Mathius

Ok, I've been adding little $15-20 repairs to my car which I had up for sale, trying to just add a little more incentive for someone to buy it. I've not had a single offer so far. I know I'm asking a lot for a serious third gen owner, but as far as used cars go, considering the condition of mine, someone looking for a sporty daily drive, or summer toy I think my price is in the market range, at least for my area and what I've seen around here and in the local auto traders.

Anyways, I've slowly upgraded the interior to the point where except for a few scratches on the metal piece of the emergency brack, and some very small cracks on the corners of the upper dash pad, the interior is mint, except for carpet and seats. The seats are in ok condition, but need a severe cleaning, and I have the normal tearing on the driver's seat (you all know what spot I'm talking about, they all tear in that spot!) Looking at the exterior, it's also basically mint, except I have a few nasty gashes in my driver's side front spoiler, the hood has 3 big problems, and my front skirt had a small crack in it, and the front fascia had some small scratches on it (there were a lot of them though!)

Bringing myself around to the point of this thread, I decided I'd try my hand at fiberglassing the front skirt, which of course led to having to do some touch up work on the paint.

The fiberglassing went good (or so I thought), I used 2 layers of mat to cover the crack, sanded it smooth, and was ready to paint. I used rattle can paint, matching my stock color. I wetsanded the front fascia getting rid of the scratches, masked the whole thing off, and began touching up my paint.

The final paint job came off really well. I used a whole can of clear coat, I ended up finding another small hole in my front skirt that I repaired (this one was underneath so it wasn't as big a deal), and overall I was pleased with the final look. It wasn't perfect, but it was decent enough to pass for a good paint job.

Then three days after I finished it and started on some hood repairs, while I was at work, my dad pulled it out of the garage to move some stuff in there, and when he pulled it back in, he ran into our shop vac, and re-cracked the front skirt, as well as scraping the **** out of my paintjob (I painted practically the whole front skirt, the whole front of the fascia and part of the passenger side.).

So the point of my thread here.... I was wondering if someone can give me some pointers on how to make a better fiberglass repair. I plan on removing the whole front end when I repaint it, I want to do a better job this time, including the underside. I'm hoping that I can re-enforce the fiberglass on both sides instead of just the outter side of the skirt, and hopefully this will make it stronger, but is there anything else I can do? I'm concerned because after examining the damage, I gave a tug on the paint where it appeared to be chipping off.... a whole chunk came off in my hand. At first I was really upset, I thought I had used the wrong paint, and the whole thing was cracking, due to a ****ty job, but then I realized that what peeled off was the whole layer of fiberglass and fiberglass resin residue. How can I avoid this happening? I'd like to make a more permanent repair.

Mathius

Mathius

Here's some shots of the damage:

Mathius

Front nose...

Mathius

Here's after peeling off the fiberglass.

Mathius

Here I hold in my hand the fiberglass repair. Two layers of fiberglass mat, plus the resin that I smoothed out when applied.

Mathius

This time around, I'm going to remove the whole front end, and I'm going to use an actual spray gun, so if anyone would like to add some painting tips, I'd be much appreciative, starting with what kind of primer would be best for a real paint job as opposed to my previous rattle can job (which did turn out pretty good <beam>).

I'm also going to keep going this time I think, replacing the fender, getting rid of my ugly pinstripes (factory I think), and fixing a few of the hood defects.

Any fiberglass or paint tips would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mathius

HamsterOnaMission

sand the repair area with heavy (40-80)grit sandpaper first. If your bridging the crack, b ut then sanding smooth, aren't you effectively negating the purpose of the repair. try some long strand fiberglass filler, and jam it in crack as well, it will give it more bite.

as far as painting goes, sand to about 200, then prime (if you plan on priming) then sand to 320-400 for the final coat, if it's too fine, the paint will fall off... if using two stage paint, you can sand the base colour finer i think (no experience here to speak from) finer, but with single stage, i've had great results with 320

Hulk0202

Theres really nothing that I know of tjat will keep fiberglass repairs from cracking when hit. The car itself has give, but the fiberglass is as rigid as glass. Actually tempered glass has more give. Thats why i refuse to fix my 91 front nose with it. Its better to buty a new one, but in your case, fix it and don't hit it.

ES87iroc

I would really avoid using fiberglass for that task, the front fascia -has- to be able to flex some, and as you can see fiberglass does not flex too well. I used epoxy myself, and had great results with it. After it was prep'ed and painted with the car, you can not tell. Best of all, it flexes instead of cracking. hope this helps!

MetalliCamaroRS

iTrader: (15)

Yeah, don't use fiberglass on the front nose or ground effect. And when you paint, make sure to add flex additive.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

Go buy some plastic bumper repair epoxy. Grind the crack in the facia into a "V" shape, and fill the V with the epoxy. After it dries, sand it smooth. Just schlocking that crap over the top is going to do exactly what it did. You need to grind the crack in order for the epoxy to actually get into the crack and hold it together instead of just going over the top. For extra strength you can apply a resin soaked fiberglass mat to the backside.

Do a better job sanding next time too. Your repair didn't look too good even before you pulled the fiberglass off.

I don't want to sound rude, but when a potential buyer sees those kind of half-assed repairs, he's not going to buy the car. You're better off leaving the damage then doing a poor repair job.

Mathius

I didn't take an after shot. I never got a chance. The whole front end now has dings and scrapes in it. Didn't you see the shot of the nose? He did a wondeful job of ruining the whole deal. Besides which, the lighting in those pictures is so horrible, how could you even judge my paint? Jeeze.

Mathius

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

What are the marks on the right side of the pic? It's quite possible that I mistook something else for bad body work.

Why the hell isn't the [img] tag working? Anyway, click the link to see the pic.

Matt427

Don't take this as an insult, but bodywork is not something that can be done by someone with no experience. I'm talking about good, high quality work here, and as Jim said, why bother to do it at all if it's only going to come out looking worse than the damage itself. Bodywork is an art, it can't be done properly after just reading the back of a can you buy at Wal-Mart or Pep Boys.


..."the lighting in those pictures is so horrible, how could you even judge my paint? Jeeze. "


As for how someone could judge your paint from a bad picture; I'm sure he judged it from the fact that you used a spray can, and not from the picture. Again, you just can't get good results from non-professional methods and materials.

igotslicksNchix

thirdgen doesn't allow hotlinking, kinda sux don't it?

Mathius

Those are more scrape marks. The paint held up surprisingly well, I don't know if they already preadded a flex additive or what, but there's no cracking or anything like that. It's not the best job in the world, and it's rattle can touch up, as I stated before, but aside from the usual first time light and dark spots, and a few mistakes around the masking, it didn't turn out too bad. There were some imperfections that were just laziness on my part, because I kept finding things I would miss, and I'd have to go back over it, and I just wanted to be done.

I'm sorry if you think I'm overreacting a bit, but I did all this in my spare time after work, and it took me several weeks (I had to redo parts of it several time, the last attempt I finished in a week). I know the paint wasn't professional level, and when I originally saw the scrapes, I was very upset about my paint job, just as much as the fact that he wrecked it (I'm so tired of putting money into this thing, I just want to sell it!), but after going over it a second time after I cooled off (several days later), I found out about the fiberglass patch being the actual part that cracked, and after peeling that off, Dad and I looked it over and the paint job actually held up very well. For you to just say offhandedly that I didn't do a good job of sanding, like I just rushed it and didn't put any effort into it just got under my skin.

Mathius

Mathius

I did find this picture of the original repair. It turned out pretty good, this was the first time I did the paint. My problem was that the area I painted here ended up standing out horribly in comparison with the factory paint, as well as being raised quite a bit from the original paint for whatever reason (maybe I did a poor job of sanding the first job?).

I had to go back and re-do the paint because of the lines where I masked off, but it did look good while still masked I thought. <sigh>

Mathius

Mathius

Here's a shot just before the last paint job. You can see the lines I was talking about in this picture, where I masked off. I had to sand that area horrendously to remove the lines You can see all kinds of various swirls and scratches in the paint from my wetsanding, so this isn't a good shot either, but at least you can see the line I was talking about.

Mathius

Mathius

Helps if I post the picture I guess.

Mathius

Anyways, what's done is done. I have some more questions....

1. My one friend who has any experience with paint (he did his whole car, and his family down south has a shop of some sort), said I can get away with just using rattle can primer. He said it would turn out just as good, and it's premixed, rather than having to mix a laquer and whatnot and it's cheaper. I just want to veryify that he's right on this? I think Steve Scauffel (sp?) uses rattle can on his Trans Am.

2. Can someone tell me more about the flex additive you guys are saying I need to add to the paint? I need to add hardener as well correct? What kind of mix is the right proportions?

I only know of two pick-a-parts around here, and they don't have much in the way of third gens, so I guess I'll have to make some phone calls to a regular junk yard.

Do you guys have any idea what it might cost to have my front spoiler, bumper cover, driver's side fender, and driver's side rocker panel painted to match factory paint, if I were to go to a shop? If it's cheap enough, I may skip the paint this time. All the work I put into it was a headache, for something I don't even want to keep.

Mathius

Robz84Monte

I do a good deal of body and paint work and i have no objections to using aerosol primer, it works just fine. As far as flex additive goes it is just what it says. (not for aerosol by the way) all you do add some to your paint and it makes it more flexable. If your using regular paint with a spray gun just ask whoever your buying the paint from about it and they should be able to help you .
hope I helped happy painting!

erictheviking

As has been said,don't use fibreglass for this sort of repair.By the time you've rubbed it down theres not a lot left to grab the plastic.Use a specific plastic repair kit.I've seen a motorbike fairing panel repair kit I may use for mine,expensive but the right tool for the job.Bodywork shouldn't be beyond the realms of anybody who uses the right gear and takes their (lot of) time.Also I use an adhesion promoter on plastics before painting to give the paint better adhesion(obvious).

By the way, to be fair to fibreglass,it is very good for repairing rigid bodywork if used with aluminum mesh riveted in place.

2xsess

I agree with what's been said here, you need to go to An Autobody Supply store and get an SEM urethane repair kit, it's a 2 part epxoy type compound and you V out the crack mix some of this stuff up and put it in there, once oyu sand it and paint it you'll never know it was there.

Good luck! Sorry your first repair got messed p.