I was able to come up with a very simple trick for mounting my top-side skins. I thought it would be a good idea to post it in a seperate thread since it does not have anything directly to do with foil insulation and I would like people that can use the tip to be able to find it more easily. I titled it as follows:
Simple trick for installing upper inner skins...
See what you think.
By the way I made an interesting observation about the red felt. It was fairly easy to tell which holes in my skins had metal ribs behind them because I could generally see the red through the hole.
I'm considering using this insulating technique when I get to that point in my Overlander restoration. My question is with gluing foam strips to the exterior skins and then gluing the foil to the strips, how easy will it be to replace exterior skins? I have several exterior skins to replace to make it "perfect", but probably won't have the money to replace them all at this point(they are the front and rear compound curve pieces). I'm going to replace the worst of them now, but then need to put my limited resources to doing the interior.
I guess the question also applies to anyone needing to repair their coach after any mishap! I do like this insulating approach, but I might have to think of an alternate way of providing the airspace without gluing to the exterior skins...............
Just thinking out loud here, but could you somehow tape or sandwich the foil within the body ribs? I don't know what the profile of these ribs are and whether the shape would lend itself to this. Do you have any thoughts on this?
The butyl tape truck body builders use would be perfect to line the ribs before your re-rivet the panels on.
Not only will it act as a non-conducting thermo block, it will sound deaden. It is also very “sticky”, which will help to hold the sheets while you rivet.
You can see it being used here, post #132, in a somewhat similar application:
I'm considering using this insulating technique when I get to that point in my Overlander restoration. My question is with gluing foam strips to the exterior skins and then gluing the foil to the strips, how easy will it be to replace exterior skins? I have several exterior skins to replace to make it "perfect", but probably won't have the money to replace them all at this point(they are the front and rear compound curve pieces). I'm going to replace the worst of them now, but then need to put my limited resources to doing the interior.
I guess the question also applies to anyone needing to repair their coach after any mishap! I do like this insulating approach, but I might have to think of an alternate way of providing the airspace without gluing to the exterior skins...............
Just thinking out loud here, but could you somehow tape or sandwich the foil within the body ribs? I don't know what the profile of these ribs are and whether the shape would lend itself to this. Do you have any thoughts on this?
Thank you,
Derek,
The glue that holds the foam to the outer skin would not really prevent taking a panel off. I had to take out a small portion of my insulation the other day to find and fix a new water leak. The foam strip pulled off of the plastic coating leaving it attached to the outer skin. The general idea that I started with was to provide a strip of foam on the outside and one on the inside. The glue to the outer skin basically just needs to be enough to hold the foam strip in place until you can glue on the foil. I suggest that in your case you just do some spot gluing of the outer foam strips in places where you aticipate having to replace body panels. Also use some inner foam strips. That way you can remove the body panel, fix it, and put it back without disturbing the foam and foil that much at all. Even if you were to use just outrer foam strips with foil glued to them the worst case is that the foil and foam will come out with the body panel. It would be no big deal to peel it off of the body panel and put it back in the cavity before you put the body panel back on. You could add some new foam strips glued on the inner side of the foil to help hold it in place.
we are doing the reflective foil in ours as well, found it stayed up fairly well as putting in except used a spray adhesive on ceiling ones, did layers of 3 ...here's hoping it keeps us warm in winter... is clean and easy to put in. we were going to put 4 layers however wanted to leave the airspace, 4 would be tight behind the aluminum walls
I have read pretty much all the postings relating to installing foil insulation as I am to that point in my redo on the '72. There are many types of adhesives mentioned and in hopes of finding one that works really well and stays in place, especially in bonding the foam strips to the outer skin, I would appreciate some follow up from those who have completed this task as to how your choice of sealant is holding up.
Unfortunately once I put the inner skins back on I can no longer tell how the adhesive is holding. I think if you are concerned about it that one thing you could do would be to add the inner foam strips or even just some short pieces here and there. My thinking here is that both the outer foam strips and the foil itself are both pretty light weight. The glue would not have to hold all that well to keep things in place. Adding some pieces of foam strip to the inner side that come up against the inner skin when it is put back in would prevent the foil and foam from moving away from the outer skin even if the glue out there did not hold in place.
Now that I am into actually doing this, I think you are right about things staying fairly well intact with the addition of inner strips and things of that sort. I bought an adhesive product sold by GE as it recommended use on both foamboard and metal and it stays flexible after curing. About $2.50 a tube. I did a 2 day test run in our 100 degree temps and it held very well.
I am using 3/4 in. board so by the time I put in the foil, it looks like it will fill the cavity just about right and even if the adhesive would let go it wouldn't make much difference. Got the foam pieces cut and in place for the streetside, just waiting on the foil to be delivered. Decided to try the foil-foam-foil type, Prodex. Thanks for the input and tips.
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