What gauge and what material to skin with?

[luvrbus]

If you are going for appearance steel is the way to go, less rivets,harder to work with but final results are worth it IMO.Long runs of aluminum will wave, even Boomers beautiful Eagle has a ripples in the heat with a 1 piece aluminum sheet  .Steel is not that hard to work with a little help heat, stretch and tack weld 99% of the Eagle people use steel we have for years. Filon wouldn't be that bad if you had a vacuum system like the RV manufactures use  

[Scott & Heather]

I will say that we attempted to use filon and it cracked we had to remove it and throw it in the dumpster. Spent $1000 on it on Monday and Tuesday it was in the dumpster. I'm still feeling the sting of that one. FWIW, I'm using sikaflex to adhere my aluminum on our new coach. Might be an idea.


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[jav9956]

I have decided to go with aluminum. I found some places that sell 12 foot sheets for pretty cheap around where I live. If I need 3 sheets per side then I should be able to get all the aluminum for less than $900.

Next weekend I am going to take all the windows out and the drip rails off so I can measure how high we can raise the roof with a standard sheet of aluminum. I would like to squeeze as much out of it as possible.

I am guessing most people leave a 1" overlap on the top and bottom (too much/too little or do I have the right idea)? Is it the same amount of overlap on the left/right of the panel or would less than 1" be fine? I am sure there is some room to play and the biggest thing is probably making sure that rivets get a good hold so you want enough meat on each panel to be captured... just wondering what suggestions are out there.

I am hoping we can do as much as a 10" roof raise but we should be able to at least get 8". The following week or two I should be able to pick up all my materials.

[Scott & Heather]

Bjorn, you'll want to overlap the beltline but if you can, the right way to reside the coach is to underlap the roof line portion. This means that once you remove your windows and the aluminum window frames/inserts, you'll want to sort of peel back the roof a bit and slide the aluminum underneath, then seal it with your choice of seal, and rivet the roof back down over top the aluminum sheet.



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[sledhead]

I used 18 gage satin coat galvanized steel like mci used on the rest of the bus and for ease of use I put the seams on the side of the coach at windows or at the fridge vent to less the amount of exposed seams . only had 3 seams on each side , over lapped them 3 " with 3 separate beads vertical of caulking per seam 1/2 " apart . riveted top , bottom and did the roof like Scott did

dave

[brmax]

Dave that metal kinda sounds like what we casually call paint stick, getting it from the steel fabricator and industrial tinner shop here. The material had a very light blasted surface, and  was a go to for truck and auto body repair/rebuild panels.
Just a guess on that, but when ever the time comes I will head to the same shops for any of the choices and using all your guys experience, thanks.

In using the sealers and or adhesives I know we have some good names, so just wanted to share this. In an interest with these products through searching and watching a few factory type videos and viewing photos of the same, I noticed the same names but differences in some number/model of these sealers/adhesives used in build areas.

Looking just a bit further the videos or photos at factories and understanding now they may use a type or numbered product in volume application, probably one reason and another is heat curing types or factory 2 part. 
It sure is a task reading through some product lines, not exactly like reading some cool stuff on the site here.

got to get some coffee
good day there
Floyd