Fiberglass body work

[vicegrip]

It's not a Corvette. Restoring a 66 Harley golf cart,pretty cool 3 wheel deal,be the envy of the campground when done. It has a fiberglass body that's in decent shape except for a few areas. First,it had been brush painted with 2 coats of what seemed to be industrial strength barn paint. Removed it with paint remover as I didn't want to disturb the gel coat.The question,s...What fillers,primers are recommended? It does have some crazing on the edges and what needs to be done so it doesn't show on the topcoat? Are there any major pitfalls I need to look out for? Thanks!

[Lou's Comet]

It's not a Corvette. Restoring a 66 Harley golf cart,pretty cool 3 wheel deal,be the envy of the campground when done. It has a fiberglass body that's in decent shape except for a few areas. First,it had been brush painted with 2 coats of what seemed to be industrial strength barn paint. Removed it with paint remover as I didn't want to disturb the gel coat.The question,s...What fillers,primers are recommended? It does have some crazing on the edges and what needs to be done so it doesn't show on the topcoat? Are there any major pitfalls I need to look out for? Thanks!

The crazing on the edges hard to say without seeing. Could be the gelcoat going bad, and may need to redo the gelcoat in those areas.

If you sand thru the gelcoat before the crazing sands out the best thing would be to redo the gelcoat in that area. Not too hard to do. Get some gelcoat from a boater supply. Mix it per instructions, sand area with 80 grit, apply it with a plastic spreader, and you MUST spray a mold release overtop the gelcoat or it will not dry!! Boating supply places sell the mold release in small bottles, it is ready to spray. I use the little disposable sprayers for the mold release, with the glass bottle and screw on spray canister. After you apply the gelcoat just spray couple coats mold release over top and let sit for a day or so. The mold release should then peal off like it was Saran Wrap. Then sand your gelcoat smooth.

If you don't want to redo the gelcoat sand it smooth and maybe do the epoxy primer a couple times (spray 2 coats let sit 3 or more days sand the epoxy with 150 and 2 more coats of epoxy) which would prob take care of it but no guarantee's

After questionable gelcoat areas are done I would sand it all good with 150-180 grit wet paper. I would wrap the sand paper around a soft sanding sponge. Most fiberglass is a little wavy, if you sand it with a stiff flat sanding block you prob have a better chance of sanding thru the gelcoat. Once sanded clean with pre cleaner solvent and spray two med coats of epoxy.

After you spray the epoxy you have a window of time to do the next step whether it be filler or primer surfacer. The epoxy I use the window is 72 hours. If need be do filler right over top the epoxy, sand filler and I redo the epoxy over filler. I really like the 3M platinum filler! After filler work is done and epoxy is resprayed spray your primer surfacer overtop and then it is pretty much the same as sanding and painting metal.

Use a different color primer surface over the epoxy, for example black epoxy with gray primer surfacer. This way you will quickly see when you are sanding thru the primer surfacer and know when to stop.

I use PPG products, for most stuff I use their Omni line, high end stuff I use their Deltron line. The Omni epoxy has 3 day window, the Deltron epoxy has 7 day window. Huge price difference tho

Lou

[vicegrip]

Thanks Lou! I did get some gelcoat but didn't know about the release and you're right. Stays sticky forever.The crazing is in high stress areas.There seems to be a mile of gelcoat over the fiber and the overall thickness of the body shell in 1/4 in or even more in some areas so I haven't sanded through...yet. Have a half gallon of black epoxy I haven't looked at for a while so I hope It's still good. Glad you responded,Lou. Now I can wade into this thing without questioning every move I make. It's just an old golf cart but I can't help myself.