Sorry I havn't replied till now but thank you for your suggestions. Since these are new pots and the slick finish will most likely not take direct painting very well, I'm going to use the spray paint for plastic. I have my heart set on a ceramic look so I've been experimenting with whats available. I looked in some faux painting books and I'm surprised I couln't find a ceramic glaze technique. I've played around with colors, just practice spraying onto cardboard, but what resulted looked so much like a pottery glaze I can't wait to try it on the pots! First I used a base of navy and followed very quikly with a light spray of the Hyicinth color by Krylon's Fusion, done so when the little specks hit the still wet base they sort of 'melt' in. That creates a mottled cobalt blue. Then as quickly as possible spray about an inch and a half of metallic light green around the top edge, enough to have it drip and then follow with a thinner band of metalic gold on top of that. My sample has the metalics dripping just enough that the reactions with the base look like real glaze-even the color variations! I'm waiting until next weekend after I go to a Home Depot clinic on paint techniques. The woman who teaches the classes was working when I asked about splatering on mineral spirits for a mottled efect. She's going to focus the class on my pots so I can get some expert advise if things don't work out like my cardboard samle. My main concerns are paint compatability in he long term-don't know if the metalics are compatable with the base paint and whether the thicker application will hold up. I've never done pictures on the net so if they turn out I'll try to put them up here.

Unfortunately as we are all well aware, there is theory and there is practice. I didn't want to muck this up with details LOL more than I already did. When I mention 90% reflectivity for the best white paints and kitchen aluminum foil, that's theory. That 10% of conductive heat that comes in from the the aluminum foil that bothers me is thus also theory. Let's talk mylar and foil and departures from theory since that discussion is now necessary to compare the two. In practice, the aluminum is probably providing only about 70% reflectivity and 30% of the heat is going in. Aluminium deposited on mylar new also gives about 90% radiant reflectivity in the best case too. On the surface it would seem a builder's option. First, Grizz you are talking about quality space blankets. This is not really quality, but considering economics it might scrape by: HD Medical Space Blanket Many of the cheap Chinese mfgrd space blankets are quite transparent although they don't appear so from a distance. Aside: Perhaps double layering will work, the outher layer will take the brunt of UV and random tear damage and could be glued only along the bottom which would effectively add airspace between them. Or for that matter the bottom layer could be foil or paint. The mylar will last about three months in the bright sun before it starts yellowing significantly. This is why I have been looking for info on whether anyone has used a UV protective clear coat hard shell finish on top - would likely solve the problem. Aluminum foil on the other hand until damaged will continue to block light completely... although polished 90% aluminum very quiclkly formas a microscopic oxide layer which cuts this to about 80%, and then it can corrode usually into a white, not very reflective oxide which is only 1/7 as heat conductive as aluminum. As far as conductive values (not speaking of reflection for anyone else following this) of mylar in just single layer, it is 1/4 as conductive as PVC but twice as much as air. It still suffers from the same problem as the aluminum in alumimum foil from the reflective surface (put for us on the outside instead of using like a space blanket to keep heat in where it faces inside) in that the aluminum will heat up and conduct the same for all the energy that goes unreflected. Where mylar beats that though is that the incredibly fine layer has no foil backing to pass the heat since the same radiance is hitting it, there is very little capacity to hold heat for transfer which is a slower process, the deposited Al simply reaches temperature quicker and transfers it out more quickly. It would be a ratio of 2/3 of the non-reflected head going into the pipe and 1/3 going into the air but the chemical microthin deposition will dump the heat back out in the convective air currently much more quickly. On a microscopic level what is happening is say the mylar goes up say 10 degrees and even though the plastic backing interface feels this, the actual heat flow is stymied because you get an even gradient on the plastic side while on the air side the full 10 degree difference is maintained (heat flow rate is in direct proportion to the temperature difference, so conductivity is obviously not the only thing to consider in a microscopic deposited layer like this). In summary the mylar plastic will suck up 2 X the heat in dead still air (=1X) (Vs thicker foil which does 7 X), but the slightest infinitesimal breeze will double or triple the interface temperature difference between aluminum and air vs. what is being experience on the plastic side. Having triple the temperature difference in this example will triple the heat flow into the air. A good point to remember was your advice to Rio when he suggested using Heavy duty foil, and you said for yourself the cheapest stuff was best. You also have the same physics supporting you. HD Al would significantly add to the internal temperature of the pipes as in full metal jacket. Imagine the temp if the channels were made from aluminum with a PE liner... Here, I could cook eggs on them in Summer. I mentioned all the above to sort of show IMO how it will be hard to get hard numbers to compare for these reasons. However it is absolutely clear from this that new mylar will cut down the transmitted heat by a factor of anything from 1/3 of foil to for our purposes all of it. 3-month old mylar ... I have the suspicion that as we reupolster we will be wondering why we didn't KIS with the foil. That's why I think a two layer mylar with a sacrificial exterior might help. Clearly there are engineering issues with all of these things but until someone actually has done a little enthusiastic tinkering I think that is about as far a ledge I can walk out on ! Aluminum is not without its problems. By the time it is well broken in (but not torn up), that 30% turns completely into heat, so this is the drawback of aging foil cald channels. The mylar will drop down to 70% or even less, for argument's sake as well. There is no clear winner unless you don't like having to do frequent reupholstering. This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Thu, Sep 26, 13 at 16:47

Sure! It was so easy! Go to Youtube and look up Marbleized Nails. With nail polish and a bowl of water, you place droplets of nail polish on top of water, swirl with a toothpick, and then dip your nail in. The results are so beautiful I wanted to try it on something else. So I used a ceramic tile from Home Depot for .16 and now I'm hooked. The nail polish is so bright and inexpensive! Plus you can get so many different colors nowadays. Metallic, too. But it definitely needs to be sealed. I also want to try marbleizing fabric but it's way more involved and time consuming. Maybe in the summer when I can set the mess up outside.

The 'guy' just wants the work and has little understanding/willingness to do what needs to be done. ANY finish (regardless of what it is) that is failing (peeling, etc) can and will cause the next layer to fail. It is simply the way of the world. Whenever you go over top of something, you are relying on the bottom layer's adhesion. Your 'bottom' layer is letting go (poor adhesion to no adhesion). You would then rely on this 'poor' adhesion to hold ANOTHER layer in place for 10 years or more. And that is simply unrealistic. The world of physics doesn't work that way. Once the bottom layer lets go, it will cause every layer ABOVE that to let go as well. I would plan on using whomsoever suggests removal and then repainting/sealing. The 'guy' who says he'll go over top of old/failing product is not worth the return phone call. His plan/finish WILL FAIL. We can guarantee it. Because the world of physics tells us it will fail.