wleehendrick
03-18-2014, 04:06 PM
I'm starting to prep my body panels. It'll be a little while before I get to mounting them, but I'm building at a friends' house which I don't get over to every day. Therefore, I like to have something to do at home for an hour or two at a time, and just about the only things left at the harness and body panels, so I've brought them over and am getting to work on them early.
I plan not to paint (at least not initially, perhaps at some point I'll paint, wrap or dip it) so no filling/blocking/sanding, etc... I just want to polish them out and see how it looks. Joe @ FFR is sending me a gel-coat touch-up kit, so I can fill-in the few voids and nicks. Any tips on doing so?
What's a good polish for the gel-coat? I know there are gel-coat specific polishes, but these are usually designed for marine applications where the goal is to clean up LARGE surface areas that are exposed to harsh environmental conditions 24/7, therefore, I assume they're pretty aggressive, and finish quality isn't as much of a concern as automotive. For getting the best finish possible on our 'raw' panels what's a good process? I assume a quality polish, then wax, for automotive paint finishes would be an OK?
I picked up a DA polisher at HF (http://www.harborfreight.com/6-in-variable-speed-dual-action-polisher-69924.html#.Uyiz5_ldVp8) yesterday with a 'super coupon'. It's highly reviewed, and less than half the price of the Porter Cable one I had been eyeing.
http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/160x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_23859.jpg
So I don't tear up my hands handling the panels, the first thing I did was sand down the rough spots, and coat the inside of the trunk lid. I used 3M Rubberized Undercoating, which I've used elsewhere, and been pleased with. It came out pretty nice... a few streaks, since I'm no master with the rattle-can, but more than acceptable for the inside of the panels, IMHO. I'm going to do the same to the rest of the panels.
TIA for any pointers!
http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=27055&d=1395175844
27055
I plan not to paint (at least not initially, perhaps at some point I'll paint, wrap or dip it) so no filling/blocking/sanding, etc... I just want to polish them out and see how it looks. Joe @ FFR is sending me a gel-coat touch-up kit, so I can fill-in the few voids and nicks. Any tips on doing so?
What's a good polish for the gel-coat? I know there are gel-coat specific polishes, but these are usually designed for marine applications where the goal is to clean up LARGE surface areas that are exposed to harsh environmental conditions 24/7, therefore, I assume they're pretty aggressive, and finish quality isn't as much of a concern as automotive. For getting the best finish possible on our 'raw' panels what's a good process? I assume a quality polish, then wax, for automotive paint finishes would be an OK?
I picked up a DA polisher at HF (http://www.harborfreight.com/6-in-variable-speed-dual-action-polisher-69924.html#.Uyiz5_ldVp8) yesterday with a 'super coupon'. It's highly reviewed, and less than half the price of the Porter Cable one I had been eyeing.
http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/160x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_23859.jpg
So I don't tear up my hands handling the panels, the first thing I did was sand down the rough spots, and coat the inside of the trunk lid. I used 3M Rubberized Undercoating, which I've used elsewhere, and been pleased with. It came out pretty nice... a few streaks, since I'm no master with the rattle-can, but more than acceptable for the inside of the panels, IMHO. I'm going to do the same to the rest of the panels.
TIA for any pointers!
http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=27055&d=1395175844
27055