Re painting a buggy body

[haz77]

A local fiberglass place has a Daytona buggy body up for sale, I'm tempted to buy it as an investment / man cave ornament, thing is they have painted it in "epoxy primer"

So,, is it possible to paint these, is that the correct base & could you still go over that with a metallic / metal flack paint in the future?

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'71 Type 3 Fastback, Sunburst Yellow, Lowered on Riviera's.
1776cc, Fully balanced, 8 Dowel fly, W100, DRD L3 heads, 1:25-1 CB rockers, 8.2:1, Twin 34's, Elec fuel pump, Fuel press reg, Full flowed, Single Quiet pack.

[Dangib]

[quote="haz77"]A local fiberglass place has a Daytona buggy body up for sale, I'm tempted to buy it as an investment / man cave ornament, thing is they have painted it in "epoxy primer"

So,, is it possible to paint these, is that the correct base & could you still go over that with a metallic / metal flack paint in the future?

I'm no paint expert at all but I'm sure people will chime in it can be painted, I can say however that's a really cool body hope you build it.

[DeathBySnuSnu]

Yes fiberglass can be painted.

Any un-coated (raw) fiberglass has to be sealed or it will soak in the paint like the end grain of wood does.
Epoxy primer is a good choice to seal the fiberglass and make a base to start the paint on.

One thing to note. ....having completely raw glass probably means repairs have been done. Asses that closely.

Side notes just to chat.
A fiberglass shop is virtually unheard of here......and this is fishing boat territory......and there are multiple manufacturing plants close by.
A paint shop that can or will do a bedded flake paint job does not exist within a three state area here.
Lots of good colors though.
The modern flake that is available is colored flakes sprayed in clear on top of a color.
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[oprn]

One wonders why it was completely sprayed with primer... what is underneath. It would be good to know the history. It would be very rare to find a body like that in raw fiberglass. Normally there is a gel coat finish on them. Raw fiberglass would only occur if there has been a repair and normally only that area is sprayed with primer to seal the fiberglass. Spraying the whole thing with primer is totally unnecessary. If the topcoat planned is a bit transparent then it is justified to spray a light coat of a primer/sealer to get a consistent base color just before applying the final finish.

If there was proper surface prep before the primer was sprayed then yes epoxy primer is a good base for a metal flake finish.

We used to use a product called "Feather Fill" to resurface badly chipped, cracked or repaired fiberglass. Hit the body with 120 grit and spray it on. It was a high build epoxy primer/surfacer that went on fairly thick and took a lot of sanding to prep for the final finish. Great stuff for a well used and abused fiberglass body! Sticks like cow sh!tt to a Hudson's Bay wool blanket. I wonder if that it what you have there? It would have a bit of a rough texture if it was. Almost like bed liner. Light gray in color.
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We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[Dale M.]

Simple answer is YES....Epoxy primers are a common primer for almost any automotive applications...

Might want to take a look at underside, If not primed there may be evidence of repairs or not...
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"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
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All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[jspbtown]

Epoxy is fine. Some high build next, guidecoat, and start sanding. Then some sealer and paint away

[haz77]

Thanks all,

Might take a look this week, they said this is an original body so it wont have been raw glass, unless they took it back to that,,

From what you can see if the underside (other pics) it appears only the top surfaces have been painted so hopefully any damage / repairs will be evident.

There asking $930us for it, but there's a place here that sells new Manx style moulds for about $2500us, maybe this would end up costing more in the long run!
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'71 Type 3 Fastback, Sunburst Yellow, Lowered on Riviera's.
1776cc, Fully balanced, 8 Dowel fly, W100, DRD L3 heads, 1:25-1 CB rockers, 8.2:1, Twin 34's, Elec fuel pump, Fuel press reg, Full flowed, Single Quiet pack.

[jinx758]

That is a KOOL body /hood kit ... !

If you get it to flip the next buyer may want it yellow or orange or purple, etc.

It would make great man cave art, too.
Maybe negotiate the price as it still needs some man hours to make it paint ready.
"Cash talks, BS walks"

Enjoy ... stay safe
jinx
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[EVfun]

It looks like how I painted my first buggy, and the final paint job looked good 20 year later.

I stripped it down to original purple flake gel coat, then further to glass where repairs were needed. I did the glass repair work, finished it with boat filler and filled pinholes with an automotive 2 part polyester glazing putty. Then I hit it with 2 coats of Deltron DP50 epoxy primer sealer. On top of that I gave it 3 coats of Deltron DAU 2 part urethane purple paint, not metallic as it was my first (and only) full car repaint.
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[oprn]

A metalflake finish is definitely more costly both in material and labor.
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We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[RickS]