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Old 01-23-2018, 02:26 AM   #26 (permalink)
mattrod
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Join Date: Jan 2018
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oldtamiyaphile View Post
I've been experimenting with 'shadow chrome' as a less obvious alternative to full chrome. On a car it looks like a medium metallic grey. Shadow chrome on the left:



A TJ hardtop is basically an A/C torture test. Matt black is the worst possible colour for reflectivity and emissivity, plus there's no headliner, so there's no insulation. On a hot drive, the underside of the roof gets way too hot to touch- well into the 70*C range.

Mounted on the Jeep- there's enough curve in this roof to already require post shrinking:



All but invisible from normal viewing angles:



Lessons learned:

Wrap doesn't stick too well to the textured surface. Post shrinking helps, but I've had to add electrical tape to the edges to prevent them peeling. That's OK as in an off roader I expect dirt will creep in over time, and the electrical tape makes an easily replaced first line of defense.

Shadow chrome has similar performance to my van's green paint, which is about +7*C vs white. That's not bad, but next time around I'll go with full chrome given how little you can see of it. The performance of full chrome is amazing.

Great idea. I will try it on my JK's hardtop.
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