I started stripping the paint on the vette with a razor blade and figured I would get the worst looking areas first while Im fresh and unannoyed. Both rear fenders appear to have been replaced sometime earlier in the cars life. When looking at the wheel wells from the inside you can see extra matting and glass. Anyways, here are some pics of the progress, any advise would be great. In most of the pictures you can see little dots, which I am assuming are areas where something has bled through the paint. I also noticed that using a hair dryer made things much easier. When I first started scraping, the paint was chipping off like dust, very slow movement. Then I put the hair dryer on the area and started scraping, the paint started to come off in little sheets. Much better. Anyways, here are some pics.

Here is an overall pic of the right rear fender.


Here is a good pic of those little dots I was talking about.


Most of the fender looked like this, with the cracking paint. Also notice the area on the right where I dug down below the filler. I believe this is the down to the glass.


A shot of the thickness of filler


What are your guys thoughts and advise after seeing these pictures? I am doign the right thing by stripping all this junk, right? Is the car going to need to be gelcoated? Are those areas that are bleeding through going to affect anything, will they come back? I am assuming I should get everything down to the red primer right? Would chemical stripping be a good idea for the fenders? Will it strip the filler off and leave the aftermarket glass alone?

Also, 2 more questions. What is the easiest way of getting undercoating off. And how many quarts of por15 does it usually take to coat a bare frame, when thinned and sprayed through a gun?

 

ttt

 

If you don't expose fibers by grinding thru the resin top-coat, you don't need to Gel-coat. The factory used a red dish-brown primer, that is where you want to stop. You can hand sand this surface to prep. for new primer. I am not a fan of chemical strippers. Above all, you need to remove all previous paint and get down to the resin /gel-coat as much as you can, to help assure a quality paint-job.

 

Any other suggestions?

 

I have read some good reasons to use gel coat. The best being that it seals the glass and makes the paint last longer without bubbleing etc.

I believe you are doing the right thing by removing all the bad paint. Paint, after all is only as good as it's substrate...

 

FWIW I used por 15 on my frame in the engine bay and was NOT happy with it. It started to lift off in some places and in other it was like removing an turtle from its shell

I was going to re por it but decided against it last minute and used a black self etching primer

Por 15 (gray primer spot is where it lifted)


Self Etching Primer


( I really should pull that steering box off and clean it )

 

Big G

Big G knows a lot about painting and body work (from what I've read on this forum over the past year) so his advise is worth following..
Yes, you should remove the old bondo. That's possibly where some of the bleed thru originated, plus it can be done nicer by you from what you've shown here. It appears the previous work was slap on and puch out work. Your comment about the rough matt up under the fender is a good give away. No true enthusiast would leave it like that. Get up under there, sand it smooth and finish it off properly and closely look at the actual repairs to that section, to prevent problems later down the road once nicely painted. The pattern on the paint seems to indicate a bending of that glass area like a minor inpact to the glass.
I also do not think you need to re gelcoat the car, but you MUST use a good K2 type sealer/primer for the coat between bodywork and paint. You, of course know that, like said above, a paint job is only as nice as the prep work put into it before the spraying, so do it right and do it well now. Good luck. Hope this helps. Glenn

 

Yeah, I agree on that one, plus you might want to take some time & sand & paint those inner wheel wells while your dressing up that engine bay. A little more time now will REALLY pay off later when you open that hood! But I bet you already knew that, didn't you!

 

already ahead of you..

 

I agree with the comment about not having to "re-gel coat" the car. A good primer surfacer will allow you to build up any areas that were taken down too far (to the glass). Also the tiny dots look like spattered oil to me. You may be able to get that out buy washing the area with paint thinner. Was, rinse with water, repeat. You don't want that oil to ruin your new paint later on.

 

ok, good comments so far. Now what do you guys think the best way of removing undercoating is? The wheel wells are undercoated, and i believe a few areas under the car. I was trying to heat the undercoating with the hair dryer and use the razor blade. This didnt work so well though. It is taking forever.
Also, does anyone have a rough estimate of how much por15 I will need to spray the frame? It is bare and sandblasted. Thanks guys!

 

I don't know about spraying the frame, but 1 quart was more than enough to brush on two coats on my frame and brackets and differential and crossmembers and halfshafts.

KO

 

Sorry, but this is why you don't spray that onto your car. It's a bear to get off, but it does a good job of protecting the metal, which is what it was designed to do. Can't advise you of any short cuts (safe) to remove it. Hope others may have found something that I never did.

 

The little dots look like a guide coat for blocking it smooth. On body work and on paint you fog on an opposite color and then sand it off. Low spots show as this color and high as the original. It guides you as you sand. It forms that speckled orange peel look.

For the undercoating you can try a pressure washer. It won't take it all off but did a fair job on mine. It at least takes off the easy stuff for you to concentrate on the heavier.
It is messy but it takes a lot of dirt off too.

You can also assume whatever it don't take off is worth leaving on.
If the body work is questionable you could take a shot at it with the pressure washer. It don't have to do a perfect job just reduce what you have to do by other methods.