project fail. any advice?

[mike450136]

i bought this toy hauler and it had a bad leak in the front. i replaced framing i couldn't find the cardboard unicore stuff so i bought 2 sheets of Italian bending poplar glued and stapled it. it looked good at first but when the sun shines on it just right you then notice all of the imperfections. im pretty confident the waves in the bending poplar would transfer over to the filon. so i guess the only thing to do is tear it all off. any suggestions on what i could put down before the filon? and where i could buy it?

 

[SuwanneeDave]

.. it looked good at first but when the sun shines on it just right you then notice all of the imperfections...

If it is really only noticeable when the sun shines on it just right, if it were me I would not worry about it. If it is glued and stapled you will have a rough time removing it.

 

[mike450136]

i took off a little bit to see how hard it would be to take off. the glue was pretty cheap glue. it isnt too hard to take off

 

[John From Detroit]

You coudl "Glass" over it with fiberglass boat resin.. Look at making a boat videos for instructions.

I'm absolutly NO good at that kind of thing but I can give you the basics
Prep, Slather on the fiberglass and a smoothign film (don't ask I don't know) Wait, remove film paint/

 

[donn]

Fiberglas or light weight body filler, sand smooth.

 

[Ex-Calif]

What is the thickness of that stuff? It looks like you only have one bend to deal with. I'd be thinking 1/4 inch regular ply. You can steam the curve if needed to get a bit more stretch on the plywood.

This episode of this guys build is a pretty good example of how to build with that Filon as he adds the outer skin to a teardrop trailer hatch.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

That stuff must be really thin and supple. If you want it to look nice, gonna have to get it tighter or use something a little more rigid so it bridges the distance between struts better. RV factories use a lot of luan, with filon vacuum-bonded to it. And I still see ripples in the fronts of rigs with that style of nose.

 

[O1dSoldier]

What is the thickness of that stuff? It looks like you only have one bend to deal with. I'd be thinking 1/4 inch regular ply. You can steam the curve if needed to get a bit more stretch on the plywood.

This episode of this guys build is a pretty good example of how to build with that Filon as he adds the outer skin to a teardrop trailer hatch.

You could never heat 1/4" plywood enough to bend. You'd need to heat it all the way through, and the heated parts would be cool before you got the next area heated. It appears in the video the guy is using 1/8" door skin which would bend quite a lot on its own would heat easy enough and fast enough to bend the rest of the way if needed. If desired, you could then add a second layer laminating the two using thickened epoxy spread on just like you would when setting tile. Maybe a 1/8" notched trowel and fasteners. It'd be strong and light. If there is a fiberglass skin, you'd laminate that back down the same way.

 

[Jim18655]

Could it be expanding and buckling in the heat? Shine a flashlight across it and look at it at night.
What if you back it up with 1/4" plywood except for the bent area and glue the thinner material to the plywood? Only the bent area would be unsupported by the backer board.