As folks know, Life kicked me in the, well take the buttons and spin the male person around and you get the idea...
I had to shift to a van camper, and specifically sourced up an old Ford Econoline based Sportsmobile, with the MDF cabinets that are doing what MDF does... Which is un pretty... I mean most of it is intact and useable to camp in, but some spots are just thrashed... I need to redo this thing.
I am going to need to redo the cabinetry in this thing, with weight as a consideration as my van is an E250 not an E350, so weight is a consideration, and am considering doing fiberglass over foam, and wondering about a couple of issues.
Fastener retention. For things like door hinges, mounting up the DC to DC charger / MPPT Charge controller etc... I am figuring even with the fiberlgass skin, the foam just isn't going to hold fasteners well, so I will most likely be reinforcing wherever fasteners need to be with wood, making the panel, fiberglassing it etc... and then installing the fastener directly OR using thread inserts into the wood.
Foam thickness. The factory interior cabinet panels seem to be of 5/8" MDF, I figure if I can find the stuff, 1/2" foam with fiberglass / epoxy resin would make up the rest.
Panel to panel attachment. The factory cabinets, particularly the Dinette cabinet is beasically a box made of panels that attach at the corners to a metal frame and to each other via steel angle brackets.
Coloring the Resin. I know epoxy without any colorant will dry clear, NOT what I want... Do colorants in epoxy weaken it in any way that you can think of?
The long term goal will be to Raptorliner coat the body in the sand tan. Yes bedliner all over the body. Old van, don't want to perfect the body work and it will resist wilderness pinstriping... I figure a light tan colorant for the epoxy, and any wooden trim will be something like Pecan / Hickory (I Have a LOT of pecan lumber in my shop) and dark walnut. I am thinking specifically of the counter tops as I will be making butcher blocks the same way I made my wifes cutting board and clocks, Except those will get a clear epoxy coat just to keep water from messing it up...
Anyway, any other construction considerations would be helpful.