COLOR vs TEMPERATURE

[Dust]

My feeling, if you are going to paint the Styrofoam leading edge or tops other than white, test a sample in the worst possible conditions of the actual paint you are planning to use on a real mockup

Vegas fits the bill

I'm gonna use summer in Scottsdale, AZ

[Ben]

Originally Posted by WileEZ

...I guess we'll need someone to make up a piece of foam laminate and paint it flat black and leave it out in the southern sun for, oh say, six months to a year and see what happens.

Anyone in the desert willing to do such a test?

I mentioned my account where I did just this (in the desert). The wing was painted with gray urethane and developed dozens of bubbles under the top (exposed) skin. It was ruined. The sister wing sitting in the shade of the exposed wing experienced no visible deformation/delams.

[argoldman]

Originally Posted by coolamber

I live in Las Vegas. I could put a piece of black painted foam outside for this test. I have a large enough backyard and could find a suitable spot for this experiment.

To really do an experiment that would mean something, lay up a couple of layers of glass over the foam and paint that.

Unless the foam surface is identical to the glass, the heat situation may be quite different than really exists in the structure. Additionally, the heat retention and transmission of the glass will be different than the foam. Additionally additionally, if the foam starts to gassifiy (don't know if it actually does), the results will be different glassed and unglassed.

A composite structure is more than individual things "glued" together It may have different characteristics (physical, thermal) than any of the components.

If we are going to do tests (and notice that I am not volunteering), have our samples as close to the actual structures as possible.

[Dust]

Originally Posted by argoldman

If we are going to do tests (and notice that I am not volunteering), have our samples as close to the actual structures as possible.

I think different paints have different characteristics. In my mind, only a sample of exactly the construction you are using and the exact, complete paint system and exact colors will do.

I think the only two foams we have a problem with are pour foam, which we do not use much of and Styrofoam.

I am worried about my pour foam canard cover/access cover as it has changed shape just siting in the hangar on a bench! i will probably remake it, a day or so job now as it is unfinished and no screw holes are in it

[karoliina]

Hi,

I have now had my flight simulator cockpit thing on the front yard of our house in direct sunlight the whole summer (haven't had much time to work on it) and it is fully styrofoam - glass composite. It is painted as dark grey and it gets terribly hot on a sunny day. It is still in one piece. However, I used cheap spray paint to paint it and the foam has degraded in several places because the solvent have leaked through the glass somewhere.

Next up is training "real" painting on this cockpit (before I screw up with Star's cowling paint like third time again).

Karoliina

[chasingmars]

Originally Posted by TMann

I have 4 types of foam in the oven in the kitchen right now

Originally Posted by Dust

I am worried about my pour foam

Please don't do an oven test on pour foam! If I recall correctly it's a urethane and releases poisonous isocyanates when heated to decomposition