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Sun Oct 28, 2012 10:30 am

Didget: For me in my experience it sis best to apply polyester resin directly to polyester resin.. I removed as much paint and primer from PO as possible bringing the buggy down to original glitter finish..(also discovered there were some poorly doon repairs under there causing the origanal glitter bug fininsh un able to restore ot origanal)

For my repairs I used only fiberglass filler (q-cell) (micro-spheres) fiberglass cloth and matt.. I did not use bondo, primer, sealer any where as I want the carbon fiber (which is very simular to fiberglass cloth.. just carbon not syllica*) to bond well with body.. this is why i did a gel coat not a base coat of black primer.. and hey way less masking than spraying primer :)

Vince may advise othewise if he knows a different technique or product that a gel coat will work with... possibly a polyurithane based primer/paint?

You can see the 3-4" over lap into my buggy tub.. this area I did apply directly over the original white paint (after serious prep).. I am not concerned as the carbon cloth will wrap into body 3" and then I will feather sand and inside will be painted and a pin-stripe will seperate the carbon fiber from the grey paint I will be doing...

Sun Oct 28, 2012 10:57 am

Hey Gerry:

Vince lives ~3 hours or so away from me here in NC. He posted a short thread on the forum 2 years ago (yes Vince - TWO YEARS AGO!) regarding repairs & gelcoat work he did on the SR that I sold to him. From rereading his post, it appears that he used Duratec primer overall on the repair areas before shooting the gelcoat...

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...mp;start=0

When will the SR be done, Vince? :lol: I think it'll take a built 2-liter-plus motor at a minimum to push that pool around...

bryan

Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:19 am

I see Duratec VE primer... definitly good to know...

Hahahha ... worlds biggest buggy..

Sun Oct 28, 2012 1:17 pm

Gerry
Nice work! That should work well for what you are doing. I am using the gel coat since it will see the sun and has some UV protection. The foam roller will help eliminate the pin holes. Looking forward to your carbon fiber lay up. You should start a thread on it.

buggytime
Yea, I could take me and 20 friends up the beach if I could get it on wheels. :D

Bryan
The reason I did the SR that way 2 years ago (long time I know :oops: ) is that with the Duratec high gloss additive, it is sprayed like paint and flows out that way. (little polishing and buffing needed) So I wanted as smooth a finish as possible under it.

The straight gel coat (cut with styrene)can be rolled right over the poly resin/fiberglass. I would sand it with 80grit first to get all dirt and loose gel coat off. I would also wipe it down with styrene to help the bonding.

The Duratec VR and high build primer make a good subsurface for a thinner top coat.

Vince

Sun Oct 28, 2012 4:37 pm

Joe
Looks like we will not get as much rain as they thought. We have some wind 30-50mph but not the heavy rain the Weather Channel predicted.(I guess that is why Cantore is not here)

Roy
How was the Tow'd?

Vince

Sun Oct 28, 2012 9:51 pm

sanded and rolled on another coat today.. could not get a foam roller as TAP plastics was closed... I did thin with a few capfulls of Denatured Alcohol..
I still got some bubbles but not as many..
Hey surf does the foam amake a big difference??

Gerry

Mon Oct 29, 2012 5:54 am

Foam roller seemed to make a difference. I had no bubbles or pin holes.

Vince

Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:22 am

The speed at which you roll the coating, along with the viscosity of the material & amount of material in roller, will also affect pinhole creation -

bryan

Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:34 am

Quote: Joe
Looks like we will not get as much rain as they thought. We have some wind 30-50mph but not the heavy rain the Weather Channel predicted.(I guess that is why Cantore is not here)

Glad to hear. I saw pictures of 12 under water. Have you heard from Eric and Val to see if they made it through OK?

Mon Oct 29, 2012 8:00 pm

Our thoughts and prayers to everybody affected by Sandy.

Thu Nov 15, 2012 9:47 pm

surfnc wrote: After the MOTB I had a large re gel coating project that I had to do at my parents rental house. The pool had been there for 18 seasons and with all the sandy feet "sanding" the bottom of the pool the gel coat had worn off to the underlying fiberglass in places. The gel coat was also faded and "chalking" over all.

This is also what happens to a fiberglass body that has sat out in the sun for decades or been "worked" on by previous owners over the years.

I had originally thought I would spray the pool shell, but realized that it would be brutal trying to mask off the deck over 3 days. I decided to roll the gel coat on with a thin foam roller made for rolling gel coat/resin.

I figured that it could also work if someone wanted to re gel coat their buggy. If you spray or roll gel coat you will still have to sand and polish at the end. Since most buggy surfaces are basically flat it should be no problem rolling. You can get rollers in 3", 7", and 9" lengths so cutting in the edges should be fairly easy.

The process I used went like this:

-Sand the shell with 80 grit paper on a DA or 6" polisher/sander.
-Vacuum/sweep up dust.
-Wipe down area with styrene, let dry.
-Dilute gel coat by 10% (by volume) with styrene. This makes it flow better.
-Roll out first coat(unwaxed) (this first coat will act like a primer and will get sucked into the more porous areas) Let cure till tacky, not wet.
-Roll out second coat (unwaxed) Try to keep a wet edge as you go. Let cure till tacky.
-Roll out third coat(waxed diluted 5% styrene) Let this cure over night and it should be ready for sanding and polishing.

Here is what the pool looks like now after 7 gallons of gel coat, 100 rubber gloves, a gallon of styrene, 2 gallons of acetone, 25 paint tray liners and about 30 quart mixing cups.

Hopefully it will last another 18 seasons.

On the buggy body you could do more coats so you could sand it mirror smooth and polish it out to a better than new shine. (the good thing about the pool is that I will not have to sand or polish it at all) With my experience of spraying gel coat it may be easier to roll and it is definitely a cleaner process.

**Make sure you wear solvent resistant gloves when using styrene and acetone. ALWAYS wear a chemical rated respirator when using any of the materials I have mentioned here.

Vince

cannot see the pic

Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:25 am

Dug Dug... odds are that Vince (surfnc) had to remove the pictures due to 'someone' determining that this wasn't 'buggy related' - although the repairs WERE made to a fiberglass structure.

The Moderator most-likely exercised Executive Privilege - :wink:

bryan

Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:39 am

ahh ok hmmm.

Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:51 am

I re posted the pictures with an explanation. Hopefully they will not delete them. If so I will have to get a flicker account.

Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:53 am

ok cool i can see them now any tips on rolling that on a dune buggy body with flake ?

Fri Nov 16, 2012 4:58 pm

DD
I would not recommend rolling clear gel coat. It is technically not "clear" if the thickness varies. The best way to do flake with clear is to spray it. With that said, clear gel coat is difficult to work with and hard to sand since it tends to dry a little tacky. If I do a flake job again I will use base coat (color), clear with flake in it and 3-4 layers of clear paint, not gel coat. It is much easier.

Vince

Thu Jan 23, 2014 9:41 am

I am re posting the before and after pictures since the earlier links do not work.

Before:

After:

Vince