Hi Roland
I've done a fair amount of glass work when I restored a 64 Corvette and the
Daimler. In the engine compartment of both the Daimler & Corvette I cleaned
the bad areas with laquer thinner, then laid more fibreglass resin and mat
to match the original fairly close after trimming away the loose stuff.
These were areas that had delaminated somewhat due to heat and oils.Then I
sprayed with epoxy primer and a high build laquer primer to fill in any
voids. Kept sanding and repeating prime until I had everything evened out,
then topcoated with a textured flat black laquer. It looked really sharp
although the Corvette "purests" wouldn't agree, but who cares what they
think.
I've not used a "gel coat" so I can't comment, but I just use regular resin
and mat you can buy at the autobody store. I had to rebuild most of the body
mounts and the entire door hinge areas on the Daimler and the stuff worked
nicely. The textured black is PPG DDL9321 (or 9328? memory is going along
with the hair!). It was used for the blacked out hoods on some of those
Chrysler muscle cars, so It holds up nicely.
Happy motoring
John
----- Original Message -----
From: Roland Dudley <cobra@cdc.hp.com>
To: <british-cars@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2000 12:11 PM
Subject: Fiberglass Refurbishing Advice Wanted
> Any Fiberglass experts out there? I want to refurbish the dreary
> looking footboxes on my snake. I plan to re-coat the insides with epoxy
> to replace the surface coat that the contact cement stripper I used
> removed. But that's the inside and won't be visible under the carpet,
> so doesn't have to look perfect. The outsides, visible in the engine
> compartment, are what I'd like to spruce up. As near as I can tell,
> they never had paint on them. They appear to be plain Fiberglass boxes
> made from loose glass fiber and white pigmented resin. I've looked
> through the vast array of Fiberglass care products sold by West Marine,
> but I don't know which to try. I was thinking maybe of slapping on a
> new outer coat of white pigmented resin. Is this the way to go? What
> would be good surface prep for this? I'm especially concerned about the
> scorched areas that were next to the exhaust headers.
>
> Roland
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