Quote:
Originally Posted by jb92563
The Plexi will need a bit of a heat margin because after a hot Auto-X run and with the engine sitting after the car is off and the fan not running it could get quite a bit hotter in the engine compartment. Perhaps a plastic with a higher temp range. Lexan? Plexi softens at 210F and Lexan 257F
If you use the tint that you apply yourself then you will have that protective coating as well that you were considering for the engine side.
So if I get one of these I'll have to start carrying a feather duster in the trunk as well.
Not sure what the guys or wife will make of that when they see feathers in the trunk.
I'll just have to tell the guys that the french maid uses it to clean my engine bay
and the wife, that its a special surprise  |
Thanks for the input. I'm trying to consider these situations but the weather right now doesn't really have the capability of taxing the plexiglass like you mentioned. One consideration is that the plexiglass does absorb and dissipate heat across its surface fairly efficiently. If I use a heat gun at 235 degrees or a bit hotter, the plexiglass never gets hot enough to form because it spreads the heat out and transfers it to the other side of the glass. As a result, I need to bend the plexiglass in a forming oven that heats the whole thing at once.
Lexan is in no doubt a more resilient plastic, I'm looking for both plexiglass and lexan as material sources. if I notice that the plexiglass gets to forming temps after hard drives like track days or A/X, I'll offer the cover in both lexan and plexiglass, depending on wether you plan on tracking with it or just daily driving.
I know high temp plexiglass exists which can withstand consistent temperatures near 300 degrees. I haven't found a local supplier of it though. I'll post test results to engine bay temperatures sometime this week or next to give you an idea of how the inside and outside surface of the plexiglass does under about 1 hour commute time with San Francisco/ Bay Area traffic