How much is a bottom-of-the-barrel cheapo paint job? Because if you're going for that look where it's just greyish primer, and a wicked spoiler, and a grapefruit-shooter muffler, I'm pretty sure they don't even open the barrel for that one.
I wouldn't expect much change in the interior temperature from an exterior paint job. What color's the upholstery?
You'd probably get better results for much less money by heavily tinting the windows.
Unlikely that cost of new paint job
2: I really think it will make a huge difference. Just from getting in different cars that have been sitting in the 100+ heat.
Anyhow, your car is probably worth, what, $2000? It's really unlikely you can get a decent full paint job done for much less than that. I guess since you're committed to driving a shitty car, you could just pour reflective housepaint all over your car and not give a fuck.
At 17 years old, and things keep on breaking in a maddening way on it, does it make sense to maybe save the money and buy a new (used, but new to you) car? I'm sure Volvos are wonderfully durable, but 17 is old for a car.
I spent the weekend driving a brand new Prius (Zipcar). Those are spiffy -- a very pleasant car to drive.
Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.
You could just wrap that sucker in tin foil.
How bad would it be if you just taped over all the windows and trim, got a couple of cans of white spraypaint, and went to town? Given that the car's useful life is probably about another four months, that might be the most economical solution.
Do you use one of those reflective sunscreen things in the windshield? I understand that they can make a difference and are probably not terribly expensive.
I would think (though this is purely seat-of-my-pants conjecture) that only the color of the roof could make any sort of discernible impact on interior temperatures, and even that would be smaller than the difference from just cracking the windows or getting one of those reflective windshield screens.
I concur with the window tinting and cardboard windshield sunshade* advice. Beyond that, it might be worth it to have your air conditioner refrigerant topped up if that hasn't been done in a while.
*Note: should not be used while driving
I have a 17 year old Jeep that I wanted to get painted. I asked my FiL and he said that it just costs too much for the value of the car. Of course, my car isn't Swedish.
I'm not worried about the heat, as I don't drive it daily in the summer. I'm worried about the other parents at school thinking I'm poor.
I'm not worried about the heat, as I don't drive it daily in the summer. I'm worried about the other parents at school thinking I'm poor.
10: I drove a Prius but really didn't like it. I found it hard to handle and not at all agile. I liked the Honda Insight Hybrid much better.
9 is what I just did. I now have a bright red little hatchback that looks like a space capsule or a suppository depending on my mood.
Maybe get it painted something like this?
You could sell the advertising rights to your car, like in NASCAR, and then just choose choose carefully to find a sponsor whose logo is light in color. Dove soap comes to mind.
a space capsule or a suppository depending on my mood.
And, really, one or the other is suitable to virtually any mood.
28: A joke about Uranus would have been better, I think.
When last I was shopping for a car in the summer I test-sat different colors and confirmed that a white car was noticeably cooler than the rest, with silver in second place, appropriately.
I think about a dozen cans of Rustoleum ought to do you fine.
31: everyone always makes such a fuss about "oh don't click an apostropher link, it will blind you and drive you mad with the sheer unspeakable horror" but that one was perfectly innocuous. I don't see what all the panic is about.
I'll totally paint your car! And anyone else's. I only ask that you find out ahead of time what your local codes are re: glowing in the dark.
34: Do you need the keys or can we pay you to paint other people's cars when they are out of town?
Are you implying that having a car painted by me would be a punishment of some sort? I am so offended.
33: He's just trying to draw you in with a false sense of security...
There are stereotypes about everything, but I'd be surprised if there was a stereotype of the way deaf people paint cars.
Deaf people paint cars like this, but blind people paint cars like this.
If you pour a bottle of water over the roof before getting in the car it will make the interior a lot cooler.
36: I'm only implying that I want to impose my own taste on people.
You could pee on the roof of the car. It's easy.
42: They don't call it a moon roof for nothin'.
If you pour a bottle of water over yourself before getting in the car it will make your head a lot cooler.
I want to impose my own taste on people.
People with hypogeusia paint cars like this.
46: I feel so elated now that I can see a path to my goal of only allowing Land Rovers near me if they are tie-dye looking.
Remove the front windshield. If the breeze doesn't suffice, you can give yourself a spritz with the spray nozzles.
you can give yourself a spritz with the spray nozzles
You may want to be more specific when advising a nursing mother.
Hey, I'm not going to judge her on how she chooses to cool herself.
At 17 years old, and things keep on breaking in a maddening way on it, does it make sense to maybe save the money and buy a new (used, but new to you) car? I'm sure Volvos are wonderfully durable, but 17 is old for a car.
So, this is my last stickshift forever and it makes me sad that I'll be driving some sort of stupid minivan, so I'm pretending that I'll drive this forever, so I ought to deal with the heat problem.
Maybe I should try the window liners. My mom put it in my head that they always bubble and peel and you'll regret it. But maybe a nice wolf howling at the moon would be refreshing.
this is my last stickshift forever
Was the Partridge Family bus a stickshift? Because, hey, fun.
I had an 85' mercedes Diesel in 2001 that was in great shape. In 2011 at 25 it might be kind of old, although I do see people driving those cars still and not as antiques that are only used occasionally. It was a great car.
s/b "over 25". It would probably be 27 now, If someone hadn't rammed into it at 40 mph.
53 is my plan.
Ford is going to start making a comparable vehicle, but they won't offer stick in the US.
Chevy is talking about doing a Volt one of those, which wouldn't be a stick, but I might be tempted by the Volt. I'm one of those people who would basically never use the gas except on family trips.
57: What's the Ford going to be called?
58: Something really lame. Let me check.
Heebie, as your architect, I must insist that you paint your car Cherokee Red.
57: You could join my movement to build golf cart paths around the east end. Nobody I know ever goes anywhere else.
A good rule of thumb for oldest acceptable car age also turns out to be half-your-age-plus seven. That's right: if you're driving a '57 Chevy and you're younger than 94, you're a total sketchball.
51: Why does it have to be a minivan? Volvo wagons are good family cars, although I'm thinking of the lovely boxy 240 I grew up with, all specimens of which may be too old now.
IIRC, Heebie wants at least twice as many kids as she has now and child seat regulations are a royal pain in the ass.
Speaking of, why doesn't anybody make double car seats, like they do with strollers. (Obviously, side by side, not front and back). You could easily get three kids in a backseat of a car if two of the seats were stuck together and only needed one belt.
66: When I think back to the moments of my childhood about which I'm less than proud, the non-stop brinksmanship of being right up to (but not technically touching) my my brother's "side" of the backseat comes to mind. I can't imagine how crazy we'd have driven my parents if were actually strapped in directly next to each other.
In sum, why no double car seat, Moby? Because kids are jerks.
only the color of the roof could make any sort of discernible impact on interior temperatures
I think this is why a lot of sunny countries have taxicabs with black bodies (because that's a properly dignified car color) and yellow roofs (because people actually have to be in the car).
Right after I posted this I had an unexpected houseguest and was offline for most of the rest of the afternoon and evening. But I really wish I'd been here for the thread.
Although it appears no one has ever had their car painted. I think a cheap paint job runs $300ish and looks pretty shabby. But the current paintjob isn't turning any heads anyway and who cares, I'm just sick of boiling.
and even that would be smaller than the difference from just cracking the windows or getting one of those reflective windshield screens.
Also I already do this. It's still ridiculously hot.
Also we're trying to hold off on the minivan (although I'm intrigued by the Mazda5 linked above) for three years. And Jammies fixed the assorted electrical problems in the Volvo this evening, so at the moment it's an elderly car with no problems.
And if I'm going to paint it, I should certainly do it before suffering through another August and September.
Also it even already has a tinted liner along much of the back windows; one of those kiddie sun shields.
Back on topic, I see. If I can be stupid obvious, it might be a good idea to get your AC checked if it hasn't been checked this summer. For U.S. cars at least, 17 years ago was the start of the new refridgerant that didn't kill penguins and they were leaky ACs.
70: out of curiousity, do you put it outside or inside the windshield?
I can't tell if 75 is a serious question or not.
63: A good rule of thumb for oldest acceptable car age also turns out to be half-your-age-plus seven. That's right: if you're driving a '57 Chevy and you're younger than 94, you're a total sketchball.
So the guy driving the mid-60's Ford Falcon in near perfect condition is a ... bad person? Ghetto? Unwhite enough?
9: I'm sure Volvos are wonderfully durable, but 17 is old for a car.
Not really - although it depends a lot on the car. He said, after walking indoors from working on his mother's '92. Heebie appears to be sweet on the car, and I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Heebie: Although it appears no one has ever had their car painted. I think a cheap paint job runs $300ish and looks pretty shabby. But the current paintjob isn't turning any heads anyway and who cares, I'm just sick of boiling.[...] And Jammies fixed the assorted electrical problems in the Volvo this evening, so at the moment it's an elderly car with no problems.
OK. Well, Apo got this all essentially right: the heat issues are going to be caused (actually, amplified) by the interior color, the window tinting or lack thereof and the color of the roof. The color of the hood and trunk and even the side panels simply doesn't matter very much.
So the question is: do you wish to keep the car for any length of time? In theory, depending on mechanical issues, I'd buy the thing off you and give it to my mom (it would be an improvement), but if the car is in good shape internally, there's undoubtedly an internet forum for Volvo collectors which would produce someone who would drive across several states with a trailer and more cash in hand than I'd give to own it, even if just to part it out to fix his personal resto. Volvos are fairly rare, so while a car at this spot on the age curve doesn't have a huge value, it has some value. (And will start to pick up value over the next decade.) So if you are sweet on it, you might want to be nice to it.
Basically, the issue here is the condition of the paint. Since you're in Texas, you don't have the underbody rust problems Northerners have - instead the sun cooks the car, particularly the paint job. However, this is a Volvo from the early 90's, so I'd guess that the underlying paint job is still good, but the clear coat has decayed. (If it was from the late 70's for instance, it might now be a collection of rust, but the manufacturers steadily improved their body paint over the 80's and in early 90's cars, the problem tends to be clearcoat breakdowns. (Later vehicles are basically semi-plastic so none of this really applies.)
At any rate, I would guess that the clearcoat on the roof and maybe the hood has broken down, and otherwise the paint is OK. (That's about the shape mom's '92 is in.) If so, spray painting it will utterly destroy the underlying paint and primer and the new stuff will peel off and then the rust will start. Don't do it, unless it's in such bad shape that you don't care any more and it would go to the crusher anyways. On the other hand, unfortunately, the typical cheap paint job in Texas would come from a place like Mako - they'd do a 200-500 dollar paint job on it, if you strip the car and primer it first. However, in all likelihood the paint job would not hold up worth a damn and it would look like shit, quite possibly worse than when you started. (Generally, for resto jobs, people pull the body parts off one at a time and then paint them with good paint. This is time-consuming and not that cheap, but it will restore a proper paint job.)
If you were to skip the paint, you could get a fuzzy white dash cover, white seat covers (which should probably be white foam between cotton or just cotton sheeting sewn into a seat shape), and the cheap window tinting. Real window tinting in a retrofit would involve removing the glass (big pain), but the cheap stuff does work. And yes, it bubble, but if you get some large box cutter blades and some acetone from a hardware store it's easy to remove once it breaks down. You should probably do all of that regardless, since it won't cost much. (You could also search for white floor mats - and you probably need some kind of rear seat cover.) Of you, you could just a blanket or something, if you don't care. In fact, you could text this stuff out with a white blanket - but a good seat cover stays in place better and if it covers vinyl or leather will save your flesh. (The dash cover needs to come with sewnup holes for the air vents.) (OK, I just looked - first Google hit is this place for 149.95$. Heh. They also have dash covers made from recycled carpet for 34.95$. And they have a set of 'sand' floor mats for 149.95$ for all the way around. I think maybe they are a little pricey. Hrmm. Not much luck with white Volvo seat covers but JC Whi/tney does sell a generic sheepskin cushion in beige for 39.95$.)
My suggestion is that if you really want to paint something, and you want it to be cheap, that you paint (properly) just the roof yourself. If I were going to do that (and in some circumstances, I very well might), I'd sand the top down to the hard paint (as the paint decays under the clearcoat and the binding chemicals volatize, the solid color paint comes off as dust, a little bit at a time. So you'd need to ditch that stuff, but underneath that if you hit good paint, you can leave that.
Anyways, I'd work it over (during one afternoon) with 80 grit sandpaper (if by hand, 120 or so with a hand sander) which will remove the crap, clean it up with a tack rag and some 409 or similar. Next day, I'd use painter tape and newspaper to isolate the roof and make nice straight lines at the roof/roof support junctions, hit with some good gray primer, pull the tape and the paper off, and drive it around for a couple of days in the sun, so the primer bakes tight. (And if it's gray, you're halfway to white!) Then I'd beg/borrow or buy some kind of air compressor spray setup (air compressors are cheap: 125$ ought to get something workable that you can continue to use for other things for many years); and then go to the Sherman's Paint (or whatever specialist store is around) in the Big City Near You and score a quart or two of some kind of really good enamel (plus good UV-resistant clearcoat or you could just go for gloss enamal). I suspect that some kind of outdoor lawn furniture enamel would be the best (automotive paints are weird - you'd really need to check over the formulation pre-purchase). Tape it up in the afternoon and hit with a coat and then again in the evening, let it dry overnight and drive it around some more so the enamel bakes and then clearcoat it. (Or just use the high gloss stuff, if you're feeling lazy and/or cheap.)
It would look a bit silly, and it would cost a little money and some time, but it would almost certainly look better and last longer and cost way less than, well, just about anything else you could do. (It would be a little strange driving around in a blue Volvo with a white roof, but you could just tell 'em it's two tone. OR! You could get a big hippie earth-friendly decal (a picture of the earth would be nice) and lay it down smack dab in the middle of the hood, and when you're at the stop light and the boys in the big red jacked-up pickup with a Calvin decal and a 'God, Guns and the GOP' sticker on it give you shit (unlikely in Texas, but still) you can just wave two middle fingers at them and scream, "It's my earth car, bitches!" Bonus style points if you keep some tiny bags of patchouilli with you to throw at them.)
Anyways, sorry for the delay, but I was fixing an antique myself.
max
['Hope that helps, hon.']
Max, since you seem willing and knowledgeable, can I ask you what a good paint job would cost? That is, they sand, prime, paint, and whatever else would be needed to make the exterior right again.
the boys in the big red jacked-up pickup with a Calvin decal
Calvin has decals; Luther just nails political slogans to his bumper.
Calvin has decals; Luther just nails political slogans to his bumper. And you should see what Jesus does.
Max, 79 was a phenomenally helpful answer. You're the best. I do have a dashmat already, light blue. (Probably should have gone even lighter.) I can pick up some seat covers pretty easily for starters.
And it was a great enough answer to fully inform me that oh wow, I am not the type to repaint my own car roof.
