Hot Rods Question for fiberglass experts.

I'm considering the purchase of a dis***embled '57 Vette . Someone has sanded and/or ground on the body to where the fibergl*** is kinda thin in spots . Of course the gel coat is gone and the gl*** strands are exposed in these areas . How much of a problem is this going to be to repair correctly ? I possess only average hobbyist skills when it comes to body work . Thanks for any advice you can give me . ..Steve (v7)

 

Tough to say without .seeing firsthand, BUT , you can build gl*** thickness back up from the back side if you have access otherwise build up and reinforce from the front side. The value of the car needs to be taken into consideration, but generally any fibergl*** is rebuildable, photos would help.

 

You will become very familiar with resin, mat, tiger hair, and gel coat, but the fibergl*** can be repaired with skills which are easy to learn. There will be a lot of work involved to get back to a smooth surface.

 

Wear a respirator when sanding or grinding. Beware of the itch, if you have vacuumed attachments for your tools use them it helps greatly. You will need to abrade the areas to be repaired so it will bond good. One ounce mat works best it's easier to wet out. Two ounce mat is a little harder to wet out. I usually brush on a coat of resin on the area to be repaired then on a piece of cardboard I wet out the mat before transferring to the area to be built up this way you can get the all the air bubbles out. DONOT use any cloth to make the repairs or you will see the pattern in the finish repair. You will need some gloves for hand protection and acetone to clean up. We use to put tar paper on the floor so we could pick up drips and help keep the dust down. Good Luck

 

Use to use polyester resin on vette body repair. Matte material mentioned too.

 

Thanks for all the great replies , you can never have too much knowledge . Please keep them coming .

 

Steve I have worked with Corvette and fibergl*** for years and they can be brought back by a hobbyist if done correctly. Shops cannot afford oftentimes to do it as it is quite labor intensive.

I can walk you thru it but some pictures would certainly help. First of all there was not gel coat on 57 Vettes so what you are seeing is polyester resin. You say the body is thin but I am not sure why it would be excessively thin. If the fibers are showing there are products that can be used to seal down the fibers. Just adding resin is not always wise as there is really no integrity with resin. The fibergl*** mat is what generally gives it strength. My avatar car actually was thin as the prior owner used chemical stripper and left it on too long. I used some gelcoat and it worked fine. Gelcoat though is not always wise to just add it over the top as it often dries by a chemical bond to what is the substrate. If you add if over the top there is no chemical bond but a mechanical bond by scuffing the fibergl*** surface. I can recommend products to use if it is truly thin. Gelcoat sands quite hard and some of the other 2K type coatings sand a bit easier.

If you are going to work with fibergl*** it is wise to get some paper suits to wear and also there is an excellent product to apply to your skin to prevent itching. It works. There also is a good company in Florida that ships excellent fibergl*** products to use (U.S. Composites Inc). You can go to their website and do a bit of exploring but when it comes to which product to use I can help you. Some polyesters have wax in them to help them cure when they are not in a mold.

Lots to go over but I can help if you want. As I said some pictures with specifics will go a long way. I have three absolute derelicts (58-62 Vettes) that people basically threw away that I am trying to resurrect if I live long enough. Fun to bring them back to life though. I quit working with fibergl*** though because my body was not liking it any more. The anti itch coating saved the day for me though-it is called pr88 Skin Barrier Cream. You can google it but if you can't find it I can tell you where to buy it. Inexpensive and worth every penny.

 

Chances are that the original surface resin on the car was deteriorated beyond repair. They were still figuring out how to do fibergl*** in the mid-50's. The 1954 Corvettes had a resin which would never fully cure. The '56 and 57's had a much more brittle resin where the surface would craze over time.

 

Thanks Jim for your input .If I pull the trigger and buy this Vette then I will send you some pics . Fritz , thanks for your input as well .