Roaring Forties # 61

[Bill Hara]

Thanks Pete

The colour is a made up colour, I had the general idea of what I wanted to do but Allan did his magic to make it all come together. The pictures obviously never do a colour justice but there is definately an emerald green in the black that will only come out in the sun. There are also some specks of gold that come out too, don't know if you can pick that in the photos.

As far as painting your car every 10 years, I think that would be fantastic if it lasts that long. I'm talking about an expensive job that cracks up after 1 or 2 years. That wouldn't be so much fun.....

[ChrisL]

Pete, you might be able to confirm (or otherwise) what I have been told. As I understand it, doing a quality repaint of a fibreglass bodied car is not as simple as a repaint of a metal bodied car. The divide between primer and body is not so distinct so removing the old stuff is generally a careful process of manually sanding off the top layer till you start seeing body.

[Pete.]

Chris, sorry I can't help. Anything I have had repainted (mostly boats)I have sent to the paint shop for the experts to do. I imagine that it would not be to different from prepping metal. Although when sanding back you would have to be careful not to cut through the gel coat.

[Allan T Knight]

Your information is spot on chris,stripping a metal body is relativley simple compared to fibreglass,a metal body can be stripped by either chemical or mechanical means and only cause minimal damage to the substrate.Fibreglass on the other hand is much more difficult,and is generally done by hand,which as you can imagine is a very tedious and time consuming job.I have had a vette body plastic bead blasted once at the request of the vehicle owner,however the work that was then required to get the body up to an acceptable standard was around the 200hrs mark,and this did not include painting only having the car in primer.For anyone considering stripping a fibreglass body do your homework and speak to as many people as you can who have a working knowledge of fibreglass. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif[/img]

[Bill Hara]

Hopefully neither I nor anyone else will be stripping the paint of my car in the next 10 years!!!
I'll keep the build progressing by showing you some photos of stage 1 of any good paint job / body prep - getting rid of the high stress seams.

[Bill Hara]

and another one

[Bill Hara]

and another de-seaming shot

[Bill Hara]

front clip

[Bill Hara]

rear clip profile

[Bill Hara]

I call this the ugly stage. Visually the body has crap all over it and you almost feel like it has gone back a step. The truth is, this is a vital step in getting the finished product to look straight.
The very next step utilised on my car was a polyester sealer - liquid filler. This stuff is a 2 pak application that goes rock hard, seals the fibreglass, fills in minor imperfections and shows up any weak areas in the fibreglass. Amazing stuff - just don't have a camera operating whilst this stuff is being applied. If it gets on your lens, throw the camera away. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[Peter D]

Bill, that is not the ugly stage - its all coming together beautifully ! I agree with you on the polyester sealer - it is the "magic bullet" for f/glass. It goes against the grain to really whack it on (thoughts of all that extra sanding), but more is better. I made the mistake of being a bit stingy in laying it on & thinning it a bit much (not surprising at around $100/litre) & reaped the rewards - over 200 pin-holes revealed after blocking back the black guide-coat ! Heaps more work to fix all that than just blocking back a really solid coat of filler - one lives & one learns !

It looks like Allan has laid on a nice thick coat (maybe he's been down this road before !), so you will end up with a damn nice job.

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

[Dan Weilacher]

Great pics Bill, thanks. From your pics you elected to lightly remove the surface area of the seam just below the top level , and refill to avoid a line setting in ? It looks like you used standard body filler to skim coat the areas, correct ? Thanks again, Dan

[lukester]

Has anyone the suspension info blueprints to the roaring forties car?

[Bill Hara]

Peter
By ugly stage, I was referring to the previous photo, the one with the seams filled in - different colours etc. The photo with the rear clip in polyester looks a million bucks!
Polyester is awesome and I don't think you did the wrong thing by putting it on thin to start with. The pin-holes would just have been masked by the thicker coat and would eventually have come through to the final coat. By filling them at this stage and then re-applying a thicker polyester coat, you seal the body without pin-holes. Admittedly it means a hell of a lot more rubbing, but worthwhile.

Dan
The seam is removed in a wide v-groove (130 degrees - approx) for 50-70% of the joint depth. This is removed to move the tension area as far away from the surface as possible. Body filler is top grade Standox, not sure of the codes, but it is used for the bulk filling needed. Once it is shaped, the polyester goes on and the seams are / should be invisible.

Lukester

I doubt you'll find any manufacturer keen enough to put their blueprint designs on the internet. The only reason anybody would want blueprints is to copy the design. Whether you copy for personal use or for commercial use is irrelevant to the owner of those blueprints, as they are a part of his livelihood. The manufacturer would prefer you to buy from them, however you can, as some on this forum are doing, build your own chassis using photos and design books to get what you want.
I'm probably being presumptuous speaking on RF's behalf, maybe Robert or Hershal can chime in here, but I doubt they would want that sort of information floating around in the ether. That being said, look around this forum, there are a hell of alot of threads covering this topic, some very technical, with drawings and explanations of what they are doing. It would be worthwhile informing yourself and asking the members here on their opinion of your designs.

Best of luck.

Cheers

Bill.

[Reinhard H.]

Hello Bill, great pictures!!

Did you use regular body filler or high strenght filler (with short strand fiberglass) for the seams?
What brand is the polyester sealer - cannot find any info about this product here in Germany.
How did you apply the sealer? It looks like it was rolled on.

Kind regards,

Reinhard

[Bill Hara]

Hi Reinhard

All systems were Standox, there was no fibreglass filler used in the seams. Check out this site as it has some information.
http://www.standox.com.au/aboutus/ne...e_20040801.htm

The body filler is mixed (filler and hardener) in the correct ratios, then applied using a plastic applicator. Based on your level of skill, you may only have to fill it once, however it may take some people many attempts. Dust free and moisture free environments are required. Once your filler has dried, sand and shape as required and then apply the polyester as a sprayed system (once you have extracted all the dust.)

Standox I think is a German company, so you should be able to find plenty of information. They are the largest automotive paint supplier in Europe and have been around for over 50 years.

Hope this helps


Bill.

[Reinhard H.]

Hello Bill,

thank you very much for your info. We also use the Standox products here - very high quality…..and price.
For the seams I use either mat and resin or body filler with short strand fiberglass because we have found that the regular body filler tends to crack under stress.

Was the "Standox 2K-Easy Filler" the product you have used to seal the body? I am a little surprised because of the gloss of the coating – the filler and sealer we get from Standox here are all flat or semi flat.

Kind regards,

Reinhard

[Bill Hara]

Reinhard

I'll have to check with my painter Allan, as I'm not sure exactly which filler he used.

Bill.

[Allan T Knight]

Hi Reinhard
the primer filler that was used is Standox HS System Filler,and the coating appears very high in gloss because it was only just applied and still wet when the photo was taken
Regards Al [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif[/img]