DRE69L46

I have a 1969 Corvette coupe. Five years ago I had an established Corvette restoration shop strip off the old paint to the bare fiberglass, then give it four gel coats, four coats of primer, one of sealer, four of GM Firemist Gold (a metal flake acrylic urethane) and three coats of clear urethane. The really looks great.

However, I’m starting to see hairline cracks in the paint. I’ve got a few over the drivers side front wheel arch, where the side fender comes to a point on top. I think this has been caused by leaning against the side of the car when I’m working on the motor, even though I’ve been extremely careful. The second crack is in the hood area, near where the hood hinge is. Not the hood itself, but the corner of the body. I don’t what’s going on there, since that area does not get any stress, and the hood doesn’t rub there as it’s opened and closed.

The car is garaged, with a cover, is never driven in bad weather, and only gets about 500miles per year. So I don’t think weather exposure is an issue. I don’t wax the car, but I do use Meguirs polish about twice a year.

Any advice?
* Does paint age on a Vette, so that this somewhat to be expected?
* Anything I can do to prevent it?
* Any way to repair the cracks, besides repainting some or all of the car? (I realize a metallic clear coated car is tough to repair. Sure says a lot for painting a car a solid color.)

THANKS. Doug

Darrell's 68

Is the front support bar in place on your car? It connects from the lower center portion of the radiator support to the front of the nose, behind the front bumper. Sometimes they are missing and can cause undo flexing in the nose and of course, stress cracks in all the areas you mentioned.

JJ Deuce

My car has cracks in the clear coat in the same areas. I know the cracks on the fender are my fault from leaning on the car. The hood is not cracked, but the fender is where the hood support is bolted to the body.

LemansBlue68

:iagree:

Check to make sure all the proper reinforments are there and are tight. There is two angular brakets that attach to each end of the headlight reinforcement bar that tie this in to the inner fender well. Make sure that these are in place. 68's don't have them so cracking was common in this area on these cars. During my resto I added them to mine.

I also put a stress crack in the top of one of my fenders when working on the engine. I was prying up on the wrench and pushing down on the fender. DOH!!!! Fortunately, my car is currently stripped of it's paint so I can repair this before my repaint.

Another thing to consider is rocks that get flung from the tires can hit inside the fenders and cause cracks on the other side (in your good paint). Make sure that there is a good heavy coat of undercoating in the wheel wells to help shield the fiberglass. The factory applied a heavy coating of undercoat but maybe this had been stripped off or has aged to the point that it has become brittle and started to flake off.

David68

Your list of coatings is pretty "thick" which, IMHO, would tend be more brittle and less flexible than the underlying fiberglass, especially in the stress-prone areas you describe. Gelcoat in thickness is for sure less flexible than fiberglass.

LemansBlue68 - You mentioned adding reinforcements to the front corners of the hood opening. I've looked around for these with no success. Where did you find these? Thanks.

KenSny

:iagree: Even with sanding down between some of the coats - that's a pretty thick buildup on top of the fiberglass. It's bound to hairline crack...... Fiberglass flexes more the steel so I would suspect that the "paint guy" has more experience with steel than glass even tho the shop is "Corvette Restoration".... Sounds like maybe it was painted for show rather than use.




[Modified by KenSny, 2:26 PM 4/16/2004]

WESCH

Hi

Pls tell us more about this . Wher to get etc.

Thanks. Gunther :seeya

vettfixr

The cracks you are seeing at the top of the front fender arches are caused by stones hitting the inner fender. I had the same problem with mine. If you look under the fender you will see that the fender liner only covers the fore and aft portion of the fender. A space about 1 foot long and as wide as the fender top is unprotected and subject to being hit from debris thrown up by the tires. This causes the infamous star cracks on the top of the fenders. My solution to this problem was to get an indoor-outdoor carpet mat like the type that are used for entryways. Try to get one that's dense rubber and about 1/2 inch thick. Make yourself a cardboard template of the area under the fender that is unprotected and transfer the pattern to the mat. Cut out the mat and glue it under the fender in the exposed area with liquid nails or some other suitable glue. Once everything is dry you can cover it with undercoating spray. I did this to my car at least 5 years ago and I haven't had one crack yet. Prior to that I had cracks appearing in the new paint after only a few months. Good luck.

DRE69L46

Thanks, folks. I appreciate your good ideas and experience. I'm going to apply some padding in the front wheel well, I'll look for the braces mentioned, and I'll be more careful!

I did talk to the Corvette body shop that did the painting. They can repair and spot paint the damaged areas, and re-clearcoat the front of the car. The charge is about $750. I paid $5,000 for the original paint job, so I guess this isn't too bad if we can match the paint well.

Again, thanks. Doug

BacaBill

$750 to RE-SHOOT the problem spots????? Seems to me, even IF YOU requested the thick coats, he should have talked ya out of them. Or, if HE suggested the thick coatings, he should make good for it. There's GOT TO BE some sort of warranty for his original job.