what color is the gel coat?

[corvette66]

What color is the gel coat?
My 69 is about ready for primer. I scraped most the old paint off with a razor blade. Funny that it took off all the old paint and it's primer. But left a much harder lighter colored grey primer behind, Hardly even nicked it. Is this the original primer? I had to sand the car in many spots to remove some of the hard to get paint. I sanded right down to a black/charcoal colored surface. When wet you can see small fibers in the surface. But it's very hard and tough. Not easy to sand into this black area. Is this the gel coat? Or did i go tooo far

Is there a particular way to prep that stuff before primer? Or is there a particular type of primer i should use? I have never removed this many layers on any vette i've painted in the past. All new to me. Any ideas?

 

[JohnZ]

You went too far - the "black area" with fibers in the surface is the original fiberglass substrate. There was never any gelcoat on any Corvette body panel from the factory (except in '53 and early '54).

 

[corvette66]

"went to far" Yeah i kinda thought so. Will it be ok to just spray over it?

 

[Wayne robson]

primer

Hello Corvette66,yes you can , but the correct procedure is to have those areas that you went though, built up with one , two, or three coats of polyester based primer, sanded .until it is smooth then it will be ready for undercoating.something you can do your self if you are not going to do your own paint job is there is a good selection of etching primers in spray can forms, sherwyn williams makes a good one, and you would probably only need 2 or 3 cans to complete your vette where you went before undercoating, regards wayne.

 

[corvette66]

thanx wayne
Yes i am planing on painting my own car. At this point I have about 3 different layers showing in random places. 1: the fiberglass 2: factory base primer 3: old undercoat. So all i need is an ethcing primer and i can spray that over all the exposed fiberglass areas, and blend it into the old base primer?

 

[fine69]

Hello Corvette66,yes you can , but the correct procedure is to have those areas that you went though, built up with one , two, or three coats of polyester based primer, sanded .until it is smooth then it will be ready for undercoating.something you can do your self if you are not going to do your own paint job is there is a good selection of etching primers in spray can forms, sherwyn williams makes a good one, and you would probably only need 2 or 3 cans to complete your vette where you went before undercoating, regards wayne.

Wayne,

I went too far with stripping the paint on my parking brake console.

I think what you described could possibly fix this also. Is there a particular polyester based primer that you recommend? I am not familiar with the stuff.

Thanks.

Ralph

 

[Wayne robson]

parking brake console

Hi Ralph, sorry late reply, im approx 16 18 hours ahead down here, no console
is not easy to repair, thats if it is the same as mid seventies, they have a mottled
orange peel finish, you can do repairs ok, but unlessyou have experiance getting the correct finish is not easy, basically what is required is when doing the final paint finish,you give it approx two heavy coats, within 5 to 10 minutes, critical timing here, you apply sponge rubber, pushing by hand but you use close grained type sponge,then when you have finished the texture, finally one light finish coat of paint approx 1 to 2 hours later. i think for a console
it would be better to purchase a good second had one, less problems regards wayne.

 

[fine69]

Hi Ralph, sorry late reply, im approx 16 18 hours ahead down here, no console
is not easy to repair, thats if it is the same as mid seventies, they have a mottled
orange peel finish, you can do repairs ok, but unlessyou have experiance getting the correct finish is not easy, basically what is required is when doing the final paint finish,you give it approx two heavy coats, within 5 to 10 minutes, critical timing here, you apply sponge rubber, pushing by hand but you use close grained type sponge,then when you have finished the texture, finally one light finish coat of paint approx 1 to 2 hours later. i think for a console
it would be better to purchase a good second had one, less problems regards wayne.

Hey Wayne,

Thanks for the reply. I bought a replacement from Wilcox, but was disappointed that it's a flimsy plastic reproduction. They informed me that these repros are the only ones on the market. They offered a refund.

Perhaps I'll just go ahead and install the cheapie repro and save the original. I could restore it later with the method you described.

Thanks again...

Ralph

 

[6880 Mike]

Shoot a good quality primer/sealer over what you have. After it dries, long block the car and you should begin to get a good surface. Low spots will fill and high spots will come down.