Joy, I painted my blue 87 top with some RV rubberized roof paint (got it at Camping World). I used some 3 inch wide masking tape and started the paint about 6 inches from the curve of the pop top so it wouldn't be noticeable against the blue poptop ( at least when its down). I used a 3 inch paint roller to do the edges where the tape was and a regular roller for the rest. I can't tell you if it makes a huge difference inside my van since its a dark color overall, but on a really hot day that part of the roof is a lot cooler than the blue parts of the roof so it must be helping somewhat. I think the stuff comes in silver and in hindsight, I think that would look better and less stark than the white. It's only been up there for about 6 months but so far so good. I would expect that it might last 3-5 years? Here's a couple of sunroof pics that also show the roof with the coating: http://vickersdesign.com/vanagon/sunroof3.jpg http://vickersdesign.com/vanagon/sunroof2.jpg Cheers, Jeff 87 Syncro Westy in Marin On Aug 7, 2005, at 11:19 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote: > Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2005 11:18:45 -0700 > From: Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU> > Subject: painting the poptop with reflective paint > > Has anyone tried (or considered) painting the top of your poptop with > silver > paint so it would reflect sunlight and stay cooler inside? > > If you have, I'd be interested in your experiences. Whether it works, > why > it turns out to be a dumb idea, what kind of paint, etc. etc. > > > Joy |
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