I didn't get in on the original very long thread on this subject. But I'll add this empirical observation. Some years back, at a body shop that did their own painting, I asked about painting just the top of my blue/gray (almost Dove Blue but a repaint) white of silver to minimize heating from the Sun. It was a bright sunny day and the shop owner led me out into the parking lot. He led me to a silver car parked there and told me to put my hand on it. And the silver car was hot, very hot. Then we stepped over to a white car. And it was very cool to the touch, surprisingly so. Question answered: Paint the top white. BTW, I never did have the top painted white, came up with a reflecting cover made from a heavy duty emergency blanket. And that worked great for being parked a week at a time each year in hot Sun every day. |
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