Custom exotics
Well-known user
Humm as a company that specialises in show winning Paintwork esp on fibreglass cars I would say No there is no massive difference in how to paint fibreglass and steel mostly you will find a lot of bodyshops don't like fibreglass because of the mess associated with blocking them down ! . Don't paintstripper, don't sandblast for obvious reasons ,prime,as normal, (we normally double prime ie prime block sand and prime again ) wet sand primer, paint, clear coat as normal flat and polish as normal. Biggest problem by far in companies doing repaints is equipment so make sure compressor has oil and water traps and most definitely a drier on the air system 8 out of 10 reasons for micro blistering in a repaint will be water in the airlines. Having a temp controlled oven is really needed for applying paint esp in winter we very rarely use our oven to bake/force dry Paintwork we rather let it air dry over night (baking is used a lot in commercial bodyshops where there running 100's of cars through a week as for keeping cars outside we say do not cover for at least 3month to let paint fully harden after that a good quality cover should be fine, we would not recommend covering a car steel or fibreglass during the winter months as this can trap moisture car caccon is ideal so decide what works best for you . Hope some of this helps. Always ask any bodyshop to see there quality of work, remember even the worse painter can flat and polish the hell out of a car so check areas a mop can't get into ie inside light appitures etc with will give you a good idea of how good they are straight off gun ! Always ask what your getting for your money if you have micro blistering in the original celly Paintwork and its just buzzed down and painted over then I can guarantee you the micro blistering will return within a short period of time . Don't cut corners prep is everything. And as a rough guide paint materials elecy gas etc to do a repaint will set a bodyshop back around £1500 so if afull repaint is costing you only £2k then ask yourself some serious questions . And finally for the record our full bare fibreglass full straighten up all door gaps done double prime up including all strip and refit start at £9k
