When i was stripping my car i started with the razor method. I had problems of digging into the fiberglass too(not as bad) but still made tiny scratches and divots were i had to remove the loose stuff.

I gave up on that because it was just giving me more areas i had to repair. I ended up using stripper and finishing off with sanding. the panels are clean and was much easier.

 

Here's another location I worked on with a similar method. I was using the heat gun to get the paint soft and I was able to scrape it down to the red oxide. I stay away from a couple work on areas as well. I figured this would be a good location to check to see if I was really goobering panels up and possibly delaminating them all together.



So I went to investigate further. I started sanding leftover blue paint mainly around the worked on areas. I sanded with 120.



These are smaller repairs but are at best just spots filled with filler. I'll leave those for body guy to handle. The fiberglass itself looks ok here but I guess it began the question. If it looks ok, could I have still done some long term damage?



I knew while blading I had gouged here and there. I can run my hand over it and feel em. Above is a picture of some of my more glaring missteps . If I read correctly in the past this is a fill with VPA situation right?

I appreciate the concern and direction. I do honestly want to do things right. If I need to just sand to keep things safe that's what I'll do. As always any review and feedback is appreciated

John

 

YES...the VPA is what you can use to fix any surface problems.

I know you know you are in for a lot of effort to get the paint off this. I wish your wife would reconsider allowing oyu to use the chemical...it will save you a butt-load of time.

DUB

 

It's an understandable concern. I'm still considering just Turfing it over to my body guy so he can do it with the chemical and just charge me what he's going to charge me. As far as that back panel does it look like I have any delaminating issues or would there even be a way to tell?

 

I am lost...you need to be more specific. You need to point to the area of concern when taking the photo IF you have a concern.

DUB

 

My apologies. Earlier you were saying you were concerned that I was using too much heat and potentially delaminating a lot of the areas I was working on. I think you were basing it off of that one area that had the gnarly crack underneath the "repaired" body work.

I just wanted to make sure that I didn't do any further damage and that's why I gave a picture of the back panel up to the point that I had it or was mostly free of any primer. On that panel itself there's not really any real problematic delamination issues that a guy could see correct?

 

It is hard to say IF you did any damage due to excessive heat with the heat gun.

Back in the day... I screwed up some areas on one due to not paying attention and I cooked the fiberglass and it showed up later in the body when I put it outside in the sun and applied heat from my infra-red heater.

So...by your photos..I cannot say with 100% certainty that you are good or not. It looks good....but so did the areas I screwed up.

DUB

 

Roger that. I'll keep an eye out. Thanks for the heads up on potential concerns though.

 

Here's an update. It really doesn't feel like much of one due to slow progress. It seems like any direction I work in the back is filler. A lot of cracks under the filler. To my untrained eye only a few repairs attempted to use fiberglass techniques to mend.









My new consternation it's centered around the tail light panel up to the deck. In the second to last picture you can see a parrallel cut above the tail light that runs through the center of the upper deck.

​​​​​​I think someone cut that and pushed it up. I couldn't tell you why it her than to maybe make it easier to contour their repair above? I dunno. I still need to settle down and let my body guy look at it. But I'm starting to think it's new quarters and a tail light panel at least.

 

Not that you asked and I will let you know this. Knowing that you do not do this stuff for a living...I know from at least the photos you posted on the rear taillight panel...I WOULD NOT replace it. It is reparable.

I have worked on and repaired some that makes this one look perfect.

If you look at you last photo...you can see the bonding strip..and how the mat and resin someone applied is ON the bonding strip...and above it and what is below it looks like they were just messy. So..that is why I feel the taillight panel is OK. The damage is above the bonding strip....and you do not want to replace that panel.

And seeing how I do this stuff...prepping the inside of this damaged are is NOT a big deal...especially with you having it on a body...heck...that makes it MUCH easier.

Laminating the mat and resin on the inside will provide the strength/reinforcement..and then what is done on the exterior is more for the shape and contours.

As for your quarters...do not freak out about them because I have also stripped paint off of Corvettes that had a butt-load of crappy filler in the and when I ground them down..they were not that bad and actually the bodyman who applied the body filler went hog crazy and did not need to apply what they did and as much as they did.

And hopefully this comment possibly helps you possibly feel better and not seem so overwhelmed...When I look at what you have going on....I have not even raised an eyebrow yet. Meaning..I have seen it before and it is not that bad to someone who deals with it. And TRUST ME..if I see something that is going to be a ROYAL PAIN to repair..I would let you know.

NOW...if you and your bodyman want to rip off the rear clip and put new panels or a full rear clip...that is your choice but that is NOT going to be easy either.

DUB

 

I appreciate the thoughts. I was asking that very question in so many words actually. Hopefully I do have a guy who can do good work and make sure it's a good foundation for the rest of it. Having somebody seasoned who has seen this before and not be necessarily put off by it does encourage me a little bit.

Not that I thought the car was Immaculate underneath all of that primer, it is just kind of a shame to keep digging and find all the stuff that you didn't know was there.

I'll keep everybody updated as I progressed on what I find. And what my body guy thinks. Cuz I don't want to do any work that's unnecessary of course.

 

the plus side of corvettes is that almost anything can be repaired depending on what you want. some insist on panel replacement which is fine on their dime. when i wrecked my 65 many years ago i made sure i found every piece of it . in my early days replacement parts were oem only and very expensive . we learned to make repair pieces and put them back together . i would much rather patch up a vette than a rust bucket .

 

YEP..I have stripped paint off of panels that did not show any evidence of it being repaired because the repair was at least shaped and contoured correctly. So I know what you mean on finding 'stuff' that just appears when you remove the paint. It happens more times that you might think...so hopefully you do not let it discourage you.


BOY...do I agree with that. much like you 'porchdog'...we can fix a metal bodied cars with a butt load of rust...but that takes different repair procedures. But...on a fiberglas bodied car and dealing with fiberglass/SMC panels...takes different procedures.....WHICH....I prefer to do myself also.

Cracks and delaminaiton in fiberglass/SMC panels is one thing...but RUTS...is some relentless stuff and has to (or should) be dealt with correctly or it will come back.

DUB

 

feel free to PM or email me, interested and would like to set up a call. Did you have a contact for shipping or was that someone else on the thread? Also- if I chose not to fly out (from Indy), would you be comfortable w escrow?

 

Are you posting this on the correct thread???

DUB

 

I believe this to be a spam account....

 

I talked to a Body Guy in my area whos partly interested in doing the job. He has done Corvettes in the past and deals in fiberglass a lot. He looked at some pictures of my car and I tried to convey the type of damage as well as I could. He gave me this response.

"Yea looks pretty normal best thing to do is strip it redo the seams epoxy it and put it into polyester primer"

My question is, is polyester primer what I'm supposed to have ran on this thing or is there something else altogether?

 

The guy that you plan on taking it to is correct...or at least in my opinion. I would apply an epoxy primer after it has been stripped down to bare SMC and the apply a polyester primer.

Primers are made in many different types ...so...your question really does not matter because a person could apply a lacquer primer like what was on it from the factory which has been greatly surpassed by current types of primers that can provide a much better end result and capabilities. And with that....a polyester primer is a really stout primer and has awesome filling capabilities where other 2K primers would take many many more coats to achieve the film thickness and still not have the benefits that the polyester primer has. Not saying that 2K primers are bad...they are different.

DUB

 

Thanks for the response. He's coming by this week to get a full picture of what he'd be dealing with. He wants the car soon so he can do the fiberglass repair on the floorboards. He'll then give it back to me and I'll mate it back to the frame. After that he can get to work on the rest of it.

 

Sounds like a good plan...but I think once he sees the issue at the upper rear clip area...he might re-think leaving that til the body is back on the frame. He might deal with that as the same time when it is on the body support becasue with the body being off the frame...that rear repair does not matter and can be done at that time.

DUB