Sunday fun with my new heat gun

[erikv11]

Actually I wanted something thin and something that dissipates heat over a large surface area. its like clipping an alligator clip as a heat sink when you are soldering so excess heat goes in to the metal then radiates away.

But in this case you aren't trying to suck heat out of the bumper or any other area, you are trying to prevent heat from ever reaching the paint. The metal plate would clearly fail as a heat sink anyway, there is so little contact with the much larger and heavier metal pieces of the car. If anything, the car will work as a heat sink for the little piece of metal. You said the metal was getting too hot to hold in a gloved hand - then you are just making a big, hot piece of metal and holding it near painted surfaces, yikes!

Something that blocks hot air flow and doesn't get hot (either by quickly dissipating or by insulating) would be ideal. Aluminum foil does sound like a simple, easy-to-use and far more effective solution.

Don't get me wrong I don't mean to criticize - overall I think this looks like a clever and useful idea.

[xHeart]

A solution can be found with your home dryer, not washer. May be adding a barrel to keep the heat from spreading. Keeping it focused with nozzle sizes 8mm - 30mm for narrow to wide coverage. Think socket and function.
It sure looks better than one on my car.

[fazool]

ya I actually tried aluminum foil but it was hard to hold in place, so I was thinking a stiffer piece of aluminum.

Ah, well it wasn't perfect but the results were favorable.

[erikv11]

... the results were favorable.

Absolutely!

[regent]

So far, I really like the clothes' dryer approach as the most energy efficient solution

[xallenx]

Just use shoe polish!

[patrioty3k]

Gonna try this on my '95 wagon...see what happens,wish i could do the same for my wicked chalky taillights....maybe i'll try that,pics to follow

[Reys]

i tried this last year, had really good initial results but found the bumper faded even worse after the summer sun hit it months later, seemed to dry the plastic up worse than before. I ended up masking and duplicolor charcoal painted it, looks brand new, not a spec of paint on the body, if you take the time to mask properly there is no need to remove any parts, took about an hour to do the front both sides and rear bumper. project cost $10.99 paint, $2 for masking tape and good ol newspaper

[erikv11]

Hey Reys, sounds great. How did you prep the bumper before painting?

[MilehighV70XC]

I had the same results as Reys. I only did a small section on the front bumper last summer. Looked good until this summer. Now looks 10x worse then it did before the heat gun.