Foam Van Body

[DannyB1954]

Years ago Popular Mechanics did a vehicle body in foam. Has anyone seen a home made wide body Van? One would need to fiberglass over it to make it dent resistant, but the body could be wider and taller like a class b+ van.

 

[bullfrog]

There was an enclosed 3 wheeler as well as a VW based adventure van made of foam and fiberglass. The biggest problem was getting a even/ smooth surface to paint while creating huge amounts of dust while sanding and shaping. Tnttt site has a foamie section on the forum describing building with foam. I would think an old class C motor home made into a flatbed with a box on top using these methods would be much better than whats being built by the RV industry today at 1/3 the cost in materials but a lot more labor involved. PMF when finished looks like smooth bed liner.

 

[Mattkcc]

Years ago Popular Mechanics did a vehicle body in foam. Has anyone seen a home made wide body Van? One would need to fiberglass over it to make it dent resistant, but the body could be wider and taller like a class b+ van.

The cost of fiberglass cloth and epoxy would be to high to be practical, you would need to build up several layers. What might work would be a composite of foam and plywood. Years ago I saw a photo of a truck in a rollover accident. It was upside down and fully supported on a camper shell made up of ply and foam construction. The shell was taller then the cab of the pick-up and supported the weight with no serious damage, it looked like you could roll it over and drive off. A 5 oz cloth and marine epoxy over the outer ply shell would give you great weather resistance at a reasonable cost.

 

[John61CT]

http://www.tnttt.com/viewforum.php?f=55

Also http://intothemystery13.com/tag/light-weight-cabinets/