Painting Fibreglass Panels

[swan]

Hi all

 

Am starting to tidy up swan jnr's body work on his kit.

 

The body is fibreglass but I have read so many conflicting ways to

 

go about it , I'm not sure which way to turn.

 

Have rubbed down the gell coat with wet or dry, so do i use primer first or not.

 

Some say yes , some no, some plastic primer, some ordinary primer.

 

Thanks Swan

[Guest dinger]

Hi mate, I would primer them but add a little palsticisor in with it, (cant do any harm)

 

then top coat as normal,

 

I will be doing the same with mine as I want a colour that gbs dont do,

 

Dave

[chris n]

I would primer the fiberglass with a high build primer first to fill any pin holes and then dry block flat with P320, spot prime any places you have rubbed through then wet flat with P800 wet & dry then apply your top coat

[Guest sadjagboy]

I would use etch primer first, then a high build primer surfacer on top of that, before applying top coat.

Cellulose paint is relatively brittle without adding plastisor, but acrylic is a bit more flexible and should be okay on properly prepared GRP, 2 pack is more flexible but more robust in servicel, down side being that you need the correct equipment to spray 2 pack (an air fed mask should be top of the list for 2 pack).

 

If it was a full body of fibre glass, such as a Westfield,which has some very flexible panels, it will cerainly benefit from the addition of plastisor, or flexible additive, if it is just the nose cone etc of a Hoodie, then it is probably solid enough not to need it. Might be worth finding a friendly local paint suplier and getting their thoughts, although some will come out with the "products are for professional use only" line, they should be able to supply data sheets which give user info as well as H&S stuff.

 

HTH

 

Regards

 

Angus

[agent_zed]

Hi, just resprayed my nose cone on sunday due to a few bumps and knocks over the last 2 years of use.

 

I used an activated etch primer then a celly top coat. It didn't come off in 2 years, well maybe where i knocked it but it didn't all fall off or anything.

 

I probably don't do anything properly but for mine i put down 3 coats of etch overall. Waited for each to dry and flatted back with 1200 at each stage with water. Wipe clean and dry then next coat. Once happy with that put on the top coats, as many as it takes for a good layer as i was spraying yellow which doesn't coat the best. again flatted back where needed between coats. If you thin the last coat 10% it should produce a better shine.

 

Its never going to be absolutely perfect as i was spraying outside with a 25ltr compressor but iam pretty happy with it and with a bit of polishing up i recon it should look alright.

 

Not recommending to do it this way necessarily but thats just how i did it.

 

hth

[chris n]

Etch primer will give a good adhesion on most plastics and fiberglass, as well as bare steel, aluminum and stainless steel but take care on GRP parts that have been newly made as it may attack the fresh gelcoat then you will have a job on yuor hand to put right.

[swan]

Hi

 

Thanks all for the tips and advice

 

Swan