Painting the roof

[baker4106]

Anyone have ideas for painting the roof on my 4106?   The paint is bad and peeling off the aluminum.

[Midwilshire]

BusKote worked well for us.  Holding up well after two years exposed to the FL sun.  Three gallons were sufficient for our 35' bus.

[hatchhome]

Baker, I just painted my pd-4106 roof with henrys solar flex from Home Depot. It has the same ingredients as some of the more expensive brands but it only cost $60 for 5 gallons and to be honest I think I used 2 1/2 gallons with 4 coats on it. Can already tell a difference as I don't have insulation installed yet. Cheers

[hatchhome]

Heres what I used for reference

[Iceni John]

Anyone have ideas for painting the roof on my 4106?   The paint is bad and peeling off the aluminum.

Mine was also doing that.   Because most of my paint could no longer be trusted to provide a reliable base to whatever I would put on top, I stripped the whole roof down to bare aluminum  -  I used a small putty knife and a hot air gun, and wire wheels on a drill to go over the 1638 rivets (yes, I was bored one day . . .).   I then sanded it by hand with 80-grit, wiped it with an acetone-based degreaser, rolled on a coat of Mar-Hyde 5113 self-etching pre-treatment primer, caulked every seam with Loctite S40 polyurethane sealant, primed with Rustoleum Stops Rust clean-metal primer, rolled on two coats of Rustoleum Professional gloss white enamel with Hy-Tech Thermacels ceramic insulating additive, then two more coats of plain white enamel without the insulation.   It not only looks good, but it lets less heat through to the interior  -  most folk who use the Hy-Tech insulation think it lowers inside temperatures by ten or more degrees.   I shot the roof temps with an IR heat gun while the roof was partially painted, and there was almost ten degrees difference inside compared with where I had painted just the first insulating coat and where there was still only white primer.

I repainted the roof not only because it looked horrible before, but because I'm now installing the central walkway between my two roof hatches to which my solar panels will be attached.   When the walkway and panels are in place I'll have no way to paint the roof, so it was now or never.

One unanticipated effect of painting the roof is that it now shows all the dirt on it!   We haven't had any significant rain here at all this winter, so whatever dirt happens on the roof stays on the roof.   Darned drought.   I would never have thought I would be wishing for rain!

John      

[Oonrahnjay]

BusKote worked well for us.  ...

     Same here.  Did the primer, insulation white coat and sealer.  As usual, "prep" was the biggest PITA and two coats of white added up to four coats, but it went quickly - maybe 45 minutes per coat once I got rolling (using a roller).  Water leaks *way* reduced, temps noticeably down.

[lvmci]

Hi John, do you think the biggest insulating factor is the Hy-tech thermacel ceramic insulation? Or the layering of paints, lvmci...

[Iceni John]

Hi John, do you think the biggest insulating factor is the Hy-tech thermacel ceramic insulation? Or the layering of paints, lvmci...

Hy-Tech's sales blurb says that two coats should provide enough  insulation.   However, after the second coat the paint had a rough almost suede-like appearance, so that was why I then put on two coats of plain enamel.   It's now reasonably shiny and smooth, I hope enough to help reflect away as much sunlight as possible.

With the combination of ceramic insulation, shiny(ish) white surface, and soon almost the entire roof covered by solar panels, I'm hoping that not too much heat will get through to the ceiling inside.   I also plan on covering the ceiling with 1/4" cork to help insulate it and deaden noise.   If this is sufficient to keep the interior temperature tolerable, I won't need to tear out all the ceiling and put in better insulation than the fiberglass that's in there now.   I don't intend to ever be where it's seriously cold, so maybe what I'm doing now will suffice.   We'll see.

John   

[Zeroclearance]

Another vote for Henry's Solarflex..   In use for 4 years now..

[Jnbroadbent]

I went with Lanco ultra siliconizer. It was 89.99 for 5 gal. 1 coat so far and there's about a 15-20 degree difference between coated and non coated. Planning on doing another coat.

Probably will do the whole bus since we only have 2" of insulation