Skip to main content

A Heat Insulation Spray-on Coating Alternative to Lizard Skin.

One of the well-known spray-on heat-shield products is Lizard Skin. From their website, “LizardSkin Ceramic Insulation (CI) is an advanced spray on thermal coating that consists of a water-based composition of high-grade acrylic binders with ceramic insulation particles to create a thermal barrier.” The Material Safety Data Sheet (commonly referred to as the MSDS) can be found here.

This sheet shows the composition of Lizard Skin as:

1 - Water 7732-18-5 40-50%
2 - Resin Polymer 00-00-00 20-30%
3 - Trade Secret Insulation Media 10-20%
4 - Carbon Black 1333-86-4 5-10%
5 - Extender Pigment 1317-65-3 1-5%

It’s relatively expensive at $200 for two gallons. They sell a special gun ($120) to spray it on although it can be applied with a brush or roller.

Substitutes
It's possible to make your own for much less cost.

1 – High solids white latex ceiling paint.

 2 - Acrylic Polymer Resin - increases paint flow and durability. One source is Acri-Flow from HyTechSales.com up to 1 pint per gallon.

3 – Glass Microspheres  - One supplier is HyTechSales.com, mixing at the rate of one quart of spheres per gallon of paint, but some sources indicate that as many as 3 quarts of spheres per gallon should be used.

4 – Carbon Black pigment is added to give Lizard Skin its distinctive purple/black color. Any color - or none at all - is OK and can be sourced at your local paint store.

5 – Calcium Carbonate (pulverized dolomitic limestone) adds bulk and texture, sourced at Amazon or hardware stores.

To Spray
You can rent an airless paint sprayer. Use the largest tip available (.019-.024) and remove the filter screens from both the suction tube and inside the handle. The application thickness should be that of a credit card.

For Heat and Noise ControlApply the Lizard Skin-type spray-on coating, then add squares of DynaMat or similar product when fully dry. It's not necessary to cover the entire panel in DynaMat like they show you in the car magazines, small squares or long strips will do just as well.

Out-of-the-Box Alternatives to Lizard Skin
Hy-Tech SC#1000 Sound Control Coasting appears to be a product similar to Lizard Skin for both sound and heat control.


RESOURCES

There are several forum discussion threads about various substitutes and application details.

Alternative Lizard Skin




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WTF is a Franzinator?

Sometimes the most useful things have the oddest names. Take the Franzinator, for instance. Named after Franz©, its curmudgeonly inventor, the Franzinator is a device used to separate moisture from compressed air. Having moisture in compressed air is not a a good thing, especially in painting where it contaminates the painted surface, or in media blasting where it causes the media to clump and not work as well. As well as causing rust in the air tanks and air tools, moisture is best removed. A number of methods have been developed from expensive refrigerated driers used to pre-condition air before it gets to the compressor, to simple mechanical separators that sit in the air line between the tanks and the air tool. Here is a tank that uses a chemical desiccant to dry the air. There are also ways to install the air lines that are intended to either cause moisture to condense or collect before it is sent to the air tool. A non-mechanical separator causes the moisture in the hotte...
Post a Comment
Read more

O-Ringing the Block and Heads for Higher Compression Engines HOWTO

I found some useful advice in this forum thread from user AK's REX. "To my understanding o-ringing the block or the head prove to be about equally effective. That said I would say it depends if you want to have receiver grooves machined. The most conventional method is to machine and o-ring the block, then machine receiver grooves opposite the o-rings in the heads. I guess it can probably be done in reverse fashion as well. As far as the receiver grooves are concerned, it not only helps in high compression and or boosted applications, but helps wet motors from losing fluid which is a common problem with copper head gaskets. It allows the o-ring to literally push the gasket into the receiver groove to provide a better seal. Speaking of copper gaskets here is a bit of info from SCE regarding this stuff; O-ring grooves may be cut in either the block or cylinder head. When using copper head gaskets thinner than .050, O-ring height should be no more than 25% of gasket thickness...
Post a Comment
Read more

Retrofit Hydroboost Brakes

Traditional power brakes have used engine vacuum to reduce the physical effort required to stop a car. Some high performance engines, because of the design of their camshafts, do not produce enough vacuum to used vacuum-powered brake power boosters. One alternative is to add a vacuum pump to the accessories driven by the engine. Another is to use the hydraulic pressure supplied by the power steering pump to power the brake booster. This device is called Hydroboost and it replaces the vacuum-operated brake booster. It provides more than twice the pressure than a vacuum diaphragm booster. There are commercial kits to use a hydraulic booster, like Vanco . They offer kits to match the car you are modifying. The most complete kits provide the Hydroboost unit, a new master brake cylinder, a power steering pump and the appropriate hoses with fittings and they are priced at around $900. You can see the parts of the kit by visiting this link . A nice step-by-step installation of the Vanco h...
Post a Comment
Read more