Help! Primer or gelcoat for my 61

[61vette]

I had my 61 soda blasted Friday. It looks great, but don't know what to use next. The body has some places that really need lots of filler primer or gelcoat. Thanks Ace

 

[Tom Bryant]

There are lots of opinions on this. Gel coat was not used at the factory but it does have it's place when refinishing old fiberglass such as when someone got too egressive with blasting. I have seen some real messes before.

I have never gel coated as I feel that a good epoxy primer will seal quite well. On some rough areas with exposed fiberglass strands I will simply brush on some resin to seal in the strands. It is a lot less work than gel coating the whole thing. Once sealed with epoxy primer a few coats of primer/surfacer will usually yeild a smooth surface.

Tom

 

[porch dog]

i use nothing but epoxy for surfacing . but beware of the soda. if not totally neutralized it will cause some serious paint failure.

 

[61vette]

Thanks Tom and Porch Dog. I had a painter tell me that you had to gell coat car after stripping paint. I just did not think that gellcoating was right. Thanks again for your comments. Ace

 

[porch dog]

gel coating was big in the 60's and early 70's. at the time there were no products that would hide bodywork . gel coat would do this but after time it would spider web and crack. gel coat is useless without mat . polyesters came along and did a so so job but epoxy has proven to be the best for resurfacing degraded glass. but not all epoxies are the same . many are full of fillers and fail . spi is the best i have found. the test was done on the 57 restomod i just finished . body was badly degraded and had a ton of repair. it was shot in dec07 and it has now sat in the sun for hours and has 0 shrinkage or die back. it was resurfaced with epoxy , ppg concept ss color, then 6 coats of spi universal clear .