures that build with xtr foam and they drill small holes all along the rail line of the boards and they seem to last as long as any other board construction. good luck with your project.

I've read that but my thought process is below. I'd love to hear more on it if you know.

Here's my thought process: The cells are closed and unless the foam is damaged it would remain contained (otherwise if its evolving out willy nilly then there would be no structural strength to the foam itself). Damaged cells will allow some gas to be freed up but the pressure they can create is still a function of temperature PV=nRT. We're talking absolute temperature though so if you're working in degF you need to add 460 to get to rankine. So say the foam was formed at 50F and in a hot car got up to 150F, that 100deg F swing is a (460+150)/(460+50)= 120% PV increase (pressure * volume).

So I tend to think it goes back to what I was saying before, the combo of surfers using as little resin/glass as possible leads to a poorer bond and also more damaged foam cells under those thin skins. Combine those with a hot car and then I can start to see the 20% pressure increase causing delamination issues potentially. I'm thinking/assuming/hoping that the abraded surface I'm laminating over will allow a stronger bond, and also the thicker plys I'm applying will help avoid any damages cells in the first place.

 

[pods8]

Small progress but looks more substantial visibly, I fitted all the panels together with temporary screws. What'll do from here is undo one panel at a time, put thickened epoxy on the edges and screw it back in place, then the next panel. After I've got the panel edges bonded I'll laminate glass across the joints both in/out like with the bottom. The outside will be easy to do in place, in inside I think I'll pull the roof off and put it on its side or upside down so I'm not working overhead the whole time which would suck.

I need to unbox the epoxy and supplies but temperature is my biggest issue right now. I need min 45F to cure the faster of the two hardeners I have, its not that warm here lately. So I'll pick a day that I have enough time to do it all at once, and hopefully its warmer out, so I can be efficient with firing up the space heaters in the garage to heat it up and keep it heated through the initial cure.

Anyways taking shape again. Have the door/flip up walls to do after wards for panel pieces.

 

[stomperxj]

Great to see an update pods8! Nice progress shots. I'm soaking this all in for future reference and use. Thanks for posting everything up and being so detailed. I for one really appreciate it...

 

[Overland Hadley]

Anyways taking shape again.

Great news! Looking good.

 

[dfrank]

Welcome to Boulder. I'd love to stop over and see it in person some time. I live on the south end of town. PM me if you'd be ok with that. I'm sure you have all the tools you need, but I'm a builder and happy to lend if you need something.

I haven't started anything and may never, but following your thread has certainly gotten me thinking about it.

Dave

 

[a8ksh4]

That's looking great, pods8! I'm working on a fiberglass over foam pop-top aero-shell that's being documented over at ecomodder. I really appreciate seeing your stuff up here for reference.

 

[Overland Hadley]

That's looking great, pods8! I'm working on a fiberglass over foam pop-top aero-shell that's being documented over at ecomodder. I really appreciate seeing your stuff up here for reference.

You have an interesting build going. To find it I googled ecomodder camper, Link for those interested.

 

[Boonie Buster]

Looks good "assembled"! Gives you a good feel for packed size. Any further ideas/plans on the mechanisms for sliding/rasing it up and down? Or will that come after the top half is finished?

 

[pods8]

I think I said it earlier but for the lift it will be 400# 12V actuators in the four corners of the main camper body. To guide it will be four stainless steel drawer slides (two on the back wall in the corners and one on each side near the front of the main body) which will hopefully guide the body in both planes.

I have both the actuators and slides already laying in my parts pile. For the actuators I need to make some mounting brackets and also rig up a switch panel.


I bonded the panels together over the weekend, had a heck of a time trying to keep the garage warmed with temps in the teens during the day over the weekend (ran a space heater non-stop and periodically fired up a propane heater to ramp up the temp since the space heater couldn't fully hold a high enough temp). Now that I'll be doing seam work I've received the good suggestion of utilizing heating blankets which sounds like it would work well. I have position the blankets (with moving blankets over top to insulate) and prewarm the area I'll be working on, do my work, put down plastic, and then the heat blanket/moving blankets again to cure the work. Should be more effective that trying to heat the entire garage (two walls aren't insulated and its a rental so I'm not going to invest in doing so).

 

[pods8]

Heat blankets and moving blankets got the job done, however with a caveat. Most of the laminating was across joints with no foam exposed, worked like a charm. On the front I had to do a bit more sanding to make everything transition well and exposed some foam. The first attempt on that gave me some BIG air pockets using the heat blanket and I had to alter the methods. I sanded out the air pockets, preheated the foam, laminated and then laid down a moving blanket before the heat blanket on low with another moving blanket over top to let it set up. Then put the heat blanket on high up against to fully cure the work.

Big bubbles I had to repair:

Sanded out for relamination:

All fixed up:

Outside seams are all done (the surface looks crappy due to plastic sheeting over between the lamination work and heat blanket but its over the peel ply and when that is ripped off a smooth surface is under). I ratcheted it up into the raised position to take some measurements, etc. Tomorrow I'll pull the base out from under, lower it down and then flip it up on its side to work on 1/2 the interior seams (I'll flip it onto the other side for the other half), I don't have enough room for them to be side by side lying down.

 

[stomperxj]

I am continually amazed at how awesome this build is. Great work pods8. I'm taking lots of notes

 

[Inline6]

Great project, even greater that you have not thrown in the towel. Looking forward to more updates.

 

[pods8]

I am continually amazed at how awesome this build is. Great work pods8. I'm taking lots of notes

You had a good thread yourself with the tear drop. Its nice to gleen ideas from a wide variety of builds and in the end you make what you want.

Great project, even greater that you have not thrown in the towel. Looking forward to more updates.

Too much invested to not eventually get this one over the finish line!



So nothing like a bonehead move to line up some more repair work for yourself. I walked out in the garage and hit the garage door opener so I could pull the camper base out from under, wasn't thinking and forgot there was interference with the raised camper top and the garage door hardware, put a gouge in the top.

But I wrapped up the job and have to top positioned on its side so I can work on half of the seams at a time and not fight gravity, it just barely fits... Sure would be nice to have a large shop/pole barn right about now but you work with what you got.

 

[Carlyle]

Awesome! Keep up the fine work and I would like to see it some day.

Carl