>I talked to an engineer friend of mine that said that
>a polished airstream will remain cooler than a painted
>white one. The thing is, he never had to polish an
>airstream.
I think that a much better solution to the heat problem is to simply rig a
free-standing tarp above the trailer. If you put the trailer in shade, you
can quit worrying about how it reflects sun.
This is what the original Land Rover safari roof did. It was a roof above a
roof with about an inch of space between the two. It worked. (I own one.) It
put the actual roof in shade.
You could design three or four vertical rods down the centerline of the
trailer that would act as the center supports for an awning that would live
about six inches above the trailer roof, extend a couple of feet over the
trailer in the rear and six or eight feet out in front, forming a front
porch shade.
I live in a '53 Spartanette in Dallas (with daily temps now running over 100
degrees), and I guarantee it would work better than painting or polishing.
Brian Jenkins