br1anstorm
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- United Kingdom
I've been reading the thread about Herculining an XJ roof. The comments about whether that would make the interior hotter when the sun shines got me thinking (and that's always dangerous!).
Has anyone seen (does anyone remember) how Land-Rover tried to keep their vehicles cool in the days before aircon? The ones I remember in Africa had an extra roof panel - essentially a sheet of aluminium - usually painted white, which was fixed with rivets or bolts above the regular roof panel with a gap of about 1/2 an inch between them.
This gave two advantages: in effect it shaded the main roof panel, which then didn't get the direct heat of the sun so didn't radiate into the interior. And when going along the road, the movement of air through that 1/2 inch air-gap produced a cooling effect. I'm not an engineer, so I don't know if this was venturi-effect, aerodynamics, or what. All I know is that it worked pretty well...
I tried a mod on these lines on my XJ when in the Gulf using a piece of aluminium sheet fixed to the stock roof rails/bars, but it wasn't close enough to the main roof panel nor fixed solidly enough, so it caught the wind and made a noise (and eventually came off!). But I still think a proper equivalent to what Land-Rover did would improve comfort and cooling, and ease the load on the aircon if you have it.
Anyone else think this is worth a try?
br1anstorm
Has anyone seen (does anyone remember) how Land-Rover tried to keep their vehicles cool in the days before aircon? The ones I remember in Africa had an extra roof panel - essentially a sheet of aluminium - usually painted white, which was fixed with rivets or bolts above the regular roof panel with a gap of about 1/2 an inch between them.
This gave two advantages: in effect it shaded the main roof panel, which then didn't get the direct heat of the sun so didn't radiate into the interior. And when going along the road, the movement of air through that 1/2 inch air-gap produced a cooling effect. I'm not an engineer, so I don't know if this was venturi-effect, aerodynamics, or what. All I know is that it worked pretty well...
I tried a mod on these lines on my XJ when in the Gulf using a piece of aluminium sheet fixed to the stock roof rails/bars, but it wasn't close enough to the main roof panel nor fixed solidly enough, so it caught the wind and made a noise (and eventually came off!). But I still think a proper equivalent to what Land-Rover did would improve comfort and cooling, and ease the load on the aircon if you have it.
Anyone else think this is worth a try?
br1anstorm