Sunshine on fiberglass panels

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PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 10:05 pm
First time out in the 30c heat my fiberglass wings/fenders got a bit ripply. I had them wet sanded and polished to a mirror finish. I can sorta see the outline of the glass strands now and it has all taken on a weird texture.
2 heavy costs of 2k epoxy primer, few coats of high build 2k. Urethane Topcoat... Didnt flow well so more high build and more top coat.

Now it looks like it hasn't got any worse than the first time it was outside in direct sunlight for 12 hours.
If i scuff it, high build and top coat again should it be ok?
Did the fiberglass just need to stabilise? Should it have been baked in oven after high build to avoid this phenomenon?


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 10:21 pm
Well, first 30 c is 86 F which I consider fairly warm but certainly not that hot. Direct sun though at any temp. does escalate surface temps. to be pretty high with darker colors especially. It would help to know a little bit more about the fiberglass itself.....stuff you laid up yourself?, commercial laid up kit body?, aftermarket parts imported or US/Canadian grown?, etc.

Just a few things.....sounds like you hammered a lot of high build on there....what were your flash times like between coats? So just how many coats in total do you have on there?

On that last, no, I doubt if just adding more coating is an answer to this. If you are already having problems with the entire paint package "moving" or worse shrinking from solvents still off gassing that would make it worse.
Your fiberglass may be okay (did it get some sun/curing on it out in the sun before you started with your paint process?) but I think your paint is so thick you've got trapped solvents in it that are still coming out.......
Hey, could you post some pic.s????
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 9:30 pm
The car is black and panels can't be touched they are so hot.
Panels came from UK, I brought them over as luggage.
Most coats had hours between them.. Going home on lunch break etc to get another coat on.. Or lraving it till the next day..
My top coat didnt go well and i remember now exactly what I did... it was keyed and i barred it with reduced epoxy before next top coat..

Here is the final aplication before it got a flatten and buff

Image


Image


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All panels including steel were stored in the mother in laws room for about 18 months whilst I painted the shell and built the rest of the car.


Image


I'm happy with my first attempt at painting butthe fenders are not the best up close..

Image

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PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 10:09 pm
Well, if you couldn't touch them that means they were over 140 F. which is kind of like a paint booth bake. I'm think based on the thickness and the different coatings used that the sun was causing the whole paint package to still off gas. I'm going to see if we can get PainterDave to comment on this......
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 7:03 am
Its the fact i can see fiberglass strands that makes me think the glass kinda transformed a bit when it first got hot.
Last edited by Craigorypeck on Wed Aug 29, 2018 10:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 7:50 am
I have rarely seen glass do that. It is more likely that your entire paint coating process has shrank and compressed down over that showing those fibers. Imported fiberglass parts don't have the best gel coats on them to begin with as far as thickness so there is very little gel over the raw underlying fibers.
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 9:42 am
the heat cured everything and made it shrink, IMO

what i would probably try to do is let it sit in the sun a few days,

block the clear with 500/800

clean VERY well so you do not get cloudiness in your clear.
( i use a gray scotch brite and very mild dish soap water)

then i would re clear

maybe just do one panel see how it works,

and yes in the future let it sit out in the sun so everything shrinks.
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 10:25 am
Its limco black paint. I have no clear coat on it.

The rest of the car is ok. It was painted using the same process/ steps. And yes there's enough paint on there to paint 3 cars.. First and second attempts didn't go well!!

I'm for blocking it flat and trying again..

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 6:35 pm
same process block with 500/800 reshoot it

caution as the paint will flow over that 500/800

2 tack coats and a nice wet one
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 6:42 pm
PainterDave wrote:same process block with 500/800 reshoot it
caution as the paint will flow over that 500/800
2 tack coats and a nice wet one


Hey PD, I don't know what Limco paint is, but if it is a SS (single stage) when he blocks it down to 800 and if he didn't go through to primer, cant he just shoot a Clear over the dried/blocked SS?
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