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So i started stripping some of the paint from my 1976 since it's pretty much baked and toasted and a terrible peeling from the cheap job done on it last. I was using the razor method, and it's chipping and removing it just fine, and i'm careful to not gouge the fiberglass. There must be 7 or 8 layers, turns out the original red, primer, red again, primer, orange/red, primer, black, lastly blue. I'm trying to take these thick layers down best I can, but i'm worried about leaving the exposed fiberglass as i clear the old paint outside. I don't have room in the garage quite yet (I've got to clear out some more toys) so its staying outside in the driveway. I live in the Desert (Az) and luckily don't really have to deal with rain, snow, or any moisture, winters are pretty mild, and the summers get brutally hot. I hope to have it garaged before summer, should i hold off on stripping it down? or should i take advantage of the cool weekends and get the work done? I just don't want to cause any damage to the fiberglass body. Will leaving it bare fiberglass for a few weeks/months cause irreparable damage to the fiberglass body? Thanks!
So i started stripping some of the paint from my 1976 since it's pretty much baked and toasted and a terrible peeling from the cheap job done on it last. I was using the razor method, and it's chipping and removing it just fine, and i'm careful to not gouge the fiberglass. There must be 7 or 8 layers, turns out the original red, primer, red again, primer, orange/red, primer, black, lastly blue. I'm trying to take these thick layers down best I can, but i'm worried about leaving the exposed fiberglass as i clear the old paint outside. I don't have room in the garage quite yet (I've got to clear out some more toys) so its staying outside in the driveway. I live in the Desert (Az) and luckily don't really have to deal with rain, snow, or any moisture, winters are pretty mild, and the summers get brutally hot. I hope to have it garaged before summer, should i hold off on stripping it down? or should i take advantage of the cool weekends and get the work done? I just don't want to cause any damage to the fiberglass body. Will leaving it bare fiberglass for a few weeks/months cause irreparable damage to the fiberglass body? Thanks!
Hi RocketNerd, it can't hurt to cover it or wait until you can get it inside. Even inside you should still be looking to protect the glass. You could tape the sections competed with plastic or ......................... Bare fiberglass is exposed to many contaminants for sure. However you will be sanding the surface and removing contaminants in the future with things like Acetone, or wax and degreaser agents before paint. The more protection is highly advised.
Just sayin!
RVZIO
would spraying the stripped bare fiberglass areas with something like plasti-dip cause issue later on down the road? I'm wondering if having a coating that could later peel off easily help protect the fiberglass from water and oil, just in case something were to spill on it.
you need to leave bare fiberglass covered in a garage, if you expose to moisture
and then trap the moisture under your new primer you will not be happy, in the future.
if you have a garage clear it out, and use it for protection, when working fiberglass.
Living in the Desert of Arizona, i'm not terribly worried about moisture (average yearly rainfall is < 3") and most of that is during monsoon season (July/August). The sun is said to shine during about 90% of the daylight hours, making Yuma the sunniest place in the world. An annual mean sunshine duration of 4,015 h would have been recorded in the desert city. (Wikipedia). I'm more worried about a buddy placing a frosty beverage by accident, or having something splash up on it. I've only scraped the rear deck down, but want to protect it while i work on the interior a bit (almost done with the restore). Is there anything I can do, to help protect it for the next few months before it get it fully ready for working the body and then off to paint? would a rattlecan primer/sealer be better than the plastidip , so i can sand it off when it comes down to starting on the body?
Epoxy Primer will seal it up, forget the rattle can stuff,
I recommend this to seal up repairs and fiberglass.
southernpolyurethanes.com has a great epoxy Primer Sealer.
This will create very solid base, very difficult to sand/remove.
spraying primer is the stepping stone to painting, learn and practice with primer.
Thanks guys. I will get a car cover this weekend while it remains outside, and hopefully starting the new year i can free up some room in the garage.
I'm Hearing you r-nerd. I use twin Costco Covers. First one is rainproof for about 3-4 months....the second one remains waterproof and is the dust cover.
Just to make you feel peachy...I stripped my 69 when I was a kid...life got in the way and 15 years later I painted it...while it was in a garage, life happened all around it...
When you paint the car, you want epoxy primer, then SEALER...then base-coat, clear- coat.
So now its 17 years later and the paint is holding up terrific!
I understand that you are in the desert where it is HOT and dry and basically no rain. But what I seem to always see on the TV shows when people are in the desert is how cold it can get. AND when it gets cold...do you get dew due to the temperature are at the dew point??????
That is what I am more concerned about is trapping moisture between the cover and the bare body....REGARDLESS if it is a fancy-dancy car cover that says it 'breathes'. If you find that oyu have moisture collecting and being trapped...then would have to go to PLAN B...which is crazy as it may sound...put the car in a storage unit until you get your garage ready. The last thing you want to deal with is contaminated raw SMC.
Whatever you do...do not apply that 'Plasti-dip' product.
fiberglass question
