1980 was repainted about 12 years ago. Original paint had spiderwebing and stress cracks along front fenders.
Car was sanded (not to glass) cracks were repaired, it was sealed, primed, and then painted. Looked great at the time and turned a few heads. But definetly a budget job.
The paint eventually started to show similar cracking and in many areas peeled off. I used the razor method to remove the peeling paint and exposed the light gray primer underneath. This primer looks as if it had been sprinkled with water and let dry leaving many dot like stains.
I thought I might bring it down to the fiberglass, but don't want to deal with the stripping chemicals. Some areas are chipped and the original paint and whatever sealer/primer (black in color) was put on won't scrape off.
I have basically changed my mind on going down to the fiberglass, and have read that if what's underneath isn't flaking off I could spray the body with an epoxy sealer of some kind and create a solid shell like coating that would keep any imperfections underneath from coming through.
I would like to sand down the old gray primer and have this epoxy sprayed on.
Two questions:
1. Is this a reasonable way to go, given my goal of saving $$ and not wanting to use chemicals? Suggestions to accomplish this.
2. To fill the couple of chipped areas, should they be repaired before the epoxy is applied, or after?
Hi Ed,
The "solid shell coating" might be an exageration, epoxy is not a miracle product, it's still a paint product and it's durability can be affected by what's under it. Since there has been at least one repaint on your car and there are peeling conditions, you should continue to remove all of the paint and do the job right. Any shortcuts you take in the prep work that you have already started, will effect the quality and shorten the life of the new paint job. Materials are expensive, especially epoxy, budget for them and get the most life from them by doing a good job. I assume you want it to look great again?
One alternative to stripper and scraping, is sanding and it's relatively cheap using your own sweat equity. It requires great care though to avoid destroying feature lines and preventing waves in the panels. Pictures of what you have would help me see, but I'm visualizing you have a lot of paint edges (the chipped areas you are referring to) that need to be feathered and if that's true you might as well sand the remainder of the paint off the car instead of feathering every edge. Tape the edges of the panels, feature lines and fender/quarter peaks so you don't destroy any body lines while sanding. Some people will recommend an air sander, but leave that to the pro's, you will get a very wavy surface if you are inexperienced. Hand sand using good quality 3M or Norton 120 grit or 80 grit if you are careful on a variety of sanding blocks to conform to the suface you are sanding and stop as soon as you see fiberglass. Once all this paint has been removed, block sand the masked areas with 220 then the entire body again using long careful strokes with 320 to remove deep sand scratches and prep for the epoxy.
Thanks for your response!
I was very concerned about sanding down the feature lines. Such a simple tip like masking the areas of concern while sanding just never occured to me!! That should reduce anxiety over messing things up. I've finished furniture so my sanding technique is pretty good. I'll just be real careful with that 80 grit!!!
Thanks again, I'll get some pictures up.
BTW, I love the green on your car. Looks great!!!
Corvette Store
epoxy shell on old paint?
