TWINRAY

First let me say, I don't know why these pinholes exist. I blocked the Evercoat GelCoat, then applied 1 1/2 gallons of Slicksand Poly Primer. Blocked with 320, then 400. I thought it was smooth. Well, it might be smooth but when I pulled it outside to wash the dust off and give it a final swipe of #600, I noticed pinholes in some areas! Maybe I have to sand more but I don't think so. Will the Epoxy sealer coat fill these pinholes? I plan to do the sealer coat, wait 2 hours and then lay the base coat.

DUB

WHO KNOWS....and the reason I am responding that way..is I do not know how thin (viscosity) the epoxy sealer is you plan on using and how it will react when applied on these pinholes....becasue it can make a difference. IF the sealer is to thick...it will cover over the pin hole and not fill it in....which leads to trapped air...or make the pinholes get bigger....and begin to look like 'fisheyes'.

Something that happened to me a very long time ago....I had to paint a funny car body...and this body was allowed to be outside and the sun killed the gelcoat on half the body. When I sanded it ..the gelcoat powdered right off and left millions of small pinholes in the fine layer of fiberglass cloth under the gelcoat. I over thinned my sealer and began painting it...and I took millions of pinholes down to several hundred thousand...then the next coat took it to thousands of pinholes...and then finally getting the entire body slick and no pinholes. The paint job lasted several years and did not have any issues.

My sealer was so thin and watery...that it was easy to apply and the flash time was lessened and I was not gettign a huge amount of build...because all I wanted was it to flow into the pinholes.

SO...that may help you where you concentrate you efforts right now in possibly thinning your epoxy down a bit more and applying it on these areas and then when that has dried...prep the car and epoxy the entire car.

And this is not being able to really tell how bad these pinholes are in your photos. Kinda hard to see..and I understand taking a photo of this is really hard to do.

DUB

TWINRAY

Thanks DUB, I will try to sand them out tomorrow. I'm not sure if they are in the Slicksand or underneath. I would have thought the SS would have covered any imperfections in the Gelcoat even though the GC was blocked pretty smooth IMO.

porchdog

Never try to hide anything with sealer , base , or clear. Sand it out or spot prime. Sealer is for adhesion .

TWINRAY

Thanks, too much time invested now. I'll see how one area reacts to sanding tomorrow. And I thought I was ready for color.

Dave Tracy

Not being a pro at all, I believe your decision to sand it out is good. You may have some contamination issues. In the long run, you may be saving time by redoing this step rather than all of the steps after color is on. Good luck.

porchdog

that is just the bottom of orange peel. another round with 600 and you should be good to go. some dry guide coat would help.

TWINRAY

I hope so PD. I'm going to walk around the car with a roll of blue tape and mark imperfections. I did replace the complete front end - top surround and fenders. If the problem is all in the front, it may be the new fiberglass but I thought the Gelcoat (2 gallons), blocksanding it, then a Gallon and a half of Slicksand blocked would certainly smooth everything out. Will update later.

porchdog

you just didn't sand the slicksand far enough. you'll be fine.

TWINRAY

Going out now with 5 new sheets of #600

DUB

Here is where I have to politely agree/disagree with you.

In 99% of the cases...I agree with you...BUT I did try other alternatives in small areas and had to wash the stuff off due to not filling in these pinholes.

It depends on the sealer that was used...and the sealer I used.... CAN be used in the manner I used it in.

WEIGHT was an issue so I could not go in on half of the funny car body with a filler and fill it and block it out. That was not going to happen.

When I got done with the body...only ONE coat of single stage black was applied. And when the body went through Tech inspection...Bob told me the body and tin work was 40 pounds lighter than any other car at that time.

It is kinda hard to dispute what I did ....when the paint job had absolutely NO problems. No b.s.

So it DEPENDS on what is applied.

The 3M dry guide coats works really well.

Not that it matters...but block the polyester primer with 600 girt for me is somethign I do not do. I actually use 400 grit WET.

Due to the polyester primer being so hard....the scratch that the 400 grit provides is not as bad as you might think. I have used 400 grit for decades and never has ONE sand scratch show up. And alot of that has to do with how I also check the primer before I seal it.

Just saying...it may save you some blocking time..and if you still want to glaze over it with the 600 grit...by all means...do that if you choose.

DUB

TWINRAY

I appreciate everyones help. 4 sheets of #600 later, I think I'm OK. I still have to finalized the hardtop and fliplid but I don't anticipate any problem. Ill be using SPI Epoxy primer cut a bit for a sealer, RM Diamont base, and SPI UV CLEAR. Next week has a couple of good days back to back. I can pick up the RM locally and I will order the SPI tomorrow. You all stay cool.

DUB

Hopefully your weather holds out and you can get it done before it gets cold up there.

All is good on my end...

DUB

TWINRAY

Thanks DUB, replay of last year. Never enough time. My fault, always figure the'll be enough time. It'll work out. Thanks for the help.

porchdog

keep a heating blanket on the car at night so when you start in the morning the surface will be up to temp .

TWINRAY

Thanks Porchdog, according to reports, lowest next week in the am will be +65 degrees. I will have a little heater going thr night before in my detached garage. I will look into the heating blanket, thanks.

Dt86

Yup getting dark early and cool at night now. The heating blanket is a great idea, never would have thought of that. Hope everything works out for you.

TWINRAY

Porchdog, is it nuts, but I'll be letting the epoxy sealer that'll be covered with the base sit overnight before I shoot my clear the next day. I should be done by say 2:00 on that 1st day. I couldn't put the heating blanket over the car LAYING ON THE BASE COAT at say 6:00 could I? Same question the next day after I do my clear? Or would that stop solvents from freely excaping. Thanks

porchdog

i would not use it over anything fresh . epoxy does not like a cold surface or temps below 55 .

TWINRAY

Yeah, that's what I thought but just wanted to make sure. I hope for a minimum of 65 degrees at night. It warms up quickly in the am when the sun comes out. I use a lazer thermometer to make sure surface temp is at least 70 but it usually is a safe margin above that. Thanks again.