I'm trying to figure out what to cover the foam with, how to "glue" it and how to finish it. So I made up some samples
From left to right:
Fiberglass Cloth with Epoxy, Canvas with Epoxy, Canvas with TB2 (Titebond II), Fiberglass Cloth with TB2, Fiberglass Cloth with paint(Exterior Acrylic Latex Semi Gloss Enamel), canvas with paint, Fiberglass cloth with Kilz 2 and canvas with Kilz 2.
Both the fiberglass cloth and the canvas are heavier than I would actually use. fiberglass is 9 oz cloth, I'd use 2 oz cloth, canvas is 10 oz cloth, I'd use 6 oz cloth. This caused some "wet out" problems. I couldn't get the epoxy or glue to penetrate the canvas well enough so I coated the underside of the cloths before completing the wet out process. Ironically the canvas (which was sold as "drop cloth") was penetrated by the paint and kilz pretty easily. I couldn't get the TB2 to penetrate the fiberglass cloth too easily either so I undercoated that also. The fabric weight also caused some difficulties at the corners. It didn't go around the corner too smoothly and wouldn't stick too nicely. That will probably not be a problem with lighter weight fabrics and I'm going to round off the corners and edges anyway.
I'm looking for a couple of different things from these samples. Which provides the best adhesion for the buck and which of these samples will be easiest to make smooth and create a "gloss" finish.
I'm going to let these all cure for 3 days or so since I won't have much time before the weekend to do anything with them anyway. I'll post my findings at that time, but right now I think fiberglass under paint is looking good