Ben Hart
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If the areas need any real strength, use resin and matting to repair it (not the cloth). Nothing else will give you the strenght you need, and you will not want the cracks to come through later.
To prep the damage, V it out slightly, so the damage is opened up (increasing surface area for the repair to bond to). grind the surrounding area at least several inches (to just expose the fiberglass). Then use a DA with coarse paper (80 grit) to feather back the paint/gel coat. The idea is that you need to open up enough bare fiberglass for your resin to adhere to. The resin should NOT go overtop of the gelcoat.
Use the glass matting and tear it (don’t cut nice sharp edges) into pieces adequate for the size of your repair. Use a paint brush to apply the resin mix to the part, then place on a piece of matting. Wet that completely with resin and apply another piece of matting (making sure to overlap the edge of the previous piece(s). Build up many layers making sure to overlap different edges every time, more random than structured. The repair should be a little thicker than needed, with no dry areas (all fibers should have resin, right to the very ends). And no bubbles, When you are applying the resin with the paint brush try dabbing it on (rather than brushing) this will prevent and help remove air bubbles.
After it has cured, you can carefully knock it down with a grinder until it is about uniform with the exisiting panel. Apply some good quality (standard) body filler and block smooth. When you are ready to prime, feather out the existing finish (Just gel coat?) and apply a good epoxy primer over you repair and any exposed fiberglass right upto the gelcoat. Then apply a good quality 2k urethane over the repair as you would prime any body job.
If you have problems with backing (if the damage is though in some spots) just about anything can be placed there to hold the resin in place until it cures. Some good materials to have are duct tape, aluminum tape, wax paper, scrap pieces of sheet aluminum (that can be bent to your contour and held in place during the repair)…etc
If you follow some crucial steps and have the tools and materials necessary, fiberglass repair can be fairly easy. Oh, and as a note, SMC resin is more expensive than glass resin. However, it uses cream hardener (just like filler) and can dry very fast. It is easy to use and adheres great to fiberglass. You may want to try it (just note that you CANNOT repair SMC with glass resin). For curing, you can use heat with either resin (such as a heat lamp, heater, heat gun etc), just be careful that you are not applying too much heat as it can boil the resin causing bubbles or even cause a fire.
Good luck
Happy Birthday :dnc
I know the owner of a shop in Calgary that is using Wanda. He likes it because of the price. The jobs they had there all looked good. The clear had a real nice finish to it. Talking to the painter, it sounds like it is easy to use. The biggest downfall was the lack of variants/colour match with some colours.
Probably not something I would want to use on a daily basis…
Great work, can’t complain about something that comes out like that!
I just did a door skin on an F-150.
I sprayed the Sikkens OTO undercoat on the door with the schutz gun (at the end of the day). In the morning I ran a DA with 400 over it to knock down the texture a bit and smooth out the sharp tape edge. Sealed, and painted. Matched pretty darn good, but was a fair bit of work.
Welcome to the site and congratulations on the new shop/business. Hopefully things look bright ahead for you.
…sorry to hear about that Sherwin williams thing though :p
[quote=”TheDoctor” post=24301]Everytime I buy paint I wait until the total is added, he tells me the price, then I ask, did you give me my 10%, haha. Then i get it.[/quote]
We get about 20% off “retail” for paint. Our shop supplies vary from about 10%-40% depending on the individual item.
Well…
the best way to repair it is to take the bumper off, repair and prep it then either blend the base (or base the whole bumper) then clear the whole thing.
If you want to do a spot repair, it will be a lot easier with a paint gun than with an aerosol can. You really need a lot of control (fluid, volume, pressure etc) to get the base and clear to blend out really nice.
If you are doing the whole thing with an aerosol can, I can’t help out too much. Best of luck to you in any case
Merry Christmas from up here. Hopefully the next year will be great for everyone.
[quote=”smooth” post=24250]Im gonna try going with a different system, but not planning on jumping into anything just yet. Jayson M is telling me that the Lesonal waterbase is great for the cost and is about 30-40% cheaper than the Nexa. Anyone else using the lesonal water? how is it? If i dont switch brands at least it will still give me some leverage on my jobber :woohoo:[/quote]
Haven’t used it. Their solvent was fantastic. My rep tells me that the water is very similar to the Autowave, just possibly a little more transparent. If that is the case, I am sure you will find it an easy transition from the Nexa, and with colour matches that are likely a little better.
Great job Nex.
There is always room for improvement, but honestly, for someone who isn’t a professional you are doing fantastic.
As far as the stone chips go, you did the right thing. Often, when you sand/grind them down you find a little corrosion in there, so filling them doesn’t really work in the long run. Only suggestion I have with that, though, is to feather them out a little more, or strip the whole hood.
I don’t envy that job at all…
I am sure it will be slick when its done though.Looks like great work. The painter did a great job (especially if all the batches match).
Bodywork looks great too, kinda interesting based on what you had to start with. What is that front bumper made out of?
Can’t imagine working on something for so long. I can hardly stand jobs that sit for a week.
Keep us posted as you get it finished up
So if I peel the label off my Superior 250, it’ll say DuPont 72200 on the can? Or will it say CarSystem? :blink:
[quote=”PAINTPOT” post=24171]AS above but i would prime the whole bumper to keep you blue mica a uniform color,[b]no need for flex additive in your primer ,no one really bothers any more[/b][/quote]
:huh: