Would it be possible for Luego to powder coat ALL the bodywork (including the aluminium sides) for me rather than using their gel coats?

If not, would they reduce the price if i chose not to have the bodywork gel coated, and get it powder coated myself?

Are garages that offer powder coating services generally quite busy and would need booking quite a few weeks in advance? Or are they generally the sort of places that can get stuff done over the weekend/a few days?

You need to do a bit more homework m8 Its only the fiberglass that has a gell coat. And its this that gives it its gloss/glass finish.

As for powder coating, if a firm is bussy they will get your stuff done quicker. The ovens cost a lot to run so if they havnt got enough to fill it they waite untill they have .

Imho

So is the fibreglass powder coated first and THEN a gelcoat is applied for the 'gloss finish'...?

Gel coat is a coloured pigment added to fibreglass, powder coat is a surface finish for metals!!! As far as I know you cant powder coat fibreglass because the item needs to go into a high temperature oven!!!
Powder coating takes no time at all, with something as big as a chassis they will want it in and out as quickly as possible 3 days max! my powder coaters has told me to phone him the week before I need it doing so that he knows its coming!

So there is no other way to paint fibreglass (with a professionally looking finish) other than with gel coat?

So either way, i may as well ask Luego to paint the GRP, and get the chassis and two side aluminium panels powder coated and hope for the best they will match with the GRP colour?

You can use spray paint on grp! I don’t think luego offer a painting service and it would probably be cheaper to get someone else to do it. It’s not impossible to match gel coat with grp but it aint easy! Possibly the easiest way to get a total colour match is to rivet your side panels on to the chassis and roll it into a car body shop for a full spray job all metal and fibreglass at the same time, expect to pay at least £400 for it tho! Go and have a word with grant at luego and see what he says. Personally I didn’t think that the match between grp and powder coat was good enough for the amount of money it was going to cost so have gone down a different route!

What route is that?

I gave up trying to match grp powder coat and paint myself and am using a local firm who do commercial spray painting and powder coating! I asked them if they could match anything up with the colours I had and they said it would be cheaper to re do the whole lot in the colours they had! Re powder coating the chassis with aluminium side panels attached, and wet spray painting all the grp bits! Ideally you want to find a company who will do all the stuff for you at the same time! The biggest cost is in materials so if you choose a colour they have in stock your onto a winner! My car is going to be in the same shade of red as a very famous tractor manufacturer but I don’t care because it will all match and it will be cheap!!!!

Hi Evis,

I've gone with the MELON YELLOW bodywork and sprayed my side panels a silver colour (steel-it) is the name.

The colour combinations look great.

If you wanted a car that was all the same colour you should have got a MAC#1 or similar.

If you aint purchased it yet - give Mark a call @ www.mac1motorsports.com

or check out the cars on www.m1moc.com

This is the sexiest car for 2006 : HERE

Cheers

Murray

Tbh, having thought about it, the colours of the grp bodywork don't need to be the same as that on the Al panels, something like orange grp and black Al could look pretty cool .

But then again, would black powder paint be noticeably different from black gell...

The problem with Mac#1, other than them being slightly more expensive is they don't do any hoods/weather gear. As the car will be used all year around, even to pop down to tesco for the weekly shop, and will not be stored in a garage, such weather gear is very high up on the list...

Is this thread a wind up????