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On 23 Oct 2001, at 15:27, Daniel M. Hoopes wrote: > i thought color made a difference in engine tin cooling. if it > doesn't, what are your opinions on color? While the actual difference that the color makes may be insignificant, here's how I think the heat question works. We have hot engine parts inside and sheet metal outside; in between there is a flow of cooling air. Most of the engine heat is picked up by direct contact with the engine cooling fins, but some of that heat is radiated outwards as infrared radiation. The best thing would be for the sheet metal to be coated in something that is a good absorber of infrared so that the heat would be transferred to it where it could then be picked up by the layer of cooling air which flows along its surface. If the sheet metal surface is highly reflective, then that heat energy will just be reflected back where it came from, and that's not what we'd like to see. So ideally we'd like the sheet metal to be a good IR absorber. That leads us to the question of what is a good IR absorber and I have to admit that I DON'T KNOW. A material's behavior in the visible light range may not extend into the IR. The fact that the test has been done and came up negative probably means that the amount of heat energy that is radiatively transmitted is small compared to that carried off by direct contact. > i was thinking maybe a metallic silver to match my wood slat roof > rack. i don't think i would go red like the car because it wouldn't > match and it would end up looking worse. > > any opinions on how it looks (we're just talking about asthetics here) > when EVERYTHING is gloss black in the engine? I learned a long time ago that a fundamental principle of attractiveness is good contrasts. No matter what color you pick it won't look good all alone. You have to have something that contrasts with it to show it off. Think about why painted cars look good with chrome trim, but an all chrome car would just look silly. Why did all the DeLoreans eventually get painted? - ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------- Too much? Digest! mailto:type3-d-request@vwtype3.org Subj=subscribe