Rivet Rivet

[Guest zip]

The previous owner of my hood was a rivet terrorist. i take it i need to drill out old rivets, or is there an easier, less mutilating mode of rivet removal?

 

I have taken off my rear wings today which means all the glass fibre is off the car. I am going to respray the glass fibre myself to save dosh. however

 

There is spyders webs on the original gel coating where stones have pinged against the wings... how do i prep these for painting. Will paint cover them?

 

I have a few chunks of the rear wings missing due to clipping hedges and tyre walls. Can i fill these with isopon?

 

I am going to paint the wings MR2 red. Can i use normal car paint or does it have to be 'special' glass fibre flexi paint?

 

Zip

[Guest David Cairncross]

Hi there,

 

Being a bit of a rivet terrorist myself i feel it is inappropriate to comment there - However i can offer some advice on the painting!!

 

The star-crazing you describe is like you say the result of stones impacting from the inside of the wing, to remedy these you'll need to dig out the actual cracks with a stanley knife or ideally a Dremel with suitable attachment to widen the crazes. Once this has been done fill the tracks with P38.

 

The chunks missing from your rear wings can again be filled with P38 but depending on how large these are you may need to use Glass Mat and resin to support the filler from underneath.

 

Once your repairs have been done with the filler sand down so is smooth by going through the grades of paper starting with say 120. You must sand off all the release agent, polish and grease from the surface to leave a good key for the paint, for fibreglass i would use 800 grit for the final surface before painting. Also use Panel Wipe just before spraying.

 

Once your happy with the surface spray with Filler Etch Primer, say 3 coats. Once dry you want to sand this flat with 1000grit then topcoat. I've used normal Cellulose car paint in the past which is fine, also its quite forgiving for the amateur car sprayer!!! Also modern two pack paints tend to be a bit toxic!!

 

 

Or

 

You could just pay RS Jigtec a wad and they'll do it all!!!!!!!!

[Guest rizla]

oh dear another reference to me........its not that dear £500 all body not just wings

[Guest Bob Rowell]

David is spot on with his remedy for "gel cracks" as they are known at Lotus. Rather than a knife the Dremel/router fix is the one to go for. You must make sure that you go deep enough to reach solid GFRP, with no trace of cracks, then, as David says, P38 and Primer/Filler is the right thing to use.

Lotus do it this way, and they know a little bit about fibreglass.

[Guest zip]

thanks gents.

 

I wrote a thorough reply but my machine wiped it!

 

Many thanks for the info, i'll let you know how i get on.

 

 

Zip