Help building concession trailer

Hello all.  I have already gotten some usefull information regarding water tanks on here and now I could use a little help with the exterior of my trailer.  I am building an 8X27' concession.  Right now I have it stripped down to the just the frame and am going to start building it in the next few weeks.  My question today is what material do i use for my exterior walls?  I have gone through some of the threads on here and have seen steel and aluminum as the major players.  Steel will put too much weight, so aluminum seems to be the best option?  What thickness should I use?  Are there any other materials that can hold up in weather that I am overlooking?  Thanks in advance!

Shoot us some pictures... And I cannot believe that you stripped the exterior skin, did you really do that?

OMG, please no.  
 
 

Most commercially manufactured concession trailers use a steel frame with aluminum tubing for wall studs. The exterior walls on our trailer are aluminum sheeting attached to the frame with rivets. The interior walls are a smooth side plastic laminate paneling. If you don’t plan on being a mobile operation then a heavier material can be used for the exterior. Materials like steel and aluminum can be expensive.  We have seen  large concession trailers made with wood sheeting exterior walls. Worst case scenario would be to build it heavy and have it hauled to your lot.

To get to a point where your able to get to putting equiment into it you may be a head scraping what you have and searching for a used trailer 6'x16-18'. Unless you have a jig to keep that frame straight it will side track down the road after completion. And have the tools to use with the ability to make sure that this won't shake a part going down the road. I'd had  never tak'in down to the frame and I've worked for a trailer manufacturer for 4yr  in the 80's. Just to many varables with a taredown for a trailer of any size. Not saying it can't be done but I would start with something more stable and better shape. Mike

the aluminium that you took off should have been fine as an external skin. unless it looked like ass

JodyP: do you know the thickness of the aluminum sheets?  The stripping down has already been done. 

Man, that is not going to be cheap. That skin normally comes off a huge roll, weighing in the tons and then is cut to size and painted and then delivered to the trailer manufacturers, I used to haul the stuff. You might want to look in the Yellow Pages and find a trailer repair shop. That is a big truck trailer repair shop, the kind you see on the highway being pulled by Peterbilts.
 
Getting it cut to size, no idea. The stuff I used to haul was cut on a huge press with a large sheer. I guess you could cut to size, but you will need a good size area and some sort of jig or what not to get a straight cut. Or if you can find a shop with a sheer to cut the material, that would be your best bet.
 
As far as thickness, I am going to guess and say 20, 22 or 24 gauge aluminum. And your rivets, you will need stainless steel rivets, 100% stainless steel. If not, you will get rust and have those ugly streaks on the skin.
 
I don't know, I think you should have left that skin on. It would have more than likely been cheaper to wrap than to have to replace all of that aluminum.
 
Good luck.
 

just as an example.....
i am raising my roof 12 inches, and the 10'x12" side panels of 11 gauge aluminum that i need for the sides are 120 bucks each in my area... should be fairly close in all areas i would think....
i wouldnt go with anything less then 16 gauge for an outer skin.....anything thinner and the simple flexing of the trailer during movement will soon have it ripped from the frame in short time..... plus, the thicker it is, the better it will stand up to someone leaning against it, bumping into it, etc....
 
while stainless rivets are a good choice, i would go simply with aluminum rivets, then you end any problems with corrosion before it starts, they make some seriously beefed up rivets for vans and trailers that will work perfectly.... my step van is 34 years old, and the aluminum rivets are still holding strong, of course, my side walls are 11 gauge (1/8th")
 
unless the sides were beat up badly, you should have left in place....... cosmetic fixes are simple, and a lot cheaper then rebuilding because the paint looked like crap....
 
hate to say it, but it will probably cost less to go buy another trailer then to re-skin the one you have......
 
but, with that said, just build yourself some nice composite walls, thats going to be your cheapest way out at this point i believe....
 
cheapest i can think of right off the top of my head would be corrugated galvanized for an outer skin, on top of 1/4" luan, and spray foam from the inside to even with studs, and then build interior walls as normal.... would have a great "R" value for insulation......
 
build it to look like a barn, and a mild acid wash every now and then will keep the galvanized bright and shiny for a few years 

this is the stuff im talking about.....