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Repainting my whole car!
bi22le - 24/8/10 at 06:56 PM

Hi all,

Not as drastic as the title but I got your attention!

I want to respray all of my GRP panels because they all have cracks and dinks in the gel coat. The biggest thing I have ever painted is an RC car shell!

Im willing to give the whole sanding, filling, spraying, sanding, spraying, laqure, polishing a go but Im not too sure I will be happy with the finish.

Anybody got photos of rattle can se7ens? Any advice (I have searched and read some posts) on spraying large panels and not getting lines?

I would like to spray the sides but I have no garage and spraying outside in the winter is just not an option. I cant remove the side panels (ali) because the back end of the pop rivets will make a horrible noise inside the chassis

Thanks for all of your help, I just need a confidence boost!

PSpirine - 24/8/10 at 06:59 PM

If you get proper cans, with the good fan nozzles, the spray pattern is very similar to a spray gun. They cost more, but I cannot stress what a difference it makes.

You'll need a fair few coats (think towards 6 at least) with the last one being fairly wet/thick. You'll never get it as thick as from a spray gun but I have to say, you can get a really good finish from them.

You'll have to budget near 100 just for the cans though.

nick205 - 24/8/10 at 07:01 PM

Don't worry about rivets in the chasis, you won't hear them with the engine running and in any case you can squirt a bit of waxoyl in to keep them still.

PSpirine - 24/8/10 at 07:07 PM

http://www.fullblueracing.co.uk/fbr_08-09/launch


That's what it came out as, with virtually no wet sanding on the final 3 coats (just a heavy top coat and some polishing as it was finished at 5am before the launch).

macc man - 24/8/10 at 07:20 PM

I bought a spray outfit from aldi cost about £60
and the finish was excellent. All you need is a dry wind free day and you can get a great finish. You dont have to spend a fortune on aerosol cans or professional services to get an acceptable standard.

ruudbeckers - 24/8/10 at 08:04 PM

I am wondering if you don't get a lot of dust in the paint. I always have this problem, even when I only paint some small stuff. Or do you get this all out with wet and dry paper?

dave - 24/8/10 at 10:10 PM

I painted mine with rattle cans, its all in the prep if you take your time preping the car make sure the undercoat/primer is smooth thats 80% of the work done. I put the cans in warm water before using shake well and apply thin coats.

MK9R - 25/8/10 at 06:58 AM

quote:
Originally posted by bi22le
Hi all,

Not as drastic as the title but I got your attention!

I want to respray all of my GRP panels because they all have cracks and dinks in the gel coat. The biggest thing I have ever painted is an RC car shell!

Im willing to give the whole sanding, filling, spraying, sanding, spraying, laqure, polishing a go but Im not too sure I will be happy with the finish.

Anybody got photos of rattle can se7ens? Any advice (I have searched and read some posts) on spraying large panels and not getting lines?

I would like to spray the sides but I have no garage and spraying outside in the winter is just not an option. I cant remove the side panels (ali) because the back end of the pop rivets will make a horrible noise inside the chassis

Thanks for all of your help, I just need a confidence boost!


You will struggle to get rid of the cracks for good, especially if they are stress cracks, as the body flexes again it will crack the paint. You need to grind the gel coat out completely down the crack lines (so it looks like a spiders web), then fill with bridge filler.

bi22le - 25/8/10 at 07:35 AM

thanks for all of your replies. Ill try and do alot of the painting in my dads shed so i can create a warm dry and non windy climate.
I may look into the aldi sprayer but i would prefer to use rattle cans because i have now power in the shed and have never used a spray gun. At least a rattle can is auto set with correct pressures and paint levels.
Im also not to sure i have the confidence to grind out the cracks! That sounds serious, maybe ill just reinforce it from behind with my glassfibre
Thanks again for your help

Irony - 25/8/10 at 08:40 AM

I had to remove my panels and I had rivets in the chassis. I used a radio controlled car petrol filling bottle. A little bottle with a small squeezy nozzle. Filled with waxoyl and in the microwave for 20 seconds. A squirted it in the rivet holes. No Rattles and rust prevention to boot. a

MK9R - 25/8/10 at 08:47 AM

quote:
Originally posted by bi22le
thanks for all of your replies. Ill try and do alot of the painting in my dads shed so i can create a warm dry and non windy climate.
I may look into the aldi sprayer but i would prefer to use rattle cans because i have now power in the shed and have never used a spray gun. At least a rattle can is auto set with correct pressures and paint levels.
Im also not to sure i have the confidence to grind out the cracks! That sounds serious, maybe ill just reinforce it from behind with my glassfibre
Thanks again for your help


If you have crazing on the gel coat, just reinforcing and spraying over will not work, the cracks will be visible with a few days again. Just use a dremel or grinder and take out all of the gel coat along the cracks. Its not hard, just looks pretty serious until its sprayed!!