Painting on gelcoat - Advice wanted

[Tuandoc]

I am thinking about getting my Bulldog “re-sprayed”.  The guy to do it reckons it will present no problems but I doubt if he REALLY knows.

What are the potential problems, if any?  Does the polish have to be removed first? Does the Gelcoat need to be rubbed down, treated, removed?  How thick is the layer of Gelcoat?  Is any special primer required?  Etc..

Any advice would be gratefully received.

John

[istreatf]

The Gel coat on old Bulldogs is very thick for a start, and in most cases, unless there is substantial damage to the bodywork will not need respraying. Usually a rub down with fine wet and dry, then Ferecla will have the gel coat looking like new again. My car is now over 25 years old and still comes up shining.
If it has to be resprayed, then your man is not far wrong. Yes polish wiill have to come off, and the gel coat will have to be rubbed down, (not removed) then a flexible etch bonder/primer needs to be sprayed on (followed by high build if needed) before any top colour coat goes on. My experience is only with Cellulose refinishing and I have succesfully sprayed several old gel-coated cars this way. I was advised to add elasticiser to all of the coats, which apparently is the trick to spraying glasss fibre/GRP because it is "flexible".
Your biggest problems will be if you have many stress cracks. Each one will have to be gouged out completely through the gel coat back to good GRP, then filled with a flexible filler, otherwise they will just come straight through the new paint again.
Good luck - it's not a hard job just a long one!

[jigsaw]

Hi John i have sprayed  sum fiberglass cars Ian;s right you need to get all the polish of eny cracks in the gel coat will have to be ground out
repaired with resin the car will have to be rubbed down with 320 grit wet and dry then sprayed with etch primer then a high build primer
rubbed down with 400 wet and dry i use a two pack pant on fiberglass cellulose will crack in time sum people use a water base pant
with an acrylic lacker but i have never tyred it i hope this helps if you need sum advice on sum thing put up a post i will help if i can.

                                      Les.

[istreatf]

Well put Les - one thing neither of us did mentioned is how long the new paint will last - I think that Cellulose will last at most 10 years and Acryllic and Water based paints something less than that. Compared that to the original Gell coat and I would be looking forward to my third or fourth respray now.

[Tuandoc]

Thanks very much fellows.  I am in Tunisia at present but will take all this on board and dciscuss with the paint guy on my return. really it is only one wing that needs fixing and I shall probably stick with that only.
Regards, John