New Tacoma owner; question about painting camper shell

New Tacoma owner here. Picked her up on Friday, and picked up a used camper shell the next day. New tires and minor mods to come.

My initial thought was to paint the camper shell the same color as the truck. The shell was originally the color of my truck, but the second owner painted it white. It's a Leer 122 in great shape. $400.

I don't hate the way it looks now, and keeping it white would not only save me a few hundred bucks, but it would stay cooler in the summer.

If I do paint it, is there any utility in keeping the top white in terms of heat build-up inside the shell (similar to school buses/UPS trucks)?

What says you?

 

"As a result of the program, North Carolina will give school systems the option of specifying white tops when ordering new buses, said William Turner, an assistant superintendent for transportation at Brunswick County Schools. Buses with white tops cost a few hundred dollars more than regular buses, manufacturers say.

Part of the program involved studying the effect of the white tops on the temperature inside the buses. Digital thermometers were mounted on county school buses and readings were taken four times a day from August to December. The buses were tested while running and while parked.

Painting the bus tops white dropped the interior temperature an average of 10 degrees during the summer, with as much as a 17-degree difference at peak hours. Wintertime temperatures were lower by only 3 to 4 degrees."

 

I plan to camp in it, so the cooler the better. That said, I doubt I'll be camping in while it's parking in direct sunlight, so a white roof is probably not a big deal.

I guess the real question is whether to leave it white or paint it to match the truck? I don't mind the way it looks, so maybe that answers my question.

 

Is that regular cab in the background yours? I'd leave it white because it looks good on both trucks.

 

it won't be cheap to paint. red is one of if not the most expensive paint color.

 

I don't own the regular cab.

It will probably cost in the $300-400 range to paint it cheaply, which isn't a big deal. Right now I don't mind the contrast.

 

Nice shell. The Leer 122 is dynamite for the headroom. Keep it white, it does stay nice and cool inside that way. I had a white Leer 122 on my old blue '97 Taco.

 

Yeah, it couldn't have worked out any better. The white works for me, and the extra headroom is a big plus. Should be great for car camping. I was about to drop $1700 on a similar A.R.E. shell.

It came with a carpeted headliner and seems to be fairly watertight. We had a deluge last night, and one of the back windows did leak a little, but nothing substantial. The rest of the shell was completely dry.

I'm pretty stoked about the whole set-up. She was a joy to drive home from WV.

 

Get some good looking chrome wheels on it and you'll forget all about the cap.