painting the roof

[Austin]

when painting the roof do you normally just paint the first three feet then seal the middle or do you paint the whole roof also what about leaving the roof white to reduce heat draw is this a common practice?

[Songman]

Any bus I own will always have a white roof. I'll go with color just far enough to make the curve and the rest will be white.

[oldmansax]

My bus had a brown roof. I painted the center with white Kool-seal. It dropped the inside ceiling temperature by about 25 degrees.

[jjrbus]

My whole bus is white!!! When painting roof you can add sand to paint. Dont put it in spray gun, spread it as you paint . A path down the middle 2 to 3 ft wide for traction. In hindsight I wish Iwould have done it. I have to be very careful when cleaning roof.  HTH

[superpickle]

My whole bus is white!!! When painting roof you can add sand to paint. Dont put it in spray gun, spread it as you paint . A path down the middle 2 to 3 ft wide for traction. In hindsight I wish Iwould have done it. I have to be very careful when cleaning roof.  HTH

now Why would Buffalo Wings taste like chicken ?? and Why are they so small 
Makes me Hungry, i thimk I'll go the Chilis for lunch 

OH, the bus Roof.. I dont know 

[Utahclaimjumper]

I painted mine with snow coat 9 years ago, still great, I also store it indoors.>>>Dan

[prevost82]

This is now I painted my colors. The whole roof is a very light tan
Ron

[JohnEd]

Snow coat is rough and collects dirt and MILDEW here in Or.  I have it on an old Winniebago and it is an annual scrub and a repaint every two or three years.  MAINTENANCE!

Paint the roof with Pure White Emron or other high quality extremely shinney/smooth paint.  Do it yourself in the early morning before the breeze picks up.  Do you care if it collects a little dust?  You can do the sides outside and not worry cause they are vert. and dust falls down....worked beautifully for me.  If you do the "sand for traction" trick you put the VERY LIGHT sprinkel of sand in the fresh "first coat".  After that sets you repaint with a thinned coat to seal stuff like they do the decks on Navy ships routinely.

I think those really dark colored busses look really sharp.  I just can't imagine how they are kept cool in Ariz. sun.  Would 4 roof airs be enufff?

Having fun,

John

[Songman]

I think those really dark colored busses look really sharp.  I just can't imagine how they are kept cool in Ariz. sun.  Would 4 roof airs be enufff?

Probably like this... I know this is what I plan to do on the dark part of my bus.

[Dallas]

Songman,

From the UPS Delivery vans I've seen, (Mostly built by Oshkosh), that roof is made of translucent fibreglass so that there will be light inside the box during the day. It really does nothing to stop heat, in fact it lets an awful lot of heat in.

[Songman]

Really? I didn't know it was fiberglass. But on a steel coach, the principle that light colors reflect heat would still apply, right? Most of the dark colored coaches that I know of in the music business have white roofs.

[Kristinsgrandpa]

   I bought some ceramic beads to mix with my Kool Seal. It is supposed to considerably lower roof temps in the sun.

  A couple of years ago someone painted a piece of sheet metal and tried one half with, and one half without the ceramic beads. His non contact laser thermometer showed quite a difference.

  This was also done with Kool Seal with similar results. I don't like the maintenance required to keep Kool Seal looking good but I use it. Tree leaves in the rain will stain it.

I'm sure it's still in the archives on the BNO.

My drip rails are tall enough to hide the roof.

Ed.

[JohnEd]

Ed,

I read that report about white paint and those beads.  It was impressive as it cut the heatloading way, way down.  The mildew up here is "black" and that eliminates any benifit of the cool coat.  I think if you are not in a rainey and cool invironment it would make perfect sense.  Also, if you are willing to do the repaint and cleaning the stuff is great.  Used it for ten years with great satisfaction.

Thanks for your input.

John

[Ednj]

I painted the inside with those ceramic beads mixed with primer, Then spray foamed the inside the full 2", you can't feel any roof heat by hand with the outside painted.

[Kwajdiver]

I painted blue to the curve, then white in the middle.  If I had to do it all over again, I would paint the whole roof white.  Just because of the heat.

Bill