Living in the semi desert area that I do, and having a dark red paint, my cab gets quite warm in the summer. Been thinking that if I could just make the roof reflect more heat the way we do with heat shields in the front window, it would make things much cooler. So I came across this temporary paint for stencils and such. It is supposed to withstand rain, but wash off with soap and water and not damage the original paint finish below. Since my roof is too tall to see from the ground any way, I have been thinking of painting the roof white for the summer. This is the stuff:

Dupli-Color :: Car Art

Costs about 8.00 per can. I think it would probably take two to cover the roof of the club cab.

Anyone have any experience with this?

 

Give it a try and let us know how it works out. I have a white truck and it is still hot as he!!.

 

Looks like you already have window tint so I wonder if there is an issue with your A/C system? My truck is red and it's super cold in the cab, even when it's 115 outside.

 

OP, you might also consider getting a vinyl wrap. $8 per can is pretty cheap, but if it doesn't hold up a wrap might last longer.

 

Great idea Justin!!! The OP could get mirror finish wrap for the roof ...

 

I think its a great Idea, I would give it a try.
Thats the one reason I wanted a white truck here in Fl.
Now I just need a white bed liner, things cook back there...

 

Don't do it Frank!
I thought it would be cool to have a red bed liner and now am sorry I made that decision. Parts of it has turned yellow now and looks horrible. I should have stuck with the standard black.

The real bummer is that I had the work done at a Rhino Lining dealer so I 'thought' I had a lifetime warranty but the spray in linings that are tinted don't have the same warranty as the standard black lining does. Lesson learned for sure. I'll never get a tinted bed liner again...

 

I was also going to suggest the vinyl wrap. I think that paint will bleed over time since it only requires soap and water for removal. That would mean no washing the truck or every time it rains you could be potentially looking at $16, Vinyl would be my choice.

 

White would be real dirty looking too. I seen em done in beige, that may look good on my truck. I keep my cooler back there on the jobsite, and I have been rolling up the bed mat to keep it cool. its amazing how fast the ice melt when the cooler sits on the tailgate with the black bedliner plastic on it.

very good point Mike.

 

i haven't had any issues with the tinted bed liners we use here in NC its a sem product and weve done boats / trailers / lota of beds no yellowing ive seen we did a boat with chevy 8624 bright white bedlined inside and singlestage outside it looked sweet needed sunglasses for sure

 

I bet. It's sure burns my behind when I use the tailgate as a lunch seat as well.

Have you looked at getting a 12v cooler and 7 pin adapter so you can use the plug in your bed? The charge wire (terminal #4) has power when the engine is on so it might keep the contents of your cooler colder for a bit longer.

(just a thought....)

 

Thats actually a great Idea...
I'll check em out.

 

Before you go painting the entire roof of your cab, do some checking. While a white coating can reduce the surface temperature of the metal, it would need to be a thick coating applied over the paint of the truck. The real question then becomes, how much heat will that prevent from entering inside the cab?

If you've got, or buy, one of those little infra red thermometers you can acurately measure temps for comparison. Leave all the windows down just to keep it bearable for the test. You'll need to measure the temp of the roof in an untreated area. Then either paint a small square of this white paint, or lay a small square of something white on the roof and read the temperature of the white area for comparison. Now get inside the truck and take a reading below the untreated area and under the white area to see how that translates to heat being radiated through the headliner.

My guess is there will be minimal difference measured on the bottom of the headliner. If you didn't have the headliner up there, then the white paint could make a significant difference, but with a headliner, I'm guessing not much.

One of those things you put up in the front windshield would probably give you more bang for the buck. That or park in the shade.

 

op-you could also add some insulation material between the roof and headliner.
I know guys that have done that and they say it makes a big difference.

My white truck is definitely cooler than the darker ones.
Looks and temperature. he he

 

Terry you might be on to something. The roof of the crew cab is not flat though so vinyl might be a problem to apply.

Comparing apples to spaceships, my white crew cab gets no where near as hot as my new red Mustang with the black roof. Need to get an IR thermometer...