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Old 06-06-2009, 07:11 PM   #5 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertSmalls View Post
Zinc Oxide is white on the optical band, so it doesn't absorb much heat from sunlight, but it's black on the infrared band, so it cools well. I don't know if it's suitable for painting a car, but I bet a spectrally selective paint will outperform even Al-foil. If I find the Insight's sheet metal (i.e. the roof and hood) gets hot when left in the sun, I'm going to paint the roof white. Or maybe I'll just strip the paint off and polish the bare metal. ;-)
I don't know if you can mix an Zinc Oxide with enamel paint... the oxide may be too heavy to be suspended in the paint properly, and could clump/sag.

It's a great idea though, if you could find a way to color the oxide and make it stick to metal, without being corrosive.
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