Oscar Zuniga wrote: >Larry wrote- > > > >>There are tables for temp increase with various color paints. Without >>looking it up, I would expect skin temps of 170F when exposed to 110F. >> >> > >Which raises another issue that has been mentioned here before. If you're >using extruded polystyrene foam board (pink Owens-Corning or blue Dow >Styrofoam, or any other), you'll have other problems. At about 165F the >polystyrene board will begin to lose its dimensional stability and can bow, >warp, cup, or otherwise lose its shape and rigidity. And I believe that >T-88 structural epoxy will also begin to soften at higher temps. > >Like the man said... you can paint your composite airplane any color you >like, as long as it's white ;o) > > When I made the original wind tunnel models for the AS5045 and AS5048 airfoils I put one of the panels out in the sun to speed up the drying of the black lacquer finish. Very bad move. After only fifteen minutes the heat had caused the blue styrofoam cores to swell. I was building the panels to a +- .008" tolerance. The 1/8" that the panel swelled ruined the first wing panel. Beware of dark colors on epoxy panels.
Steve Eberhart Gone over to the dark side with Dana.
