Hardtop Gel-coat (1 Viewer)

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Its finally gettin cold enough to warm the cruiser up in the morning before my 1/2 mile drive to school, and I'm halfway gettin ready to put the hardtop on, but first I want to fix it up a little.
Where can I find white gel-coat that cruisers are supposed to have on the fiberglass shell? Mine has this ugly green paint on it, and I want it to look stock. The gelcoat also helps to cover up stress marks etc...
I know a lot of you have rebuilt your hard tops, so where did you find the gelcoat? None of the auto parts or paint stores around have it. My next shot would be to try boat paint/supply people. Thanks.
 
It's snowing, won't be above freezing all week, and I am still topless :D :D

What, are you driving a JEEP? :slap:

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D


Try finding a boat place or industrial supply. Sorry can't help more.
 
Big_Blue is right, look for a marine supply shop, If you don't have one you could also try Aircraft Spruce www.aircraft-spruce.com they specilize in kit aircraft parts, a large part of which is composite.
 
yeah its dippin down into the low 70s tonight..oh wait i got a 60
 
Thanks guys,
I assume that I need just straight up white gelcoat? Its not a special off-white or anything is it? I've got a gravity fed HVLP gun, do I need something special?
This is the gelcoat that I found at that site:
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&productId=72277&catalogId=10001&classNum=325&subdeptNum=11160&storeNum=4
And you're saying I need to coat it after application with "pva mold release," you mean this stuff:
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&productId=50195
Coupla questions:
How do I apply the gel coat, and the PVA curing agent? And how long do I wait after application of the gel coat before applying the PVA curing agent? How much of the gel coat and PVA agent will I need to do one top?
Thanks, and keep the suggestions coming. :cheers:
 
Putting Gel coat over cracked fiberglass (and I am assuming that is what you have when you say you have stress marks) the cracks will come back. You need to repair the stress cracks if they are in the glass. "V" them out using a dremel and fill them using west systems epoxy resin, hardener, and glass powder additive or filling and fairing compound. After the cracks are filled and floated out, I'd knock the whole thing down with 80 on a DA or air file. Use a synthetic high build primer, block it out and shoot it with a single stage acrylic urethane.

My 02.
 
Way to go Bailey. From mind to mouth to phone to phone to mind to internet to answer in less than 3 hrs.
 
One last thought....you mention you have ugly green paint on the top now...you may be fortunate in that whom ever did that did a less the proffessional job and that the stress marks/cracks are merely just a fault within the green paintwork. Take the DA with the 80 on it knock an area down past the ugly green and see if the stress cracks disappear with the ugly green. If it does continue with the 80 until no more green can been seen, prime and paint.
 
If you have stress cracks, you need to do more than re gelcoat it. The top on a LC is built like a surfboard. ie...Glass fabric and resin on the inside then a layer of styrofoam and then another layer of glass fabric and resin on the outside. If the gelcoat is cracked on the outside, that means the whole thing has been flexed BEYOND its modulus of elasticity. If you can press on any of those spiderwebbed cracks and get any flex, you have a structural problem and it needs to be reglassed on the inside as well. There are a number of products that you can use, the easiest is a gel-type resin that has glass fibers in it.
You can PM me if you want more info and I'll try to help. I re-did my FG top about a year ago and so far....It works. Alot of work, but not much $$$$
Ed Long :)
 
I got a whole gallon of white house paint over here ;)
 
[quote author=dd113 link=board=1;threadid=6902;start=msg56815#msg56815 date=1067485308]
Way to go Bailey. From mind to mouth to phone to phone to mind to internet to answer in less than 3 hrs.
[/quote]
If only I could write papers this fast.... ???
:D
 
Thanks guys, I'll check out the stress mark situation like you outlined, take some pics and let you know how it turned out.
 

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