Andy - a15cro Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 My car is in good shape generally but I've spotted a couple of small areas where the builder/previous owners have chipped cracked parts of the bodywork. In a past life I served my apprenticeship as a body repairer/paint sprayer, however never did anything with fibre glass and gel coats. the repairs are straight forward, can I just paint in the conventional method? Where will I find a colour code? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Pete Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 Do not paint... ...search and wet & dry but do not paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SootySport Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 Plenty of threads about this on this forum. In most cases just wet and dry, compound then polish. Gel coat is a lot thicker than paint so plenty to work with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy - a15cro Posted October 2, 2015 Author Share Posted October 2, 2015 Ok so after a quick search and a bit of YouTube, I think I've got it! I can repair and but a gel coat finish, then flat and polish to blend it in. No on to google to find suppliers etc just in planning stage at the minute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 Grp is a funny thing to paint, (I've been told, by people that I believe!) It can be done though, and look great. Lots, though by no means all of the Westfields I've seen painted, that live any sort of normal road or track life, seem to need full resprays every so often though. Marto is the one to ask, he's painted some fantastic looking Westfields! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Pete Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 Plenty of posts on here with really good pictures/descriptions on how to repair all sorts of grp issues. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy - a15cro Posted October 3, 2015 Author Share Posted October 3, 2015 Found a nice two part guide with pics. Looks pretty straight forward, and a better option. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 You will be amazed at what can be done woth compound and if necessary wet and dry. (used wet) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 Probably teaching you to suck eggs if you've a body shop back ground; but some of the gel coat used over the years is quite soft, so when wet sanding its even more critical to be scrupulously clean and use lots of water. I'd be wary of using a DA for the sanding as it's soooo easy to end up with a rash of pig tails. One thing that is useful, is learning to "read" the fibreglass surface. (Have a look for articles about "print through" in grp). "Print through" is essentially a condition most often caused by having a layer of quite coarse chopped strand mat, with no finer grade barrier layer of mat between it and a gel coat that is thin to moderate thickness. This shows up as what looks almost like a straw like pattern, or random rice grains in the gel coat. The more sharply defined the pattern, the closer some strands of mat will be to the surface and the less sanding and cutting it will take. On the other hand, if the surface looks melted butter smooth, you've probably got nice thick gel coat that will take a lot of working. (The panel will probably feel heavier and stiffer too). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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