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A little history. The car was painted once probably back around 1979. It looks like it was scuffed and then repainted.
(The paint is now very patina but I'm okay with that for now.)
As far as I can see from underneath the car it appears not to have had any body damage other than the lower front valance took a hit maybe a concrete parking stop.
I repaired the front lower Valance and am going to rebond it back in place, then attempt to blend together the new and old paint at the bumper line (for now) as I'm not ready to move on to the entire car. I figure at least this area will have been repaired.
Regarding paint removal my plan is to remove whatever i should then apply 2k urethane sealer, sand smooth and apply a single stage PPG Omni paint. (base and clear coat when I do the whole car)
On the driver side I lightly sanded the first coat of paint away and then used lacquer thinner to remove the final coat of orange paint. What is left is the factory Gray and below that maroon paint. The factory grey has a slight shine to it and appears very smooth. On the passenger side I removed all the paint down to the fiberglass via razor blade then lacquer thinner. That surface with all the paint removed appears to be a rougher less ideal surface??
See pics below
Should I strip the final factory grey & maroon paint? And why?
I would
Strip it to bare glass
Strip it to the bare substrate - why - its like building a house - you want a good solid foundation
If not - anything you put over the top has the potential to fail - if there is issue with anything underneath, anything on top will fail.
Not only that it will now gives you the option on going in and reworking the bonding seams so when you are all said and done and in the future you do not have the areas where the bonding seams telegraph up though what you shot on it and show back up.
What you choose to put on or spray on the bare fiberglass has been discussed here on the forum in numerous threads so I will leave it up to you...and get on my 'high horse" and try to force feed you anything due to there are different ways to do this and we all have our own proven methods that work for those of us who do this for a living and have to guarantee our work and not have it come back...along with numerous members who did their own car and did it differently and had very good results in their method which can differ from what a person who does it daily would do.
Okay, my reading though this forum all seem to indicate this to be the method I was just concerned with the surface being rougher.
I mentioned “then apply 2k urethane sealer, sand smooth and apply a single stage PPG Omni paint. (base and clear coat when I do the whole car)”.
Would this still be acceptable now that I am going to take it down to bare fiberglass?
What are the options to seal it back up?
This is certainly an area that I am not very knowledgeable about.
Here is how I would do you car if it were in my shop.
I would get it stripped and do all body work and seam reworking using Vette Panel Adhesive. If major repairs are needed that I know the VPA could not repair all by itself... would apply mat and resin
I would apply a gelcoat to the required thickness....block it down...then apply a polyester primer and block it and get it ready for paint. Then I would apply my sealer and paint the car regardless if it is single stage or basecoat /clearcoat.
Doing it in the manner I do it does require a paint gun that can successfully apply the gelcoat and polyester primer due to they are so thick. Because using the paint gun that you would use to shoot the paint ...the needle and nozzle size is more than likely too small.
Some people may or may not want to go through that process and added expense and find using current 2K primers give them a result they can live with.
You are going to spend a lot of time and some money on this project. Do it right! My project is a '64 that I stripped and painted. It was stripped to the glass, gel coat, epoxy primer, 2K primer/surfacer, sealer, then single stage urethane. I recommend you follow DUB's advice for the long haul.
Strip it to bare glass. No need to gel coat any more. Use a polyester primer. I use Duratech. block sand and apply as needed. use a sealer before color coat. no matter single stage or 2 stage. us recommended sealer.
No need to gel coat any more. Use a polyester primer. I use Duratech. block sand and apply as needed. use a sealer before color coat. no matter single stage or 2 stage. us recommended sealer.
Clearly an opinion here and you are free to express it. But it is kind of funny how Duratech still sells gelcoat for a reason.... due to polyester primer....no matter how you slice it.....is not gelcoat. Roughly 35% of the polyester primers volume is talc ...while the gelcoat it is about 2% talc.
Not that this matters to anyone...but just so we are clear...they are not the same. And if a person feels that gelcoating a Corvette is not worth it...then they can do as they wish. Like I have written before.....there are different ways of doing it but at least get facts straight and not totally dismiss a product due to your opinion is that it is no longer needed by written that it is no longer needed. Because the capabilities of gelcoat in regards to water/moisture and being a protective barrier is greater than that of a polyester primer. This has been proven in some 2K primers (for example) where the percentage of resin is 75% with 25% talc and that primer is really good and provides better characteristics and is better than the primer that has 75% talc and only 25% resin.
It is like a Grade 5 bolt and a Grade 8 bolt. Both will bolt something together. But a Grade 8 bolt may need to be used in a specific area where the Grade 5 is not good enough. Because why would we have different grades of bolts if they are not needed. Same holds true to gelcoat and polyester primer or any other type of primer for that matter.. It is all up to the person choosing what they want.
Never said gel coat and polyester are the same. Gel coat is made as the undercoat of a fiberglass mold. So it's a top coat of the mold release. Gel coat cures in the absence of air. If you have a product that needs a gel coat repair dura tech makes a product called sun shield. All products serve a purpose. And when used correctly work correctly. I do composite work for a museum everyday. We are a private collection and race in a vintage race series. So I get plenty of seat time not to mention the 35 years in the industry. Say what ever you want. I stand by my statement no need to gel coat when using polyester. 1962 lotus elite i just finished up. All fiberglass uninodu car Porsce 908 / 2 i just finished in fall. One of 5 orginal 1963 grand sport corvette. All glass cars all restored all glass. Do it your way if you thonl your right.
AWESOME WORK on some really awesome cars. And I am SERIOUS about that. All I can say is HELL YEAH to being able to work on those type of cars all the time.
But not everybody's Corvette is going to be in a museum for the rest of tis life.
YES. gelcoat is used for molds but can also used for exterior purposes if PVA is applied to it to keep air from it so it can cure....as you know. Nothing new here on that.
Not going to get into a keyboard battle with you on this because gelcoat may not be needed in your scenario....which is fine. But I was just stating.... that making a statement that gelcoat is no longer needed...is your opinion which differs from mine.
And I never wrote that you said that gelcoat and polyester primer are the same. How you got that out of what I wrote makes no sense to me because I did not say you said it..
Once again ..in case it was missed in what I wrote in my previous post...the choice is up to you. And if a person reads what I wrote in POST # 5 ( third paragraph) where I am using polyester primer on top of the gelcoat. So it is not like I am not aware of its capabilities. I do it the wayI wrote it due to the cars I work on get driven and are subjected to freezing weather, the sun, oil blow by and other road/environmental contaminants....which is clearly not the same as a car in a controlled environment in a museum. Which is NOT a bad thing...but it is clearly different. Which is why I choose to use gelcoat for (in my opinion) the added protection. And how many people who keep their car in a garage and when they take it out in the sun it has problems in the body and paint due to it getting hot. There are many threads here that prove that fact where a Corvette was redone and left in a garage for months during the winter thinking that it is curing out and when it comes out for the first time in the hot sun it has paint issues right off the bat. . And I am NOT implying that your work would fail if put in the sun. Just proving a fact that temperature change does effect body and paint. As you also know.
And not that it matters. I have been doing this just as long as you have starting in 1982 and have seen the progression of products and materials come up from the days of red oxide lacquer primer and the inception of PPG's DP 40 when it first came out. and Deltron DBU....Evercoats 'Featherfill' just to name a few. So I am not a 'newbie' to this at all either.
Keep up your obviously good work worthy of being top flight museum quality. Not everyone can say they do what you do for a living and I wish I could. But my work is seen at car shows/gatherings and just plain out on the road.
AWESOME WORK on some really awesome cars. And I am SERIOUS about that. All I can say is HELL YEAH to being able to work on those type of cars all the time.
But not everybody's Corvette is going to be in a museum for the rest of tis life.
YES. gelcoat is used for molds but can also used for exterior purposes if PVA is applied to it to keep air from it so it can cure....as you know. Nothing new here on that.
Not going to get into a keyboard battle with you on this because gelcoat may not be needed in your scenario....which is fine. But I was just stating.... that making a statement that gelcoat is no longer needed...is your opinion which differs from mine.
And I never wrote that you said that gelcoat and polyester primer are the same. How you got that out of what I wrote makes no sense to me because I did not say you said it..
Once again ..in case it was missed in what I wrote in my previous post...the choice is up to you. And if a person reads what I wrote in POST # 5 ( third paragraph) where I am using polyester primer on top of the gelcoat. So it is not like I am not aware of its capabilities. I do it the wayI wrote it due to the cars I work on get driven and are subjected to freezing weather, the sun, oil blow by and other road/environmental contaminants....which is clearly not the same as a car in a controlled environment in a museum. Which is NOT a bad thing...but it is clearly different. Which is why I choose to use gelcoat for (in my opinion) the added protection. And how many people who keep their car in a garage and when they take it out in the sun it has problems in the body and paint due to it getting hot. There are many threads here that prove that fact where a Corvette was redone and left in a garage for months during the winter thinking that it is curing out and when it comes out for the first time in the hot sun it has paint issues right off the bat. . And I am NOT implying that your work would fail if put in the sun. Just proving a fact that temperature change does effect body and paint. As you also know.
And not that it matters. I have been doing this just as long as you have starting in 1982 and have seen the progression of products and materials come up from the days of red oxide lacquer primer and the inception of PPG's DP 40 when it first came out. and Deltron DBU....Evercoats 'Featherfill' just to name a few. So I am not a 'newbie' to this at all either.
Keep up your obviously good work worthy of being top flight museum quality. Not everyone can say they do what you do for a living and I wish I could. But my work is seen at car shows/gatherings and just plain out on the road.
DUB
I'm sure you do quality work as well. Yes I can tell by your replies that you know what your talking about.. Not looking for a key board battle either. We may have lost the OP along the way with an over load of information. Keep up the good work and helping others with quality information. As that is rare in itself. A lot of arm chair quarterbacks on the internet. Giving bad advise. I see it more times than I ever see good advice given.
I'm sure you do quality work as well. Yes I can tell by your replies that you know what your talking about.. Not looking for a key board battle either. We may have lost the OP along the way with an over load of information. Keep up the good work and helping others with quality information. As that is rare in itself. A lot of arm chair quarterbacks on the internet. Giving bad advise. I see it more times than I ever see good advice given.
Thanks ...and as you also know it can also be a persons perspective on how they do things. So hopefully no hard feelings.. And for what it is worth. .I ENVY you. I really do. Mainly because you can put your heart and soul into your work and see a flawless job sitting there that has to pass the test of being under good lighting ....which I know shows up every flaw...and not worry about it coming back in few months with a rock chip or where shopping cart hit it and have to repair it.. Which I also I know you more than likely will agree....fixing a damaged area on a job that was flawless...is often times 10 times harder than doing it the first time and have it hold out and not ever show up again. No matter how many times you infrared heat the repair and cure it.....TIME will let you know if it was done right or not. Or at least on the jobs I do that are outside...it will let me know in a heartbeat if I got it right.
01-16-2019, 08:49 PM
Strip the final Factory grey & maroon paint?
