After much deliberation, and consultation I finally came up with a plan to hang the sides.
I needed to be able to do this on my own, so lifting a 7.5mtr x 2.5mtr sheet of 3mm fiberglass that was on a roll (and wanted to be again) was no easy task.
The next problem was to glue it to the steel frame keeping it as flat as possible.
Here is the solution:
Firstly, 25mm wide 1.5mm thick single-sided foam tape was applied on to all the 40x40 steel on the side framework. The idea here is that the tape provides thermal isolation from the steel whilst holding the fiberglass sheet a fixed distance from the substrate.
When Sikaflex 221 is then applied down both edges of the steel from the inside, it penetrates under the grp sheet as far as the foam tape it forms a perfect bond, but with a degree of thermal isolation.
I used two pieces of 6mm thick aluminum angle bolted through the top of the sheet clamping it in between. I then lifted the whole sheet with two chain blocks. This kept the top of the sheet flat.
That's it in the air, now I clamped some offcuts of 40x40 steel box the bottom body rail of the truck, sticking out flush with the bottom edge.
I then lowered the sheet onto these supports giving me a true bottom edge, I then placed an 8x4 sheet of plywood against the fiberglass sheet and clamped it top and bottom, this pulled the fiberglass onto the steel frame. It was then glued from the inside around all edges of the frame.
I left this overnight for the glue to dry then moved the sheet of ply down 4 feet and started again, a bit of a long-winded process but it works really well.
