Applying Poor Man’s Fiberglass and Paint
After getting the framing done and deciding on windows I started the process of covering it in Poor Man’s Fiberglass (PMF). This method uses wood glue, canvas, and lots of paint to create a hard weather proof covering. Tons of examples on YouTube, just google it, not going into detail here. Just a quick overview.
I used Painter’s Canvass, you can get this at any hardware store or order it from Amazon. Wash it first, this makes it easier to work with and gets off the fussy pieces. Then iron it, takes out the wrinkles and makes it lay down better. I had a large piece so I ironed it on the camper before gluing it down.
Put down a heavy coat of glue and spread your canvas over it. I used a 4 inch paint spatula to spread the glue and to scrap the wrinkles out of the canvass. Just poured the glue on and spread with the paint scrapper, then laid out the canvass, pulled the edges to get in stretched and used the scrapper to smooth it out. I let it dry for a day in between coasts.
It recommends you to dilute 50% glue and water for the second coat on top of the canvass, I used full strength glue, let it dry, then started the coating with paint. I sued some excess stucko paint I had left over and it worked well. First I applied a liberal amount with a brush, then went back over it with a high pile roller. This game me a dimpled look and I liked it. I put on 5 coats with a day to dry in between coats.
I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. The PMF is very tough and waterproof. It was much easier to work with than fiberglass. I have fiberglass experience and don’t like messing with it, the PMF was much easier to handle.
Biggest mistake here was not cutting off the hem around the edge of teh canvass prior to installation. Made a bump that I thought I could sand down later, but I was wrong.
