Gel Coat Repair

[MJKBugsandbuggies]

I am building this buggy over on the Off Road Forum, thought I would post my recent gel coat repair here since you all might get the most out of it.
This is a new Vegas Buggy body, it was damaged during shipping, two deep scratches through the gel coat. A brand new body, with scratches, entirely the shipper's fault and they refused to do anything about it.


The repair came out great and only took about 2 hours total time.

Started with Neutral Gel Coat-Un-waxed, one quart was the smallest I could find, MEK Hardener, Lamp Black Pigment, Surfacing Agent, Xylene, and of course gloves.

Mixed 1 oz. of gel coat with the pigment, hardener, and surfacing agent, you have got to wear gloves when messing with this stuff.

Here are a couple of shots of the before...

Applied the mixed gel coat with the torn end of paper match, a paint brush would leave too much material that you'd end up sanding off later.

Let it set for about 45 minutes.

Then I block sanded the area just near and over the repair starting with 600 grit wet dry paper, then 800, 1000, 1200, and finally 1500. Sanding just enough to level the repair then with successive grits to reduce the scratches.
Then I used a variable speed buffer on medium speed along with Meguire's 85 buffing compound to finish the job.

And here is the after shot,

I'll just use more of the Meguire's for some small build scratches that I have caused in the shop, they will come out very easily.

[SiggyManx#33]

That is a pretty good rebound.

I'm suprised the shipping company wouldn't man up.

I wouldn't of taken reciept of it.

[MJKBugsandbuggies]

I agree, problem was it had to be shipped to a business, I had it shipped to the loading dock at the company where I work, about 5 miles from my place. The driver had specific instructions not to leave the body with anyone other than myself and was supposed to call me 30 minutes prior to arriving, he didn't, left the body on the dock. Shipper said the damage must have occurred on my end, the driver indicated no damage. I tracked the crate from Las Vegas daily to South FL, it was loaded and unloaded 12 different times before it reached its destination. Total cost of the repairs was $48.00, the aggravation was priceless.

[caseydenise]

What are you building? Could you post build progress pics in the FG buggy forum? It sounds like you know what your doing, I know most of us would like to watch the progress-

[MJKBugsandbuggies]

Here is one from a couple of weeks ago, I am doing most of the final punch list stuff now, I have about 5 pages on the other forum, just search my screen name to see the entire build.

[MJKBugsandbuggies]

Finally got the buggy completed, I took these shots today for the insurance company. Look for her here in the classifieds on The Samba and then, depending on how that goes, on to Ebay over the next couple of weeks.