Idea for Makeing a Custom Bed Cover, Is this Logical?

[balls_to_the_wall]

Ok, I own a 89 S10 ext cab and want a bed cover for it. Me being the cheap ass that I am, i don't want to buy one, so im thinking about making one. Ok, I am thinking a wood frame, and then fiberglass it. But I will be honest, I don't know a whole lot about 'glassin, so I am asking for a little help here, please don't tell me that since i don't know what the heck I am doing, that I shouldn't start out with this project, if you do, i know you mean well, but I am a stubborn 17 year old (put it this way, first woods project i ever built was a 6'x4'x2.5' chest of drawers, big mofo, out of solid oak, why?...to prove that yes i could do it, and it turned out just plain awsome)

Ok, so I have no idea if this idea will work, so I figured this would be the place to post it.....Ok.....
First I make stuts to go width wise across the bed that are the right curvature that I want the cover to be...(1/2" baltic birch plywood) Then I lay out 1/4" baltic birch plywood (cause i enjoy working with it, and it is the best that i can think of) over the struts and glue it down so it is the right curvature that I want for the cover. So then I end up with a basic wood bed cover. I have decided exactly how I am goig to do the sharp turndown for the edges, but I will decide that later. Then that will get covered with fiberglass (3 layers?...or more...), bondo, sanding, paint, and hopefully done. I want to add the fiberglass to add some more strength, scratch resistant, and to make it completly water tight (well i know the edges around the bed will probably leak some)

So what I basically want to know is...Would this work at all? Where do I need to change my idea? What would work better?

Thanks for all your help

-Ryan

*edit* I just thought this crazy idea all up today, so any missing steps or something that I don't realize, please tell me!

[duplox]

Sounds like a decent plan. I'd change a couple things.
First, covering the entire thing in plywood is probably not neccesary and it'd make the thing heavier than needed. This is what I'd do.
Build a frame out of plywood that goes around the edges. Put in your curved cross pieces. Then instead of covering that all with plywood, stretch some fabric over the whole thing and staple it down on the outer frame. Coat this all in fiberglass resin, then lay your fiberglass over this. Should be strong enough with the cross braces, and a heck of a lot lighter. Might be a bit more expensive since the fabric will soak up a lot of resin.

But I'm not expert, TheSilentChamber will probably respond with better advice.

[balls_to_the_wall]

Thanks, I forgot about covering it with fleece, That sounds alot better. Another idea, make the frame, then cover that with chicken wire (i am not sure if the fleece will droop between the cross members or not).

Thanks for your reply

-Ryan

[TheSilentChamber]

I would do it a little differnt than that. I would make the frame then make it where a removeable piece of plywood fits in the frame, attached with a couple pieces of flashing or something so its attached but doesnt have to be ridged. Cover your plywood in foil, put it in and attach it. Lay 5 layers of 18 ounce fiberglass over the entire thing and let it cure. now take out the plywood that is covered in foil. The foil will keep the fiberglass from sticking to the plywood. Now I would run some alumium support beams across it every 16" or so the reinforce it.

[balls_to_the_wall]

So, let me see if I have this correct. I make a frame of what I want for the bed cover, and then I cover it with aluminum foil.
Then I lay 5 layers of 18 oz fiberglass on top of it. After I have that done, i take the fiberglass shell off of the existing frame. Then scrap the wood frame...
Then I brace it with aluminum running the width of the bed, every 16" (I have a sheet of .1" aluminum, will this work...if not, I know where I can get some cheap aluminum)
And then attach it with some hardware, and be done with it.

Questions:
What is the best way to attach the aluminum to the fiberglass...?
How much resin should I buy...?
The hardware I will use to attach it to the bed; to fasten it to the fiberglass cover, do i mount a piece of plywood to the cover, then bolt the hardware to the plywood, or what would be the best way to do that?

Sorry asking stupid questions...

-Ryan

[TheSilentChamber]

Keep the frame, the plywood middle is covered in foil so that it can be covered and the top will be flat, its basically only used to make it flat. The frame will stay. I would attach the alumium pieces to the frame and just have them resting under the fiberglass, or you could glue it to it if you would like. With idea wetout you'll have 50% resin to 50% fiberglass by weight. So figure if you use 18oz fiberglass, that is 18oz per 9 square feet. You would figure up the total amount of fiberglass you will use to determine the amount of resin you will need. A gallon of resin usually weighs around 9 pounds I think (I can look, but I dont have my charts and stuff here with me). Now thats idea wetout more than likely if you've worked with fiberglass before and you mix it properly you should be able to achive close to that ratio, but you'll need to use rollers to press out air and saturate the cloth and push out the excess resin.

[dynastyperformance]

plywood works

[duplox]

Originally Posted by dynastyperformance

plywood works

Good lord you're over a year late.