Roof Color

[cliffy23]

I have been working on renovating a 31' Excella 1984. I have a question regarding the white roof that I have. I personally don't like the look of the white roof as the white color as it comes down the walls (to the awning). I stripped some of white coating that the previous owner painted on and can see that the aluminum is actually white and am disappointed as I was hoping to remove ALL of the white off of the roof for better eye appeal.

SO, my question (with this new information) is, has anyone actually tinted the kool seal aluminum coating a gray/silver type color to get away from the white color on top? My concern here is that my white roof goes down all the way to the front window and down to the awning on the sides so it is VERY noticeable (see pic at batesairstream blog). I would like to maybe tint it to a light gray or something similiar.

I understand all of the benefits of having a white roof rather than a heat producing metal so I don't want to get into that in this thread as that has been discussed many times.

Or any other ideas to not have the roof be white when the aluminum is white from the factory up there?

[cliffy23]

I just found that Kool Seal sells a Gray version of their roof "paint". Anyone have any experience with this and how it looks with the rest of the AS being fully polished?

[cliffy23]

Anyone to help here? I am looking to see if there is anyway to turn the white-roof from the factory into a "typical", non-white surface? Can I buff off the white coating on the roof metal or what?

[Melody Ranch]

I cannot picture the "white aluminum" your finding on the roof...under the top white. If its paint...Aircraft type stripper will remove it. The aluminum will polish up too. Look what you did to the one test area pictured way back in your blog.

By the way....I think what you did to the interior end caps is spectacular. (I wonder what a center whale tail section would have looked like? I can tell you it would cause some stir to anyone in the know."....as if this one won't."

Polish away!!!

[perryg114]

I would strip off the white and then polish the roof or at least use some scotch bright to get the white off. I would not use a darker color cool seal. It will really make it hot in the trailer. White is the best from a thermal standpoint. Polished aluminum would be the next best. I understand about the white streaks. Not all roof coatings do that. I don't know which ones or I would paint my roof white as well.

Perry

[J. Morgan]

I don't think your year used AlClad, so sanding would be ok.

Starting with perhaps 600 or 800 then working progressively to a polished finish.

[J. Morgan]

Oh, I would recommend a wet D/A sander, dry sanding would plug the paper almost immediately at this grit.

I should have mentioned above sanding after stripper.

[cliffy23]

Got it. Thanks for the feedback. My AS has white coating on the top of it, i already stripped a small section off to take a look at it and the metal is white. I like the idea of sanding that off. May be some work but getting to that metal and polishing it will be worth it. Thanks for the tips.