Black hardtop and 112 degrees, insulation/paint options

[3jarrells]

Insulation inside would help but on my TJ I painted the center section of the roof white with solar flex roofing paint. It makes a great difference in the sun!

What kind of prep was involved before painting. The top is textured so sanding is out. Did you spray it or brush it?

Thanks for the responses guys. Sometimes it nice to know your not the only one

[3jarrells]

Any body else paint their top? I have seen a few rattle can jobs on the interwebs. They look ok in the pics, but a bit nervous to paint on a new vehicle!

Found this too

http://www.savagesun4x4.com/enter/pr...roof_coat.html

Looks pretty easy. My Jeep would look like a reverse oreo

[TreeTopFlyer]

http://www.hytechsales.com/prodrc233.html
That is supposed to be a nice thermal coating to use. This one is for outside: http://www.hytechsales.com/prod2150.html. I have hotheads in my jeep, they are so so. The fit is fantastic, but they are just headliner material on pressboard. I was expecting a little more to the "insulation" of it all. I like the idea of painting the center of the top white. I might have to do that if we keep hitting the 100s. Not sure if your windows are tinted, but Llumar makes some high heat rejections tint. Their Black 5% ATR will do 68% and their Silver Platinum series 18% will do 65%.

[JIMBO]

Read post no. 4-

By using Thermal-Acoustic auto insulation, between the HT and the OffRoadHeroes material--I achieved comfy temp Bliss!

JIMBO

[SilverBullet]

Might be late to the info here, but check out VJC and Off Road Passport or other groups in your area. I have a few Jeep friends who have used RV roof paint (as mentioned above) and say the diffrence is huge, and you don't notice from the ground. Just takes some cleaning and prep time.

I know the guys I work with got the info from Off Road Passport

[Longtallsally]

We've got a 4 month old and have the same concerns as it's been over or around 100F for a while now. The AC does seem to keep up pretty well as long as we're moving- but that will be a struggle with any vehicle as the design of an auto AC system requires movement (the condenser fans generally can't keep up at idle) as well as the modern refrigerants being used are not as efficient.

All this being said, I'm just simply not sold on the hotheads or other insulation working. When driving the other day with the outside temp at 101F I felt the top- on the inside- just as I got in and it was barely warm to the touch. I'm no engineer of thermodynamics, but this tells me that putting a liner of some sort will make little to no difference (I do however want to put something in for sound deadening purposes). I guess it just seems to me that as with sound deadening a vehicle, there are multiple solutions that would have to be used in conjunction to achieve really noticeable results, i.e.; the window covering, the interior lining of the top, and exterior paint.

And I also think adding in a resistor to the AC system as described in a '12 machine is begging for trouble down the road with the canbus.

After rebuilding the AC system in an old project car a while back and doing a lot of research on it, it seems that putting a larger and more powerful condenser fan in addition to a larger and more efficient condenser since the old refrigerant is no longer available (for obvious reasons) is the only way to improve the system.

Bottom line, it doesn't seem to me there is a magic bullet out there. However, I could be way off base and am more commenting to join into the conversation and see if some more tangible results have been gathered.

[JeepinJon]

When driving the other day with the outside temp at 101F I felt the top- on the inside- just as I got in and it was barely warm to the touch. I'm no engineer of thermodynamics, but this tells me that putting a liner of some sort will make little to no difference (I do however want to put something in for sound deadening purposes).

My top gets hot when I am not moving at highway speeds (off-road, traveling through town with stop and go traffic, or when getting in after the Jeep has been parked). I am more concerned with the initial cooling of the Jeep as from my drive from work to daycare is only about 10 minutes, and getting the Jeep cooled down initially is the problem. Also if we take the Jeep somewhere with our child we need to be careful to make sure he doesn't touch the inside of the roof when strapping him in as we have measured temps of 160+ on the areas of the roof that are not double layers.

On the highway I am not as concerned as you aren't getting the radiant heat since the wind dissipates most heat prior to it being transfered to the inside.

[monkeyplunger]

I have 2010 jkur and I installed the soundcoat from northridge. The fit was perfect and it looks like it is OEM. The only mod is that I added 3M weather strip adhesive to supplement the adhesive backing. I live in AZ and its obviously hot and the headliner makes all the difference in the world. I also measured the sound reduction at the right side if the drivers headrest and the headliner reduced the noise by 3.5 dB.

I am not sure if soundcoat makes one for the 2012 ( minor contour chanes to the 2011+ hardtops). Long story short, get the headline first and do the paint second IMHO.