Ok, may not be tradiitional, but the money I'll make goes into my project. Got a chance to repaint a 1973 LOLA Formula 5000 with a fibergl*** body. It is off to the spripper tomorrow to be walnut shell or media blasted, then a boat guy will repair any cracked or damaged areas. My question is what is the best primer to use on fibergl***? Final color will match the yellow on the Johnny Rutherford Indy 500 winner. Thanks for the advice and help.
PPG K36 is what I like to use. Doesn't matter if it's steel or gl***. You will probably end up with a lot of pinholes after the blasting. I had a set of fenders done and the looked like they were attacked by polyestermites. I put a couple of heavy caots of K36 on sanded with 80 grit then had to do a skim coat of "Icing". It's a lightwieght filler by evercoat. Fenders are about 10 years old now and look as good as the day they were painted. Clark
Gel-coat is extremely brittle and shows imperfections after primer/paint shrinks. Go for the high-build primer as Mr. Clark suggested.
Anything short of the fibergl*** and gelcoat is gonna shrink,no matter what you put on top of it. Gel coat will encapsulate the repairs. If a boat guy is gonna fix the cracks, he will surely make the repairs with nothing but fibergl*** and resin. The only thing on a fibergl*** body that is cosmetic, will be the pinholes that need filled. leave the surface sanded to an 80-100 grit texture, so the gelcoat will bite in.Block the gelcoat down with 120, and apply a 2k surfacer for a finish coat that you can prep sand with 400-600 wet, seal it, and paint it. Look at it like this...fibergl*** is almost like a living organism. It only takes about 120 degrees Fahrenheit for fibergl*** to change. You need to separate the host surface from the substrate (primer). That's what gel coat is for. It's what they spray in the mold first, before the fibergl*** is laid in. Cracks in the fibergl*** is a structural problem, so build it up stronger than it was before. Shape low spots back up with more fibergl***, not filler. And as far as chipping, if it happens its gonna chip straight down to the fibergl***, no matter what you put on top of it, unless you paint it with truck bed liner. Then, it will bounce right off lol.
I've seen Clarks work. I'd follow him. He messes w/alot of ****, and has most of his methods dialed in. Don't know him personally, but have been lookin at his stuff for a few years.
Gel Coat is the only way to go,period. I have had 2 fibergl*** bodies painted in the last couple of years, gel coated both of them and nothing has shown through. Make sure you give it some cure time. And by the way , it's some nasty stuff to work with, but well worth it.
Redneck Street Rods produces no-gelcoat fibergl*** bodies. Instead they use a Valspar primer. http://www.redneckstreetrods.com/qualtiy_paint.html
I used to repair/paint fiberglas boats. All repairs were done with epoxy resin and gl*** cloth. VERY few of our repairs were coated with gel-coat unless the original finish was being matched and the entire boat wasn't there for repaint. All our repaints were primed with a high build expoxy primer straight over the roughed-up factory gel-coat and/or any repairs. Marine epoxy primer will stick to almost any surface that has some tooth.
What is gel coat like? I am guessing that it gets sprayed on like paint. Did I guess right? Why is it better than an epoxy primer/sealer? Neal
That was a guess on my part I'm sure he'll use the proper media, BEST car body stripper on the east coast with a lot of Corvette work in the past. Thanks for all the info sofar!
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