Best thickness for metal to blank out windows on MC9?

[bruceknee]

At $10.00 for a 4x8 sheet, luan is the cheapest, but you can only go out on sunny days. Cheapest usually isn't best

[busguy01]

The sandwhich matwerial is called alucabond or close to that. Comes varies thicknesses

[luvrbus]

TomY , if I am not mistaken that is a Dibond product,I know the Alucabond busguy is referring too is a painting process   
good luck

[Airbag]

Thank you Rick for your valuable suggestion. I have click on your link at the bottom of your post a week ago and learn what you do. That great to have someone on board who is acknowledgeable about metal fabrication work in aircraft.

I have always put aluminum skin my first choice over steel version. However, you suggest 6061-T6 which is much harder metal and more expensively than 5052. Can I ask you why 6061-T6 your choice? I know what it is because I use it at GM Tech Center for many years. I do think that 5052 is harder to find than 6061-T6.
It make no difference to me which one to use, however I think that 5052 hold paint better.

Thanks, Rick
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Gerald
I prefer the 6061-T6 because it is less prone to oil canning after installation meaning wrinkling. My bus was skinned with (O-2 thin) soft metal and is unsightly with wrinkles. I bought the bus anyway / so I have to live with it or replace it.
The T6 will allow a thinner sheet with more rigidity and less weight. Now if one has a unlimited budget 7075-T6 is the most rigid but is very susceptible to corrosion and cracks thus has given me a job for years on airliners. 

I realize weight is not a huge consideration on a bus but the harder the alloy the easier it is to cut and file with less loading up of the cutter flutes and sandpaper. Wax is the key to long cutter and sandpaper life when working with aluminum, just rub a candle on your cutters and they won't load up. FWIW

[belfert]

Alucabond is very similiar to what Tom shows.  It has a solid plastic material in between instead of corrugated.

Craig Shepard used seconds to skin his bus and I also ended up using the stuff on my bus to cover the windows.  One side is primed and the other side has a lifetime finish.  The seconds are often scratched on the finished side or too small for use.

The only downside is the thick material doesn't blend as well with the rest of the body, but I think it will be far less noticeable once I paint the bus.  An MCI with the signboard might look just fine if the material is brought down to the edge of the signboard.

[HB of CJ]

Our plan was to use whatever aluminuminummmm the scrap dealer had cheap that was the same thickness as the side window glass.  That way the former window could be lowered if desired.   Crown Super Coach ex-schoolie with vertical windows.  HB of CJ