Gel-Kote by Evercoat

[John Mcgraw]

Ray,
I have allways used the Ecklers Gelcoat, which has the wax in it. I allways spray the Gelcoat out in one process. If you need to spray another coat with this type of gelcoat after it has started to cure, you would need to sand off the waxy layer that forms on the top. I use PVA and conventional gelcoat for making fiberglass parts from molds, but have never used it for curing the gelcoat after spraying. If evercoat's system uses this process, then I would probably consider that system. Removing the wax on Ecklers material has allways been the great pain in using it. The real advantage of PVA is that it is completely soluable in water, and can be removed with a nice, warm water scrubbing. I may have to look at Evercoat's Gelcoat on my next car! I am just creature of habbit, and have stuck with the Ecklers product because it has worked, but If I could get comparable results with the Evercoat product, I would use it in a minute. I have used their primer/surfacers and fillers for years, and have never had a bad result.
One little peice of advice, When you are spraying any of the polyester products, do not spray it from any gun that would break your heart to throw away! I had some Evercoat Featherfill set up in a great Binks #7 gun several years ago, that I had owned for years and ruined the gun. In real hot weather, or if you catalyze it too heavy, the stuff can set up in a flash.
I was spraying along, and saw the gun sputter a couple of times and spit some globs of surfacer. By the time I took my respirator off and opened up the gun, it was too late to save it. I now use a cheap Home Depot Cambell Hussfeild gun to shoot all polyester products. It aint going to break my heart to throw a $35 gun in the trash!

Regards, John McGraw

 

[John Mcgraw]

Hey Larry,
Call Schemershiems, and order some 1958 fender supports. These go under the windsplit moulding fastners, and go a long way to stiffen up the fender tops. They are making them in black fiberglass and they are probably just about as good as the metal one that were used originally. Vette Products made some metal Repro's for quite a while, but the curve of theirs did not match the underside of the fenders very good. The fiberlgass ones fit much better and really add some ridigity to the fender tops. It is only about a half hour job to install then and is worth the investment.

Regards, John McGraw

 

[65-to-00]

it's been a long time but..

When I stripped my 65', I remember going through a layer of what appeared to be a "sprayed red lead" .... and then POSSIBLY a thin gel .. mostly I remember the red stuff.

It took weeks and gallons of stripper to get off.

The local supplier and our "resident expert" said .... "lots of primer sanded in between"

BULL ****!

The project was a disaster. Had a lot of trouble with the paint and flaking.

A year later the paint looked great with 20 coats and then clear added but when I saw the car two years later .... the stuff was falling off again.

Can't tell you WHAT TO DO ..... but be real careful and do it right.

 

[61 Silver]

65-to-00

The red was the original red oxide primer. That would have been covered with a gray primer. Chemical stripper will not remove the red oxide with out a lot of labor. I wet sanded the red oxide off rather than using the strip. I had a similar problem with the paint on my Glen Green 65 and believed it was caused by the strip. There should be a few post on the subject in the archives.

Ray