The '56 I recently acquired has been stripped to bare fiberglass about 20 years ago and kept in dry storage. It is covered with hairline cracks which can't be felt as well as many deeper cracks which need to be repaired. Has sitting so long without paint caused any of this cracking? Also, the shop wants to use epoxy repair instead of polyester. I want to gelcoat the car after repairs to seal the hairlines but have read that polyester gelcoats can't be used over epoxy. Is this true or are there polyester gelcoat products available which can be applied over epoxy repair? Are there epoxy gelcoats which are sprayable?
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Re: C1 body repairs
Rule of thumb: epoxy over polyester, not polyester over epoxy. Somebody else will have to answer about epoxy sprayable gelcoat. -
Re: C1 body repairs
That's because they are a commercial body shop with no experience working with materials that haven't been used for production cars in 30 something years. The average body shop was pretty much always lean on real resin and mat arteests.
If they are repairing cracks and filling voids in panels, I might look around for someone that knows how to use the old stuff...i.e. a Corvette refinishing or restoration shop. If they're simply bonding panels together, I doubt the epoxy adhesive will be an issue.
If you really want to use this shop, one option might be to do the polyester gelcoat first and then do the epoxy repairs. The epoxy repairs will not really require the gelcoat like polyester repairs anyway.
My opinion is that there is less flexibility in SMC/epoxy type repairs than the old polyester mat and resin. There IS NO RESIN in the epoxy system and this makes it necessary to combine fiberglass mesh reinforcement with the epoxy ADHESIVE. Multiple layers of reinforcement are still desireable, but it seems weird to make all these "plasters" of mesh and adhesive.
If I'm not mistaken, ALL BODY FILLER is polyester based, but if shops couldn't get body filler to stick, they would really be up the slimy river. There is really no epoxy equivalent for polyester gelcoat as far as I know.Comment
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Re: C1 body repairs
Joe...
I have used Eckler's spray gelcoat with good results, also enamel reducer will detect stress cracks. I personally would select a painter experienced working fiberglass. If not done correctly, cracks will reappear in about 1 or years.Comment
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Re: C1 body repairs
I'm with Dennis, the Ecklers gelcoat does a great job although its hard to sand. It seems to be very durable and in my experience helps to seal many small hairline cracks.Comment
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