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repairing and painting a westfield


JeffC

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There has been a couple of threads on recently about repairing damage etc to gel coats and fibreglass etc.. so Ive done a step by step how to paint a westy  :t-up:

One of the local members bought this westy and doesnt like the bell-end colour (purple not my thing either )

He looked into retubbing it but not wanting the spend or the money either he legged me into a colour change..

first job is to strip off as much as possible, scuttle , nose , lights etc. would be a better job to remove the rear arches but this car they have been bonded on so have been left on..

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this tub had a few holes that have been drilled for spare wheel carrier etc.. these need to be filled in..

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if there is any cracks drill a small hole at the end of the crack to stop it spreading , grind the crack to a V and rough the surrounding area and also rough up the rear of the area to be repaired with an 80 grit sand paper.. , mix up some fibre glass and spread through the hole and into the recess you have ground. spread the glass around the rear to give extra strength

next block sand  off with 80 grit sandpaper till it is slightly lower than the surrounding bodywork .. mix up some standard bodyfiller and spread over the sanded area..

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when dry block sand with a 180 disc untill it is level with the surrounding bodywork, when it is da sand the surrounding area to allow the primer to key , I used a 320 da disc..

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now give a couple of coats of primer, allow to dry then the repair work is complete..

to allow the paint to key to the gelcoat it needs to be sanded , use either a 400 grit on a da sander or 1,000 wet and dry. everything that is to be painted needs to be sanded in this way take care making sure the edges are well keyed.

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I hired a booth for the topcoat to be applied, you could paint it in a well ventilated garage as long as its warm.

mask up anything that you dont want painting.

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the panels now need to be degreased to remove any wax or silicones..

New to me the next bit , go over the full car with an antistatic spraygun that blasts a jet of air and stops any dust particles been attracted. thats me watching the experts and proving you are never too old to learn new tricks  :blush:  :D  :D

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the colour Im painting this one is a 4 stage pearl and first the car needs to be painted white, I used a non sand wet on wet primer but a normal white basecoat would have done job equally as well. If I had been painting this a normal colour there is no need to prime the gelcoat simply go straight over the top with your colour, I would recomend to use an adhesion promoter to help but prob more of a belt and braces job..

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10 minutes flash off and a groundcoat orange can be applied, this is a very transparent colour and takes 3 full coats, quite important to make sure this colour is solid or the pearlcoat wont get the correct effect.

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once solid the pearl coat is laid over the top, It is very transparent and quite difficult to see it going on

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3 coats later and 10 minute flash off and its time to apply the laquer, I use sikkens 2k with an elastic additive to help with stonechips and flexing

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A quick low bake then left over night to dry and back home for the rebuild .. Once dry any bis of dirt can be wet flatted out with 2,000 wet and dry then buffed back up with G3.. Luckily for me this is fairly clean so I will get away with the job " off the gun "  :cool:

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and a bit of free advertising

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Good thread Jeff..

Would this process vary if you were spraying a small area using aerosol cans?

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Love the colour on a Westy. I sprayed my car in 2005 first time ever using a spray gun and it’s not as hard as you first think to get a reasonable finish. Not up to Mr C`s finish though
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Jeff

Fantastic article and the car looks fabulous. Well done. Can you tell us the quantities of the various materials used as I really have no idea!

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Jeff

Fantastic article and the car looks fabulous. Well done. Can you tell us the quantities of the various materials used as I really have no idea!

cheers for the comms  :blush:  :t-up:

the last 4 westys Ive colourchanged Ive managed to get away with 1 litre of the basecoat.. Pricewise for a normal colour  ie standard metalic or pearl It works out around £25 a litre, something a bit special like the paint on my car can be close to £200 a litre plus a ground coat  ..

Laquer again takes around  1litre , hardner 1/2 litre.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Can anyone recommend a good paintshop in the Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire area.  My XI is nearly ready for its new coat but I don't know of anywhere that will do the job, most places seem to want insurance work only (can't imagine why!).

I don't need any pearl or metalic, just BRG and yellow detailing on the nose.  (EVO magazine beat me to it the b******s!)

Thanks,

Matthew

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  • 1 year later...

Great paint job Jeff it looked a $ million dollars, Mines currently over at Millenium Body shop in Skipton with Matt Turner having a new paint job. Not sure when its gonna be ready tho’. Millenium Matt is doing as and when he can. I really enjoyed getting the body work of the chassis, yeah right!! If you think its hard getting the body work off a home build car you wanna try getting it off a factory built car... Jeeez, I spent last weekend  removing the rest of the silicone off the chassis. I reckon I got another 25kgs in weigh off the car!

As for getting the silicone off  the chassis; petrol on a rag works a treat, only trouble was I had to use optimax as I didn't have any regular!!

Good luck with your 1st effort

Buzz

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