As well as an aesthetic or structural integrity nightmare, paint damage or bubbling paint can indicate that your car has a heat issue.
Very commonly seen in the performance and aftermarket sectors, bonnets and panels can become weak due to an excessive build-up of heat in a specific area. This is most commonly caused in the same area as a turbo is mounted or a high flow exhaust manifold is found. As we know these components are the hottest within the engine bay. This heat naturally dissipates outward and coming to an abrupt stop on your bonnet (hood), wings or bulkhead. Over time, consistent heating and cooling of these parts (which are not designed to dramatically change in temperature like a turbo or exhaust system), can cause fracturing as well as decomposition of the finish and cause paint damage..
Some modern cars come standard with additional heat protection on these parts, though this is not much help if your car has begun to develop these issues over time. Luckily, there are a number of options which have been developed using Formula 1 technology to take direct to your road car. These options can be used individually, or as a combination. Different applications will require a different approach, though the information below will help provide some insight as to how each can work for you.
Gold Reflective Heat Tape.
First up, gold tape! With Gold being one of the best radiators of heat, this technology has been used for decades on under bonnets (hood), bulkheads and inner panels. This is a great looking and self-adhesive product which allows for easy fitment to any surface. Gold reflective heat tape can reflect away up to 80% of radiant heat transfer, to provide the protection you require to your structural components. To learn a little more about Gold Reflective Heat tape, click here to read a little more about our specific article on this topic.
Dual layer sheeting
Dual layer heat sheeting is the daddy of barrier protection. Similar to heat barrier material in which you would see on your OEM application, only with 2 barrier skins and an additional thick fibrous layer inside. This inner material is the same as what is found within our turbo blankets! Dual layer barrier sheeting is great for direct to bonnet (hood) or bulk head applications as well as constructing a shielding barrier around heat sensitive areas (like brake master cylinders, fuel systems or induction pipework). The great thing about this solution is that is can easily be cut, bent, shaped and drilled to your custom application. It is common to find this product in use to line exhaust and transmission tunnels, turbos, exhaust manifolds or as an additional skin to the bodywork to prevent paint damage. Click here to see some testing videos of this product in action!
Turbo blankets
Naturally only suitable for turbo applications. Turbo blankets help twofold – dramatically reducing heat transfer into the engine bay itself, as well as using the additional heat energy within the turbo to help accelerate gases further and use the wasted energy to help spool up the turbo a little quicker. Turbo Jackets as they are also known, are extremely capable components which many teams and drivers swear by. Our particular mk2 turbo blanket has been developed with World RX driver Riku Tahko. Whilst we do not recommend that you try this at home, our turbo blankets can comfortably be touched whilst the engine is under operation! Click here to watch some bare hand videos of our turbo blankets in use. This should help you understand how much less heat could be dissipated within your engine bay when using one of our Funk Motorsport Turbo Blankets.
Exhaust wrap
Finally, the age old classic. Operating in a very similar way to the turbo blanket above, the customisable exhaust wrap helps hold the heat within the pipework as opposed to expelling this within the engine bay. Without wasting the heat energy, the gases are again accelerated to produce an easier breathing and flowing engine to help unfold its potential! We have another specific post on exhaust wrap which can be found here. This will allow you to understand exhaust wrap usage in a little more depth to see if it is the correct part for you. We also have a step by step video guide which can be found here.
Whilst the list doesn’t end there, we hope that this has helped you understand that there are a large number of methods available to protect your fragile and sensitive components and bodywork panels from paint damage. So, if you begin to notice an area on your bonnet getting hot, or some paintwork beginning to bubble. Consider some of the options above, or contact us to help pinpoint the ideal components for your application.
Thanks for reading, if this has been of interest to yourself keep an eye out in future on our future technical articles.
Still unsure of what application is best suited to yourself? Drop us a message, we will be happy to tailor this information direct for your application.