Roof Coating Report

[Gideon33w]

Nothing sticks well to clear coat. At the very least you should aggressively scuff the surface. Get any oxidized areas down too. That said, the stuff is pretty cheap and a gallon should be enough to do and redo the entire roof when needed. Really, you could get away with a scotchbriting and some degreaser if you go with a light initial coat and then layer heavy on top of that. The stuff wont last forever on a van but it should last plenty long enough to be worth it. Heck, living in Arizona I wouldn't care if it had to be redone annually, haha. Cost is cheap and labor is pretty easy.

 

[Weight]

Poor paint surface. That is why I used 123 Primer. Rolled on two coats, so far is good. If the weather would dry for a few days I wanted to top coat with a Acrylic. What a big difference in heat from sun shine.

 

[Gideon33w]

Agreed. A self etching primer would definitely be preferable no matter what you're trying to put on top of it.

 

[ArmorAbby]

burning flesh or not burning flesh on contact is a good measuring stick

lol yes.. the thing that gets me is I've noticed that even when it gets a few degrees cooler at night... it's as though the bed, pillows, clothes.. whatever it may be.. actually feel like they hold on to the heat and it lingers for a while...

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

It should be noted that when body shops repaint a car, they ALWAYS thoroughly clean it with a wax and grease remover specially designed for this purpose.  Automotive waxes often contain silicone, and you can't remove it with soap and water.  And this residual silicone wax is usually the reason why new coatings don't stick correctly.

Here's one example:

https://www.amazon.com/Kleanstrip-G...rd_wg=P24E0&psc=1&refRID=P2EPWBS320XQGREVZRRH

 

[highdesertranger]

proper prep is always the most important step when applying any coating. don't prep right and you are wasting your time. highdesertranger

 

[Gideon33w]

Abby - See if you can get more cross flow ventilation. And dont leave your bedding all stacked up.

Optimistic - Very true. For just grease and grim dish soap is awesome. But heavy duty cleaners are needed to strip modern coatings.

HDR - 100% Correct. Cant begin to tell ya how many times I've seen things need redoing at an enlarged cost because someone thought they would save a few dollars or hours on the first go around.

 

[Gideon33w]

Giving this a bump since there's a few people asking questions I thought this would be helpful for.

 

[Gideon33w]

As for an update, I haven't been mobile in the van but it has been sitting in the sun and through monsoon season.
Keeps the van MUCH cooler and no issues with it coming off as of yet.
Really the only down side is that in full sun the roof is almost painfully bright white.

 

[John61CT]

I'm thinking a full body job in bright-white bedliner, nice and thick.

 

[Gideon33w]

Even with an already white van the difference was pretty huge. The hand burning body panel test is pretty conclusive in my mind, haha.
If I could deal with the look of the weird texture I would totally coat a van no question. Especially here in Arizona.
It would just look really funky on the obviously more visible sides of the van :-/

 

[closeanuf]

When I used to rebuild wrecks I found a scotchbrite pad and dawn dishwater detergent very helpful in cleaning and scuffing up old paint.  Then I might wipe down the surface with a solvent suitable for the material I was covering.

 

[highdesertranger]

I moved this thread to the "Insulation" sub forum at the request of Gideon. highdesertranger

 

[Gideon33w]

Thanks HDR

 

[InterBlog]

I did my roof earlier this year with Bus Kote.  So far, I've been pretty pleased with the results.  Blog post describing roof prep and application (removed by Moderator per New Poster rules)

 

[Gideon33w]

If the missus and I do buy a house here in Arizona I'm going to spend the dough to coat it with the stuff I used.
Here, we get used to getting in a HOT vehicle after it sits. But the van stays reasonable even sitting in the sun.

 

[sometimesido]

Would that in any way delay having to replace the shingles on a house roof?

 

[Gideon33w]

Would that in any way delay having to replace the shingles on a house roof?

It's funny you ask. The missus and I are looking at buying a house here in Arizona and one of my first thoughts was:
--- "I wanna coat the whole dang roof in that stuff!" ---
Entombing the shingles would certainly prolong their life BUT if water got under the coating you'd have some serious issues.

This is something I planned to research in detail over the winter if we do end up getting a house. Will report back!