Good Morning,
My 71 vette will be fully stripped so I'm starting with bare fiberglass and the original bonding adhesives. I plan on dishing out the bonding areas and filling the voids with Vette Panel Adhesive. I also have some other repairs that will be made using the West 105 system with either glass mat for the larger areas or 105 plus one of their powder additives. Most of this seems pretty straightforward to me even though I'm relatively new to bodywork, but here is my concern. I will have bare polyester fiberglass, original body panel adhesive, VPA, and West epoxy on the outside surface of the body. Evercoat Featherfill advertises great adhesion to bare fiberglass and I was hoping to shoot three wet coats so I could block the body until it's pretty slick, but what about those other products? Will it bond to them or do I need to hit those areas with epoxy primer first?

Eventually I hope to paint the car using PPG products including a coat of sealer followed by three wet coats of Single Stage Deltron Paint.

Steel body cars are easier. Proper cleaning and sanding...bury things with epoxy and you are good to go with a primer surfacer. Fiberglass and epoxy have me puzzled and I don't want to "Learn a hard lesson."

"Donor" front clip right after paint removal.

Lower valence will be replaced with an original one I already have.

Only hidden damage I found under the 9 coats of paint. That's right...9 full coats!

There are a few "nicks" on the panel edges I plan on repairing with the West 105 system.

Old repair that needs to be ground out and glassed on both sides. Bonding strip has separated, but it is still intact.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated,
Mark

 

Nice project! Agree metal and fiberglass paint & body guys are totally different; might as well be from Mars vrs Venus, ha!

My 2 cents and what I would do per experience:
do not know how stripped; if chemical, then wash, wash, wash cure in sun and a long time to dry. Razor blade and sand is best for me as less risk of contamination

Lars paint paper (ck here, Lars will mail you latest copy) AND SPI products, recomendations and tech paper "perfect paint job" is what I followed and did. (SPI has a great paint forum too)

So, lots of ways to do this, I talked with many pro painters, all adamant do it my way or suffer big time failure!

Me; if mine, I would repair fiberglass as you outlined with grind outs to good material, then mat/resin.
VPA where needed plus over bonding seams
Do body shaping and sanding as needed to get desired shape, this might require multiple VPA, 80grit blocking
sessions. I try to get it close to wanted final shape in this step as possible.

then 3 coats of SPI epoxy (see perfect paint job paper)
Next SPI 2K primer
next block with increasing grits to 400 for non Metallics 600 for metallics
then when no sand throughs, next SPI epoxy sealer coat, then base then clear ( or maybe your single stage paint)

hope this helps, what I would do and how I do it, lots of ways to do this. I know this way works.
all the best and Goodluck!

 

Thanks for your two cents. After reading your reply and speaking with a rep from Evercoat I think I'm going to pass on the West System Epoxy. If I use polyester based resin and cloth, Vette Panel Adhesive, Rage Ultra, and Featherfill G2 I should have a rock solid foundation for paint. Sometimes keeping things simple is best.
Thanks again,
Mark

 

Are you going to use "Vette Panel Adhesive" to glue or mate fiberglass SMC to metal frame? Just curious sounded like you know what youre talking about. What kind of panel bonding adhesive? Im looking for the panel bonding adhesive gm uses on the fiberglass rocker panels to the metal frame on c5 corvettes. Looks like blobs of black tar but i dont know the part number gm uses and how long you have to let it cure. GM has a cadilac xlr sideskirt fiberglass adhesive but not sure if its the same they use on the c5s fiberglass rocker panels glued to the bottom metal frame rail. I almost think any brand panel bonding adhesive thats used to glue fiberglass body panels to metal frame with a somewhat strong bond will work for me. I went over to the hot rod forum asked what they used for classics and bonding fiberglass panels to metal to hold their strength as if welded together.
I was told or 08115 which is similar would work for what i needed but have no experience with it. They then referred me to why not buy what gm uses to glue the rocker panels from the factory gm sells one package says for fiberglass cadillac xlr sideskirts and such not sure if same used on c5 corvettes from factory.

Nice classic project what is vette panel adhesive do you have a part number gm sells and is it same as the newer vette adhesive?

 

Hi Justin,
If it sounds like I know what I'm doing I guess I'm a quick learner and fortunately for me this forum is a treasure of good information. I try to read responses from forum masters like "DUB" because they deal with these cars and products on a daily basis, they have discovered what works, and they have plenty of evidence to support it. From what I understand the Vette Panel Adhesive (Evercoat makes it) is one of the better products to use after grinding out the factory bonding lines and tapering the fiberglass panels back a bit. It should prevent those lines from showing through the paint in the future. Think of it as a body filler/adhesive on steroids. I just bonded the headlight support bar to the underside of the nose using and epoxy product from SEM. It was #39747 and having a 90 minute working time made it easy to work with and adjust. I'm dealing with polyester fiberglass and if I'm not mistaken you have a car made from SMC. Those are different beasts so I would get on SEM's website, or 3M's and read the literature for their bonding agents. They do a good job describing their products especially related to the materials they are specifically designed to join. Read carefully and I know you will be able to pick the right product to use, but make sure you follow their prep directions so you only have to do this once. Cleanliness and roughing up the surfaces are so very important for the SEM product I used.

Trust me, if you don't follow the directions for these things you will regret it. I made a mistake painting my classic Camaro and ended up having to strip the paint off to start over. That was a hard lesson to learn.

Good Luck,
Mark

 

You could also consider Fusor T21 adhesive which bonds to both SMC and metal. Try it you'll like it

RVZIO

 

First - nice car
- There is NO reason to epoxy prime the car
NONE
Waste of primer and time
I posted a while back about the differences in primers - you can do a search
If your car was at my shop - we would polyester prime the car AFTER all the repairs are done
Use a GOOD quality polyester primer - I have had great success with Glasurit or Spies
The PPG polyester is on the thin side
But regardless - 3 good coats - polyester primer
Block that with 180 up to 400
Re prime with 2k primer
Block that to 600
Sealer
I would highly recommend base clear - more forgiving and easier to blend and match etc....
I hope this helps
This is the steps I use on every car - repeatable and successful

 

For repairs - stick with VPA
V groove your cracks and bonding strip areas
Body work with Rage Ultra filler
If you need to bond panels together use 3M panel bond
Do all your body work to bare clean glass
Primer after all your body work is done

 

Hi Csherman,
Thanks for sharing some valuable input. I certainly need it. I'm starting to get a handle on dealing with fiberglass and it certainly is a different beast.
Here is my plan:

• Strip to bare glass.
• Resin/Glass Mat where needed
• VPA the four main panel seams (Fenders & Quarters)
• Rage Ultra bodywork
• 3 full wet coats Polyester
• Block till my arms won't work
• 2K primer
• Final block
• Sealer
• Finish Paint

Most of this will start in the Spring. Right now I do have the entire nose stripped, but I'm focusing on making all of the mechanical repairs.
Thanks again,
Mark

 

Mark
Great plan
Good to see you strip to bare glass - and strip front side and back sides and underneath - everything
I blast mine - but my bodies are all on carts
Make sure to address ALL cracks - no matter how small - v groove them and fill with VPA or Resin and glass
Great plan sir
If you need help let me know
You will block this thing so much you will be intimate will all its curves

Chris

 

Prep it and let a pro shoot it! As far as PPG a good product but one must have a lot of experience with it! My son just had a rare VW bus shot by a so called painter and what a mess runs, over laps,. Edges were bubbly and jambs not painted.He did not receive a good mark from a professional car buyer of exotics! Lars had a well written article on paint read it. Down load PPG they can help also. Good Luck!