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Yesterday, I was talking with the owner of a Corvette restoration shop who offers to apply a clear gel coat over the paint on Corvettes.
He said some of his customers have the gel coat applied over the paint while others do not want the added expense and choose not to.
He told me the gel coat, like on a boat, will help preserve and protect the finish making the paint look new for much longer than just paint without the gel coat.
I’ve owned boats for decades and have had a few repainted and sealed with gel coat, and wouldn’t repaint a boat without applying the gel coat over the paint.
Has anyone had their Corvette repainted and sealed with gel coat?
If so are you glad you did?
The real question many should be asking is what is so special about our fiberglass bodies that justifies such high painting costs?... Other than the Vette Tax I could not find anything... So I did my own paint and body work at home in my garage for under $800 (total cost including bodywork and primers and paint supplies) about $1100 if you include the cost of the second used air compressor, soda blaster and both harbor freight paint guns .... I had painted my old jeep wrangler and c4 before this. But I did not experience anything about the fiberglass or GRP bodies that made them more difficult to work on than the steel jeep body. Quite the opposite really since I didnt have to worry about rust repair or preventing it from returning. I found the fiberglass and vette filler compounds easy to work with even though I am a complete amateur so why do the pros seem to think its so difficult? most kit cars and dune buggies are gelcoated fiberglass and repaint /bodywork costs are not even in the same ballpark at most shops as a corvette. WHY? If I paid myself like $50 an hour it still wouldnt be anywhere close to what many of the shops are quoting and thats with the extra time it took me as an amateur.. My uncle worked at a body shop for years and he agreed its not always so much about covering the actual costs with profit but more about what you can get away with charging based on the stereotype/ profiling of the car owner. and those that dont use this philosophy simply end up overwhelmed with so much work they end up raising their priced due to that instead...
Now its been about 7 years since I painted the car and its not perfect (I have a couple small bubbles on the tops of the fenders likely from brake fluid contamination I failed to completely remove before the epoxy sealer and primers.)
Thanks for responding.
Beautiful car!
It isn’t cheap, but when you consider the cost of a new paint job for our Corvettes, it isn’t over the top expensive either.
Some people are going to tell you gel coat is for boats not vettes. When I re-do my body and paint I'll personally be using ecklers gel coat.
I just haven’t heard anyone mention applying gel coat on our Corvettes before or it discussed here on the forum.
This restoration shop owner has been in business for decades and comes highly recommended.
Applying gel coat seems like a no brainer, but thought I would ask about it before adding it into the cost.
Thanks!
Are you repainting the car with a modern basecoat/clearcoat process? Why not just use a ceramic coating on top of that? I used Gtechniq CSL and EXOv4 on a brand-new car. It's still working great after 13K miles.
Ok just to clarify if you choose to use gel coat it goes on before paint and is used to seal errant fiberglass strands and it prevents bondo from bleeding through.
Ok that makes sense. Gel coat after all the body work priming and block sanding and prior to paint. Do they then wet/dry sand the gel coat to get it nice and flat?
The real question many should be asking is what is so special about our fiberglass bodies that justifies such high painting costs?... Other than the Vette Tax I could not find anything... So I did my own paint and body work at home in my garage for under $800 (total cost including bodywork and primers and paint supplies) about $1100 if you include the cost of the second used air compressor, soda blaster and both harbor freight paint guns .... I had painted my old jeep wrangler and c4 before this. But I did not experience anything about the fiberglass or GRP bodies that made them more difficult to work on than the steel jeep body. Quite the opposite really since I didnt have to worry about rust repair or preventing it from returning. I found the fiberglass and vette filler compounds easy to work with even though I am a complete amateur so why do the pros seem to think its so difficult? most kit cars and dune buggies are gelcoated fiberglass and repaint /bodywork costs are not even in the same ballpark at most shops as a corvette. WHY? If I paid myself like $50 an hour it still wouldnt be anywhere close to what many of the shops are quoting and thats with the extra time it took me as an amateur.. My uncle worked at a body shop for years and he agreed its not always so much about covering the actual costs with profit but more about what you can get away with charging based on the stereotype/ profiling of the car owner. and those that dont use this philosophy simply end up overwhelmed with so much work they end up raising their priced due to that instead...
Now its been about 7 years since I painted the car and its not perfect (I have a couple small bubbles on the tops of the fenders likely from brake fluid contamination I failed to completely remove before the epoxy sealer and primers.)
Last edited by augiedoggy; Apr 1, 2023 at 11:32 AM.
The real question many should be asking is what is so special about our fiberglass bodies that justifies such high painting costs?... Other than the Vette Tax I could not find anything... So I did my own paint and body work at home in my garage for under $800 (total cost including bodywork and primers and paint supplies) about $1100 if you include the cost of the second used air compressor, soda blaster and both harbor freight paint guns .... I had painted my old jeep wrangler and c4 before this. But I did not experience anything about the fiberglass or GRP bodies that made them more difficult to work on than the steel jeep body. Quite the opposite really since I didnt have to worry about rust repair or preventing it from returning. I found the fiberglass and vette filler compounds easy to work with even though I am a complete amateur so why do the pros seem to think its so difficult? most kit cars and dune buggies are gelcoated fiberglass and repaint /bodywork costs are not even in the same ballpark at most shops as a corvette. WHY? If I paid myself like $50 an hour it still wouldnt be anywhere close to what many of the shops are quoting and thats with the extra time it took me as an amateur.. My uncle worked at a body shop for years and he agreed its not always so much about covering the actual costs with profit but more about what you can get away with charging based on the stereotype/ profiling of the car owner. and those that dont use this philosophy simply end up overwhelmed with so much work they end up raising their priced due to that instead...
Now its been about 7 years since I painted the car and its not perfect (I have a couple small bubbles on the tops of the fenders likely from brake fluid contamination I failed to completely remove before the epoxy sealer and primers.)
You did a great job on that car. Do you happen to know how many hours it took?
Let's look at the $10K paint job that is the common benchmark on this Forum (though it's likely more, now). I'm sure some of it is the Corvette tax, and some of it is the reluctance of "traditional" paint and body folks to work on fiberglass. But most of it is just labor, and having a Corvette ($$$) made of fiberglass ($$$$$) kicks these cars up into the expensive, skilled labor category. The $10K paint job only covers 67 hours of labor at $150-/hour, and you still need to buy materials. If you do the prep yourself, you can save a LOT of money.
So, as with most things on these cars, you will come out way ahead if you do them yourself, and learning how to do it is part of the fun, too!
You did a great job on that car. Do you happen to know how many hours it took?
Let's look at the $10K paint job that is the common benchmark on this Forum (though it's likely more, now). I'm sure some of it is the Corvette tax, and some of it is the reluctance of "traditional" paint and body folks to work on fiberglass. But most of it is just labor, and having a Corvette ($$$) made of fiberglass ($$$$$) kicks these cars up into the expensive, skilled labor category. The $10K paint job only covers 67 hours of labor at $150-/hour, and you still need to buy materials. If you do the prep yourself, you can save a LOT of money.
So, as with most things on these cars, you will come out way ahead if you do them yourself, and learning how to do it is part of the fun, too!
I dont, but it wasnt as bad as everyone thinks. I worked on it for a few hours her and there over the course of 2 summers... if I had to guess id say maybe 80hrs. I dont make anywhere near 10k for 2 weeks work but my employer does charge $248 an hour for my skilled labor and even $200 an hour for my travel So I agree, doing it yourself of having a guy without ridiculous overhead do the work can = huge savings.
I dont understand what about fiberglass should make it more expensive than repairing a steel body.. That was my point, fiberglass repairs are much easier that repairing steel bodied vehicles.
I dont, but it wasnt as bad as everyone thinks. I worked on it for a few hours her and there over the course of 2 summers... if I had to guess id say maybe 80hrs. I dont make anywhere near 10k for 2 weeks work but my employer does charge $248 an hour for my skilled labor and even $200 an hour for my travel So I agree, doing it yourself of having a guy without ridiculous overhead do the work can = huge savings.
I dont understand what about fiberglass should make it more expensive than repairing a steel body.. That was my point, fiberglass repairs are much easier that repairing steel bodied vehicles.
I think you confirmed my estimate really well. ~80 hours, plus car storage for 2 years, plus some paint and supplies. Would you have done that for anyone else for only $10K? But your car has a $10K paint job, and looks awesome.
Absolutely, fiberglass is easier to work on, once you know what you are doing (or have boat experience, for example). But most cars are still made out of steel, so it goes into the specialty labor category.
Gel Coat Over Paint?
