I am looking for advice on the restoration of an 1976 corvette........it has been in storage for 10 years and was running when 1st stored. My father had been told to sand all the paint off the car.......I've been told that was some bad advice.....should I purchase a body or should I fix the one that I have........what would be the most affordable way to start.

 

removing paint on a fiberglass car with a sander is a very bad ideal.
you will end up with a very wavy surface.
I suggest use razor blade or chemical strip.
these leave your panels perfectly flat, minus dings and scratches.
my personal choice is razor blade stripping, especially for do it yourself.
you can work a little at a time, and stop anytime.

 

Thank you unfortunately he already has sanded the paint off down to fibre glass........I have an opportunity to get a body with the paint still on it seems like it is good shape for $1000. Was wondering if this would be a better starting point.

 

Hi JJM,
Welcome!
First Posts!!
This sounds like an interesting situation you've taken on.
I'd think it would be helpful to see some pictures of the overall exterior of the car and some close-ups of the fiberglass surface in various places.
Folks could then offer you some advice on how to proceed .
Many cars are taken to the bare fiberglass state in preparation for painting. What needs to be seen is what was done to the surface in getting to that point.
So, some pictures of the body currently?
Regards,
Alan

A completely bare fiberglass body.

 

you can recover from sanded body, just lots more bodywork and sanding time.
post pictures for better guidance.

 

Thanks, the car is in storage and I don't have any pictures at the present......it does look just like the ones Alan has posted.......i will post some when I get the car out at the end of the month........I think buying the car may be a good idea for parts anyways.......I'm at the beginning of this journey.......the car is probably worthless in the state it is but is was my dads and he left it to my kids so to us it is priceless........thanks for the input I will definately post pics as we get under way........thanks again

 

to add
especially if bare fiberglass hairs are poking through the body panel.
Post this in paint/ body section and the guys that see this daily tell you the correct stuff to use

 

Hi jj,
Be cautious what you buy at this point until you're really able to assess what you actually need.
You don't want to end up spending money on something that is of limited use to your restoration when that money could have been better spent on other facets of the car.
Good Luck!
Regards,
Alan

 

[QUOTE=Alan 71;1592994516]Hi jj,
Be cautious what you buy at this point until you're really able to assess what you actually need.
You don't want to end up spending money on something that is of limited use to your restoration when that money could have been better spent on other facets of the car.
Good Luck!
Regards,
Alan[/QUOTE

That's a good point Alan I might be jumping the gun!

 

JJ, i see you're a new member here, so first, welcome! You'd be wise to listen to Alan. He's one of the biggest assets to the C3 forum. In my opinion, I'd need to see the body you have, vs the body you're thinking of replacing it with to make an informed decision on which is the better option. One thing that did cross my mind thought is that if you replace the body, does that make it less your dad's car in your mind? In other words how sentimentally attached to the car are you?

 

Thanks for the welcome and I could tell right away that Alan really knew his stuff, in fact you all have given me a lot to consider.....and yes changing the body would make me feel like I had changed the integrity of the car.......I would like to avoid changing the body if at all possible.

I will post some pic as soon as I'm able the car is still storage.

Thank you

 

When you were told it was bad advice, were they talking about how it was sanded, or possible contamination in the glass while sitting in storage all those years?

 

[QUOTE=mortgageguy;1592997026]When you were told it was bad advice, were they talking about how it was sanded, or possible contamination in the glass while sitting in storage all those years?[/QUOTE

I have friend that does body work, but not a lot of experience with corvettes tell me that it was a mistake to sand through the gel coat to the fibre glass. It has been years since I've seen it.....but I don't recall there being hair or fibres sticking out of the body the car looked smoothe and free of debris......his big issue was the gel coat being sanded off......the car has been stored in a heated warehouse dry and no exposure to sun I am hoping that do contamination has occurred I'm sure that it has a lot of dust on it I never thought to cover it.

 

I believe there was no gelcoat in 76. Someone will chime in on this

 

FWIW: a body for $1K may not be the way to go.

Keep the one you have. You've mentioned paint, but does the body need actual repair?

 

No Corvettes ever had gelcoat, or so I have read many times from knowledgeable folks here. My '74 didn't.

 

"JJ", you haven't mentioned where you are located, possibly California? The first thing you should do is find a competent body shop, one with good references and lots of experience with fiberglass. Most body shops will tell you either they don't do fiberglass or sure, it's easy to work with. The truth is it can be easy to work with by someone that has lots of experience with the nuances of working on fiberglass.

I have seen many Corvettes that within a year of being painted have bubbles in the paint or low points in it where you can see glass strands. An experienced shop will know how to seal fiberglass that has glass strands exposed or has been exposed to contaminants. One method is to spray the body with gelcoat. When done by an experienced shop it can provide an excellent base form which to proceed.

As others have mentioned, the factory didn't use gelcoat on their panels. They didn't really need to. They used virgin panels assembled in a relatively contaminate free environment before doing any necessary body work and applying paint. Many cars that are being stripped for a repaint or repaired, take much more time than the factory spent doing this. They can often be exposed to contaminants in the air, as simple as silicone based tire shine among other products, with little or no hint of contamination until weeks, months or even a year has passed. An experienced shop will have a specific process for dealing with this. Be sure to ask what they do to overcome this possibility.

Good luck with your project and welcome to the Corvette Forum... GUSTO

 

First off welcome to the club.

There is no gel coat on your corvette and never was, other than maybe aftermarket parts. Your friend is probably a good body man just not for corvettes, no offense meant to you or your friend it is just he is talking without knowing the facts. I don't think you are bad off but as mentioned post in the paint/body section to get advice from professional body people of Corvettes.

Best of luck with your project and take it one step at a time and you will be fine.

 

That's the exact problem. I did one 10 years ago, and some idiot was spraying something in the shop that had a silicone base. Even at 50+ feet away, it got into the body when sanding. When we painted the car, it was very interesting.

I'm very careful with fiberglass now. SMC is even scarier.

On a metal car, we media blast them, acid clean the metal, then spray it with a dupont sealer immediately. With glass, anything floating in the air can get ground into the body and react with the finish.

I was thinking of having a vette media blasted last year, but at the last second I started thinking about contaminants in the booth from a previous project. Let's say for example they blast a frame that is greasy, and that crap gets stuck to the walls and ceiling of the booth. Then they blast the vette and it falls into and embeds in the fiberglass.

-- Joe

 

minor hood repair and a new front bumper otherwise no other issues.