Painting fiberglass car question

[hottvr]

Would like to repaint my fiberglass TVR. Never painted fiberglass before. To prep, would I use a D.A. sander, sand blaster, aircraft stripper, or something else?
Rick

 

[Deleted member 3577]

I am no authority on the subject however, good body men strongly discourage chemical strippers. They prefer to sand off the old paint. I have never seen the potentially disastrous results of sand blasting.

 

[R6MGS]

We blew-in a rear fender of the 73 Corvette last fall....sanded it all down(I would never sand blast it!), and had intentions of buying proper fiberglass primer...until we saw the price....ended up using regular primer in it worked fine(so far).

Zack

 

[Hayfever]

Rick, if you're on the usa-tvr mailing list then you probably saw pictures of mine, #3261TM that just came back from paint (after 1.5 years, 2 painters, and too much money). That was done with a DA, hand blocks, and a lot of time. Some body shops will tell you that it can be sandblasted, but DON'T. These shops are used to "plastic" cars, not hand laid fiberglass. I talked with someone who blasted their hand-laid car and managed to rip the body to shreds. If you are taking it down to the bare fiberglass you may find that the body is filled with millions (or so it seems) of tiny pin-pricks. This is from air bubbles escaping as the body cured. Get West Marine epoxy and coat the body with it. Another TVR owner suggested it and it worked beautifully.

 

[spritenut]

I redid the vintage (1960) speedwell fiberglass nose for my Sprite a couple years ago. I actually reskined the whole thing. It was custom by crash when I bought it and just stressed out big time. But for basic repainting, sand the glass, do not blast it. Use the fiberglass filler/primer and brush it on heavy, to fill all the pin holes. let it sit for a week or so. This is important as it shrinks with time. Hand block sand with 400 grit and paint it. Other than the special primer, it's not much different than metal.
My brother is in the boat building business and guided me thru all the steps.