Re: Painting a radiator?

[caterpillar guy]

I'm guessing your wanting to paint a tractor radiator. this looks to be for the old cast iron house heater radiators. I suppose it would work would also think if regular paint was thinnned down enough it would work if not used with much hardener.

 

[Bob N.Y.]

The owner of a radiator shop once told me that enamel paint is a heat insulator and lacquer dissipates heat, so radiators should be painted with lacquer.

 

[showcrop]

(quoted from post at 04:18:04 05/31/23) The owner of a radiator shop once told me that enamel paint is a heat insulator and lacquer dissipates heat, so radiators should be painted with lacquer.

The owner of a radiator shop once told me that lacquer paint is a heat insulator and enamel dissipates heat, so radiators should be painted with enamel.[/quote]

 

[Tgrasher]

Use black satin Ace Hardware rattle can
paint and be happy.

 

[Dean]

I paint all of my vintage copper and brass radiators using black radiator paint, which interferes less with heat conduction than does regular paint.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Google Black body radiation.

 

[Crazy Horse]

I wonder where would a guy get lacquer paint conveniently these days Bob? Are any rattle cans lacquer based? Unless what is called 'radiator paint' is lacquer.

 

[DR. EVIL]

ACTUALLY, YES, I'd thin regular enamel paint about 50% paint and 50% thinner, maybe more like 75% maybe, and spray the thinnest coating you can, one pass only and don't over-lap either.
I worked at a company that made ice cream making machines, 4 sizes, 400, 600, 800, and 1200 GALLONS PER HOUR. We made one, two, and three barrel machines. We had one really good customer who was excellent in keeping their plant equipment maintained. They noticed their new freezers that originally made exactly what their gallons per hour ratings were would only make about HALF that amount, they tore the machine down and the only thing they found was a thin layer of Nicole oxide, the water in their refrigeration system and their synthetic compressor oil created an acid in the refrigeration system and a thin layer of corrosion formed on the outside of the pure 100% Nickle freezing cylinder. Our engineer scraped some corrosion into a clean new letter envelope and we sent it to our metallurgical testing lab. Results were about 75% Nicole, some oxides, and some acids from the synthetic oils from the refrigerant. We contemplated increasing the wall thickness of our freezing cylinders so we could machine grooves in them for more heat transfer because of more surface. At the time pure nickle was about $7.00/pound and a cylinder weighed about 350 pounds, the inside had about 1/10th inch of pure chrome plating on it. The synthetic oil made an acid that attacked and oxidized the nickle cylinder about .005 thick.

 

[Ozlander]

(quoted from post at 05:32:03 05/31/23) I'm guessing your wanting to paint a tractor radiator. this looks to be for the old cast iron house heater radiators. I suppose it would work would also think if regular paint was thinnned down enough it would work if not used with much hardener.

I doubt if any of these old tractors are going to be used hard enough to worry about what paint is used.

 

[Ellis Kinney]

When I was a kid I had a '60 Oldsmobile. I kept the radiator polished, I thought the shiny brass looked good. I think radiator paint for heat control is over
thinking it. Ellis

 

[Stephen Newell]

It's made for a radiator which should be alright. The main thing is the paint thickness needs to be as thin as possible. The thicker it is makes the cooling aspect of a radiator less. The paint works like an insulation.

 

[steve_in_mo]

Flat black. Same color that helps absorb heat helps disperse heat.

 

[Bob N.Y.]

I got a can of spray lacquer from amazon.

 

[gene bender]

thats the best answer given why worry about radiator paint its not a racing engine