Hello fellow forumers!

first post of many right here,

So i have done body work on classic mustangs before, but this whole fiberglass is kinda throwing me a curve ball.

Ive already stripped the inside of project panty dropper, pretty much down to the metal with a couple of smoothed out green glue spots. Been Stripping the outside aswell..... Im ready to start the body prep work for the paint shop to save a couple of bucks...My question is..what are the steps in getting the old paint off, thur primering the body?






any input will be greatly appreicated!
and dont worry ill be sure to put up some pics for eye candy!

 

Have it professionally soda blasted. Dont wipe bare fiberglass with any wax and grease remover(it will soak in), use a product like PPG DX 103. Other wise you can use paint stripper, not the aircraft grade! I know when you use soda blast bare metal you need to wash the bare metal with soap and water, not sure about the fiberglass but the blasting company will know. Good luck!

 

I'm not sure what you have stripped down inside "down to metal"? There isn't a whole lot of painted metal on these cars that can be stripped except the frame, headlight buckets, windshield louver grills and underneath the fiberglass (birdcage). But, before you strip the outside, which ever way you choose - stripper, sanding or media blasting - I would carefully go around the car and locate all the stress fractures you can find now and go ahead and take a small grinder or dremel tool and v-groove them out so you will be able to find them all later and properly repair them with resin and glass mat. After stripping do all your body repairs and trial fit all doors, hood, headlight buckets, etc and use body filler to contour everything to fit flush and line up evenly. Do the same for any poor door gaps, using filler or if a lot of evening up is needed - resin and mat. Block sand everything. Look at all bonding seams top and bottom for any separation and fix them at this time.

Then comes the controversial part - epoxy prime or gelcoat the whole repaired body. It's about a 50/50 split as to preference. One suggestion that made sense to me was gelcoat a body that has had a lot of repair or panel replacement. Epoxy prime a nice virgin body that needed minimal and minor repairs. Everyone has an opinion.

 

got a couple of pics up!

thanks for the input too guys.

keep em coming

 

Move the post to paint and body.

 

Go to the advance search page, and on the right side you will find a drop box that's labeled, "Search in Forum" The paint/body section is there. Very interesting section, with lot's of expert info. There's a guy there called Porch Dog, who really seems to know what he is talking about. For what it's worth, I'm kicking around the idea of having my car painted this summer, and I talked to a shop that does complete frame off restorations on C1 and C2's. I asked them how they strip the cars and he said that they only do chemical strips, and will not do any kind of blasting on a vette.

 

I think I saw a couple of weeks ago where Porch Dog was bowing out of the forum - but the Paint/Body forum is a good reference to go to. I vote for the chemical stripping too.

Dan