noobie here, need advice on aluminum

[nubwon]

Hi everyone, I have just started a teardrop, and found this site. Looks like ya'll have some great trailers, hopefully mine will work out half as good as some of these.
First a little background info. The trailer will be 57 inches wide and 9 ft. long. I have the sides already cut and installed. They are 5' X 9' at the longest and tallest points. Now the delima.... I was going to go with filon untill i called for some prices. After i recovered from the near stroke that the price caused, i figure now i'll go with aluminum.
Here are my questions. I found a place in Houston I think i can get the aluminum ( 60" X 120" ) It is 3003 H14 aluminum.( greek to me ) lol. Its also .063 thickness. Will this be easy to work with, bending etc. My curves are set up at 24" radius on the front, and 5ft. radius for the hatch .
What would be the best way to fasten this to the trailer, contact cement? and screws around the perimeter? Or will the aluminum try to seperate from the plywood, due to expanding and contracting from temperature changes? I am in S/W Louisiana.
I had to travel over 300 miles to find plywood that was 5' X 9'. But i got some 5/8 AC fir, 1/8 birch, and 1/8 luan. and i thought that would be the hardest part lol.
Any help in any of these areas, or some other suggestion for the skin would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance....... NUB

[BrianB]

I have yet to start building, but from the research I've gathered, the consensus seems to be to let the aluminum float and just fasten it on the edges.

[Chuck Craven]

Well 3003 H14 aluminum, is a medium soft, it can be bent completely over it’s self with out cracking but don’t try to straighten it out as it hardens fairly fast when hammered. If you contact cement aluminum over plywood, it will most likely fail. As aluminum and wood expand / contract in different directions and different rates. Sixty-two thousands aluminum is quite heavy to cement to any thing. There is a rubberized contact cement that may work but I do not know who makes it. May be someone else does. I am using .063” aluminum and screwing it directly to the roof struts. No plywood backing and using foam two-sided sticky tape as the sealer and to help hold it down when assembling. Most people use .032” over the plywood. It’s half the weight and half the price.
Chuck

[drage]

I just got done skinning my teardrop with white enamal coated aluminum .032 thick. If I was to do it again I would go with .040 as the 032 seems like it's gonna get some dings in it over the years. As far as mounting it, 99% of the people would say to attach it with the edge molding and let it float to allow for the expansion difference between wood and metal. There's my 2 cents.

Dave

[Scooter]

Unless anybody has a better source, I'm probably gonna order a sheet from http://www.aircraftspruce.com real soon. Looking at 4x10 in .040 thickness and maybe use some 1/8 ply underneath.

[D. Tillery]

Check http://www.easternmetal.com Many sizes, shapes, odd extrusions. D. Tillery