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PostPosted:Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:49 pm 
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Big Block
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All fibreglass panels that have been produced from a mould have a coloured surface, which is normally, white or grey, but they can come in any imaginable colour. That coloured surface is called a gel coat & is painted into the mould prior to the glass fibre matting being applied. The aim of the gel coat is to give a smooth, durable exterior surface to the fibreglass matt. The gel coat can be painted over, but it's a little bit more involved than painting a steel panel.

When a mould is being prepped for making a panel, it is first cleaned & then a number of coats of release wax are applied to allow the panel to "pop"& release from the mould easily. The gel coat is then either brushed or sprayed on, followed by a number of layers of matt. After curing, the panel is popped from the mould & trimmed. There will be a certain amount of release wax still impreganted on the surface of the gel coat, so it's important to make sure that this is completely removed otherwise it can affect the paint process at a later stage.

Use a wax/grease remover available from any automotive paint supplier & degrease the panel a good few times, using a fresh bit of rag each time to remove the degreaser. (if you use the same rag a number of times it becomes impregnated with the release wax & you end up just spreading the wax around.) I'd degrease it 4 or 5 times to be safe. Once it's been degreased, check over the surface for any signs of imperfections. The biggest imperfection that you come across with any fibreglass products are called "voids". This is where air becomes trapped between the glass matt & the gel coat if it's not been rollered out properly during the manufacturing stage. By heating the panel with a hot air gun or hairdryer (without frying the thing ;) ) you will see either little lumps appear or small shallows in the gel coat surface. If you spike them with a sharp object like a Stanley blade you'll see that you can make a small indent in the surface under the pressure of the sharp object.If you do have any voids they need to be ground out & filled with body filler or stopper.

Once happy that the surface is devoid of voids or defects it's time to sand it down. I tend to start with a 180 grit paper (or disc on a DA sander) followed by a 320 grade paper. Don't use anything finer or the paint process won't adhere to the gel coat. At this point there shouldn't be any shiny spots on the surface anywhere. If there is, then re-sand those areas until there's no shine.Once it's flatted, de-grease again.

Ordinary primers won't adhere to the gel coat so you need to use an etch primer (most are acid based which causes the etch primer to "eat" into the surface & adhere to it.) if you're using rattle cans then use something like U-Pol acid 8. Alternatively you can use an Epoxy primer, which again will adhere to the surface very well. Both of these products will need to be coated with a high build primer once dry.You only need to give the panel 1 full coat of etch or Epoxy, to ensure the panel is fully covered. Too much etch/Epoxy & you'll get adhesion problems between coats. From this point on the painting process is the same as for any metal panel.Spray on 3 or 4 coats of high build primer & allow it to dry. Then spray the primer lightly with a dark colour (guide coat) this should be a mist over the whole of the primered panel. The aim of the guide coat is to enable you to see what's been flatted & what hasn't.

Sand the high build primer down with 320 or 400 grit wet & dry, followed by 600 grade. As you sand the primer down, the guide coat gets rubbed off first, if there's any guide coat left on the panel then it needs rubbing more until the guide coat's totally removed. You then know that it has had a uniform sanding. Once you're happy with the sanding, dry the panel off completely (don't allow moisture to sit on the surface for any great length of time as moisture can ingress into the primer,which is porous & cause problems later on with the top coat.) on flat panels I'd recommend using a rubber block (available from your paint supplier). The block will stop you getting tram lines in the primer caused by your fingers rubbing the primer unevenly. Once it's all prepped, degrease it all again & apply the top coats of colour as per normal.

Obviously the above is abbreviated & doesn't go into any one aspect in great detail, but if you have further questions on this, just ask I'll go into more detail on that aspect. Hope this helps, cheers.........Nige

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Preparing & painting fibreglass

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PostPosted:Wed Apr 22, 2009 7:17 pm 
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Big Block

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Car Details:"Overdose"
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Not much to add to that mate, think you covered everything, just when block sanding you must cross hatch otherwise tramlines can be caused.

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PostPosted:Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:40 pm 
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Big Block
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Car Details:'79 Camaro, 350 V8
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This is great thank you :)

I'm thinking of doing a custom centre console from fibreglass which will be covered mainly with interior vinyl, but will probably paint a part of it, so i guess i would use less layers of high build?

A second question would be, what epoxy primer do you recommend? (small patch of rust in the boot i want to take care of at the same time by using some rust removal gel to bare metal) so would want to use the same epoxy primer, i guess? Can you get a epoxy primer in cans for such a small job? and is it any good? any particular brands you would recommend again?

And finally :) is there any particualr manufacturer of fibreglass matt and activator that you would recommend?

Thanks and sorry for all the questions! I just got my 78 and am doing my research as i want to do it all right :)

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PostPosted:Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:55 pm 
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Big Block
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Quote:
This is great thank you :)

I'm thinking of doing a custom centre console from fibreglass which will be covered mainly with interior vinyl, but will probably paint a part of it, so i guess i would use less layers of high build?

A second question would be, what epoxy primer do you recommend? (small patch of rust in the boot i want to take care of at the same time by using some rust removal gel to bare metal) so would want to use the same epoxy primer, i guess? Can you get a epoxy primer in cans for such a small job? and is it any good? any particular brands you would recommend again?

And finally :) is there any particualr manufacturer of fibreglass matt and activator that you would recommend?

Thanks and sorry for all the questions! I just got my 78 and am doing my research as i want to do it all right :)
Hi, yes, I'd just put the extra layers of high build on the areas that you want to paint. As to the Epoxy primer I use either PPG DP90 or PPG DP 40, (PPG being the paint manufacturers name) The only reason I use PPG is because it's what my local paint factors supply. Make sure that it is Epoxy that you buy & not Upoxy. Upoxy is a brand name & is not an epoxy primer. I'm not aware that you can get small cans of epoxy primer, normally it comes in 2.5 litre tins. Try asking some local bodyshops if they can supply you a small quantity of primer & catalyst. The catalyst makes the primer cure, so only mix up enough for your needs & never return mixed paint back into the tin. An alternative is to use an aerosol can of "U-Pol acid 8" etch primer, which is available from Halfords. For rust removal I'd use Bilt Hamber Deox Gel as it's really good stuff, here's a link

http://www.bilthamber.com/deoxgel.html

I've always bought in my 'glass & resin in bulk, but if you try a few fibreglass suppliers from the Yellow Pages I'm sure they'd supply you with enough offcuts of 'glass & a litre of resin & some catalyst to do the job. Alternatively you can get fibreglass repair kits, again from the likes of Halfords. When adding the catalyst you only want to add a small amount to the resin (normally around 2%, but check with the suppliers as to how much their product needs)
Hope that helps you

cheers....Nige

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PostPosted:Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:55 pm 
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Big Block
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Car Details:'79 Camaro, 350 V8
Location:South Bucks
Hi Nige,

That's great and thank you for the quick reply. I just spoke to Bilthamber and ordered 1 kilo of deoxgel (which they told me is good for about 1 - 2 sqaure metres coverage. I also ordered Surfex HD from them to do the de greasing. They recomend degreasing the area first as the gel may not eat trhough some greasier areas. As this is going sligtly off topic from fibreglass, i'll post a link to pics of the rust i'm going to be treating here, then i'll take pics of the steps and how it turns out, but i'll carry that out in a more appropriate thread.

Here's what i'm treating:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rayrayuk/s ... 506649712/

Thanks!

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PostPosted:Thu Feb 25, 2010 3:27 pm 
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Big Block
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Quote:
Hi Nige,

That's great and thank you for the quick reply. I just spoke to Bilthamber and ordered 1 kilo of deoxgel (which they told me is good for about 1 - 2 sqaure metres coverage. I also ordered Surfex HD from them to do the de greasing. They recomend degreasing the area first as the gel may not eat trhough some greasier areas. As this is going sligtly off topic from fibreglass, i'll post a link to pics of the rust i'm going to be treating here, then i'll take pics of the steps and how it turns out, but i'll carry that out in a more appropriate thread.

Here's what i'm treating:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rayrayuk/s ... 506649712/

Thanks!
looking at the pics make sure that you remove the paint that's over the top of the rust as in the pics looking upwards. Remove it with a grinder or wire brush in a drill or some such thing, that way the Deox gel can get to all of the rust including that hidden by paint. It'll do a really nice job of that. I put clingfilm over the top of the deox gel to stop it evaporating overnight, it'll aslo stop it falling off overhead surfaces. Next day it should be really clean. On really deep rust, if there's any rust left just repeat the procedure. Look forward to seeing your pics

cheers....Nige

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PostPosted:Mon Mar 01, 2010 6:40 pm 
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Big Block
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Car Details:'79 Camaro, 350 V8
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Thank Nige, great tip :) I wouldn't have thought to do that!

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How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").


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