Heard back from my dad. Looks like he thinks MDF is the way to go, but there seems to be some confusion on the dimensions. I think he's still a little big confused as to what this whole thing even is. I just need to sit down and talk w/ him about it. He thinks it will take 40 hours to build. I don't know where he came up w/ that, but it seems like way too long. I figured 12 hours max. He said they'd be willing to come out here to help finish it up if need be. 6 weeks left, and stress is really starting to kick in at this point.