Roof Vent Plastic Type?

[blw2]

What kind of plastic is the MaxxFan Deluxe lid?

I emailed their tech support but it's the weekend and thought I'd try you folks to find an answer....

I found something on the e-trailer site that said most vents are either polypropylene, polycarbonate, or metal
well it sure 'aint metal, I'm guessing polycarbonate, but I don't really know how to tell it from polypropylene....

why am I wondering?
there was another thread here about roof vent covers...got me to thinking about my Maxxfan Deluxe. It broke on me last week, and I've ordered the parts to fix it.
While I'm at it I might try to address a couple of minor concerns I have with it, and find some sort of coating for the lid.
1) I have a white cover and it lets in too much light.
2) Also, I suppose I'm a belt and suspenders kinda guy..and it's always been a minor worry that I only have one thin layer of plastic between the falling hail or whatever might hit my roof, and the bed and wood inside. I like a little extra layer of security so I'm happy that I have rain covers over the other two vents, but there seems to be no secondary cover to fit the Deluxe model...since it's rain cover is built in.

So I'm toying with coating it with some bedliner in a can, or some other tough coating.
I researched and one brand of it contains toluene and acetone, both of which are not compatible with polycarbonate....but I found a few sources online of people using it over polycarbonate RC models....
I found Herculiner that seems to be much less chemically aggressive form what I can tell.
I thought about that flexseal stuff....but that appearently doesn't resist uv all that well...

thanks

[Pete'sMH]

I’m no expert, but I think polypropylene is somewhat “soft” and slightly flexible like the stuff Tupperware is made from while polycarbonate is rigid, stiff and breakable.

[Popfla]

It doesn't say what the specific material is, but I found this cautionary note about what NOT to use on the plastic parts.

[revjeffrey]

Spray it with a can of PLASTI DIP. Spray can comes in All Colors is cheap, seals and can be easily removed whenever you want. Good Luck!

[blw2]

Originally Posted by Popfla

It doesn't say what the specific material is, but I found this cautionary note about what NOT to use on the plastic parts.

nice find popfl!
Well if the etrailer thing was right that it's either polypropylene or polycarbonate....then it looks like it's polycarbonate based on those chemical incompatibilities....

[blw2]

follow-up
heard back from Airxcel, the maxxfan deluxe
white dome is polypropylene
and the smoke dome is polycarbonate

in my research, it seems most of these things, such as paints, flex seal type stuff, bed liner, etc.. have solvents and chemicals that aren't very compatible with polycarbonate...but polypropylene seems to be much more compatible with many of them.

That said, I seem to remember reading something a while back..when the paint companies first started selling spray paint that works on plastics...that the way they make the bond with the plastic was by using solvents, such as MEK, that would partially "melt" or attack the plastic just long enough for the paint to sort of chemically weld to it... Then, I am supposing, that the solvents dry up stopping the chemical attack.
So IF that is correct, maybe these poor compatibility ratings aren't so bad....
any plastics or chemistry experts here with thoughts on this idea?