: instead of blown in insulation, why not just use the insulation of a sandwich
: cored aluminum composite panel? comes in 3,4, 5 mm panels bonded w/
: .020" alum on both sides.

: to save wt(rather than intermittent rivets requiring stiffish panel), use
: some of that new flex epoxy (that is purported to glue aluminum [g-flex?])
: to glue to the .050 stringers(if necessary?) and layer down another .02 or
: more alum only layer in outside high wear areas. and then lap .020" x
: 1" wide alum 'tape' all the seams (w/ the epoxy or p/u sealant).

: just might work. the difficulty will be getting the right size composite
: panels, but if you have expertise and equipment, you might be able to
: engineer/order them up for yourself.

: like the others, i think you'll cry the first time you dent the nice
: beautiful polished flat fragile surface but i just love the idea and
: encourage you to go for it. many of us will go nuts.

: another idea for just frame and sheet is to hammer the sheets or random cell
: hammer so that the surface texture does not really show normal wear and
: tear damage. that might be just totally cool. maybe really cool in that
: it'd look like ice.

: [one of my many dreams is to take one of my surf or play designs and instead
: of 3mm ply only for the many panels - use alternating ply and diamond
: plate chromium steel.
: except the diamond plate is actually one of those light plastic panels that
: just looks like diamond plate. cover all inside and out w/ glass and who's
: to know?? that would get some real chuckles, heh heh heh.]

: but it wouldn't be the real thing like you're contemplating, so good luck.

: mick

Epoxy and aluminum are at best tricky. Aluminum forms an oxide almost instantly in the presence of air and while this oxide protects the surface of the alumuminum it's not structural. So unless the oxide is removed and coated not in the presence of air you only epoxy to the oxide and not the aluminum. The aircraft industry has spent decades and millions of dollars coming up with solutions to this problem, but it's not something that's easy to duplicate at home, specially not for sheet materials.

Bill H.