Color of your vehicle

[Starlight]

There was a thread somewhere about what color would be best for a stealth vehicle -- and a comment was made that white would arouse more suspicion as they are stolen more often -- other points about white vans --

well -- I noticed a lot of full-timers have white vehicles -- and wondered if there was logic behind it -- a secret club???? -- best insulating when camping in summer??? -- best resale value??? -- a "service vehicle" type look -- ???

I'm wanting to paint my van and wondered how stupid I'd look if I painted it blue or lavender -- or dark red -- or light green -- or should I join the club and be recognizable in white...??? :-/

 

[Patrick46]

Myself, I prefer a softer grey.

Why??

You want 'real' camo, then blend in with the concrete of a parking lot.
A White rig stands out in a parking lot compared to a grey one. (check it out sometime)
Grey is what they paint the insides of jails with for much of the same reasons. It also has a calming quality to it.

It also doesn't look as bad as a white one does when dirty.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

A white vehicle will stay cooler when parked in the sun.

I saw a thread over the cargo trailer conversion forum on the tiny travel trailers site where somebody used one of those infrared thermometers on a couple of cargo trailers that were parked in the sun.

The metal skin on a white trailer was 20 degrees cooler than the skin on a blue trailer.

Regards
John

 

[Belinda2]

Starlight,
If you get any color that can be trendy, long term it will age the vehicle and affect the resale value. It is also less stealth in certain environments. I didn't get what I wanted when I bought my vehicle new , I got what was sensible. Now that my vehicle is almost historic and I'm about ready to sell, it looks just like all the others out there if it's type.

 

[stude53]

FYI - From a university study on reflective colors:

From an environment standpoint, silver and white cars are cool; black cars are not. Researchers at the Berkeley Lab Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) say that the color of your car affects your car's fuel economy and how seriously you contribute to pollution. A light-colored shell reflects more sunlight than a dark car shell. The cooler the color, the cooler the cabin air, and the less of a need to run your air conditioner.

White, silver, and other light colors are coolest, reflecting about 60 percent of sunlight. Vehicle thermal loads and air conditioning ancillary loads are strongly influenced by the absorption of solar energy. The adoption of solar reflective coatings for opaque surfaces of the vehicle shell can decrease the “soak” temperature of the air in the cabin of a vehicle parked in the sun, potentially reducing the vehicle’s ancillary load and improving its fuel economy by permitting the use of a smaller air conditioner. An experimental comparison of otherwise identical black and silver compact sedans indicated that increasing the solar reflectance (ρ) of the car’s shell by about 0.5 lowered the soak temperature of breath-level air by about 5–6 °C. Thermal analysis predicts that the air conditioning capacity required to cool the cabin air in the silver car to 25 °C within 30 min is 13% less than that required in the black car.

Hope this helps,
Bob

 

[Patrick46]

that's why I like grey. It's light enough not to absorb too much heat from da sun.

I used to own a hot-rod panel truck. It was flat black with flames all over it. I painted the roof glossy white just to keep the inside cooler...so you could always paint your roof white or silver, if you're that worried about it.

 

[Zil]

Yes. my last was hand painted with a rustic green and off white (cream). i was never harassed from one end of the usa to the other. my present project is a maroon Ram with windows. only because it was such a deal. I may paint the top with silver trailer-home paint. I'm sure to make an awning off the side for camping shade.

 

[mockturtle]

Depends on how 'stealthy' you want to be. A lavender van is about as stealthy as King Kong at a garden party, IMHO. Personally, I like white best. Oddly, it doesn't show dirt as much as darker colors and it reflects a lot of light, staying cooler in hot weather. If you go to southern AZ you will see white as the dominant vehicle color. And, yes, it is stealthy.

 

[highdesertranger]

depends on where you want to be stealth at. my vehicle is painted with military paint, desert sand. yes it is flat, doesn't shine, but it sure disappears in the desert. my buddy's motor home and trailer are both white, we can park next to each other and go up a mountain 5 miles away and look down on camp. even with binoculars you can't see my truck but his stands out to the naked eye plain as day. highdesertranger

 

[Starlight]

Thanks for the feedback, all.

 

[flying kurbmaster]

I read somewhere a few years back that police forces where changing there vehicles to white because white vehicles were more visible, and had less accidents, but I have noticed of late that some police forces are changing back to black along with black uniforms to look real mean. I think grey or silver vehicles are not seen as well on the road they blend into the pavement. I got a personal thing about silver, I don't think it is a colour, it is what people choose when they can't decide what colour they want.

 

[WheelEstate USA]

Zil....I think I'd rather have the white roof coat rather than silver. Looks more vehicle like and less like a quicky fix job.
Just my point of view

 

[Starlight]

If I remember my cowboy movie upbringing correctly -- white is the good guys -- black is the bad guys. Just sayin.

I'm leaning towards a very light blue metalic... to cover the very ugly purple-cranberry (with flying clear coat paint flakes) fashion statement I've been making for too long.

 

[decodancer]

Silver is a color, my hair and my van are silver. Sounds so much classier than grey

 

[Patrick46]

here's an interesting tidbit for yas...


silver paint is actually a clear paint body, with fine aluminum particles in it. It's metal, which is why it settles so quickly and easily. This is why it needs to be stirred up so throughly...to get all the aluminum up off the bottom of the can and mixed up into the paint.

 

[decodancer]

Are you calling me a metal head ? I'm mixed up for sure but do not settle easily.

 

[WheelEstate USA]

If I ever need a paint job I had already decided that I'm makin' a trip to Oregon.
It would certainly be something other than plain white
After traveling a motorhome I'm sorta over the stealth idea. We've found somewhere to park everywhere we've wanted to visit or sleep over without looking too hard.
A campervan with nice 2 tone paint and conservative graphics fits the "retired couple on vaca" story.

 

[Patrick46]

Are you calling me a metal head ? I'm mixed up for sure but do not settle easily.

well....you ARE a woman and all that.

 

[Reducto]

I've been pondering changing my van's color and I'd like to do it myself. The problem is - where would I do the work? Spray paints on public lands seems like a no-no, and even rolling it on I'd have to deal with bugs and dust landing on the wet paint in addition to disapproving rangers.

Any thoughts? Or should I just clean it up as best I can and hope the super cheap paint places do a reasonable job?

 

[decodancer]

I'm attaching a before and after of my spray can paint job. Ran out of warm weather before I finished the passengers side but I'll finish that soon. I did it here at the campground and the only comments I got were "what an improvement". Maybe a parking lot in an industrial area on a weekend? I've heard that you can rent spray booths, call an auto painting place and ask them. Or ask where you buy the paint, maybe they have an area out back. Throw down a cheap plastic drop cloth to minimize overspray.