Bradley GT redefining lines

[woodoctr]

Had you ever thought about roughing down what you've got now and then going to a sand-able air dry gel coat? You could go wet on wet building that and add the wax only to the last coat. I've used Slick Sand many times in the past and although it gets the job done I don't like building as much as you are talking about here. I had that much on the nose of my last kit car build and we found that it had at tendency to "window pane" when small rocks/debris hit it. The clear coat kind of shattered and the Slick Sand would pop out kind of deep.
Sorry, just thinking out loud here......

[MNChief]

I appreciate any help I can get, would it be possible to roll a layer of glass resin with a superfine roller over the weave? I thought if I rolled a couple layers of glass resin that would build it up smooth but still give me enough of a smooth or rough surface for anything to bond to

[woodoctr]

Well, theoretically, gel coat is a laminating resin with pigment, thickeners, and wax in it as a sealer for using in-mold first. So, you would think that would work....but I would defer to the experts on this. Company near me called Fibre Glast are manufacturers of everything related to fiberglass, carbon fiber,etc. They are www.fibreglast.com If you look to the side or bottom of their home page you will see a Learning Center if you want to just read about applications like yours. In my opinion just give them a call and they can probably give you some better short-cuts to get up off that raw glass and into your finish surface. I've been building and restoring kit cars for 45 years now and STILL call them now and then for advice. You've got something pretty neat evolving here.....make the call........

[andygere]

When you laminate a surfboard, you brush on a sandable coat of resin to fill out the weave of the fiberglass cloth. You may be able to sand down the high spots and give this a couple of layers of hot coat. If you have big voids after sanding, you can make a filler with resin and Cabosil or microballoons.

[BuggyFaron]

This is such a cool build!

[MNChief]

Thanks, it's fun too

[woodoctr]

Yeah, I love this stuff, redesigning cars like this and saving them can be cheap fun..... well, compared to new stuff at least.....

[MNChief]

So I started blocking out the body work on my bradley project, and lo and behold, the original body was no where near flat. There are high spots and low spots in the original gel coat everywhere. So the question is, since there are no real flat areas on the body, how do I get it all flat so it doesn't wave at you going down the road. I am not a body man to pick out all the little deviations, and were these molded cars all wavy when the were produced? I want it to look nice but how much wave is going to show up?

[jspbtown]

The side panels on the Bradley I built were SO wavy.

I sanded with 80 grit on a DA to give some real bite for the filler then a nice skim coat on the entire sides of the body. Then a long sanding board and hours of work.

[MNChief]

What did you go over the layer the skim coat layer of filler with or did you just paint on that I am thinking of laying a coat of sandable gelcoat over my filler build up layers

[unclebill]

[joescoolcustoms]

[woodoctr]

I was one of the first "beta tester" (we didn't call them that back then) guys buying a kit from Bradley back in the day. I got 20% off the kit and a free 1-800 number for tech. help if I gave them updates on my progress so they could produce a new fancy build manual. My build manual looked like a 3 year old drew it. It is funny about that metalflake thing as you were allowed to pick the flake colors as well as the size of the flake they would use. Just from looking at the ads of the cars they looked liked they had major hips and dips in the body so I decided that a bi-metallic mix called Prussian Blue (purple flake and blue flake) in the next to largest flake size would hide the most of that. Sure enough when I got the car the colored large flake made the car look pretty good even with the molding problems.

I've also used Slick Sand as mentioned for straightening out the sides of my restored fiberglass bodies. Think of it as sprayable Bondo. If you do use it use a 2.2 tip or larger and watch your mixing/application times. Stuff can kick over in your gun within 20 to 30 minutes creating a dandy paperweight for your desk. If your really wanting to fine tune your blocking get some powdered guide coat. It super fine and gets a good grip on the sprayable polyesters like this. Your highs/low/waves will show easily blocking over that. Oh, and the only place I'm not to crazy about building much Slick Sand is up on the very front of the nose. If you get it on too thick it can be prone to rock chipping. Just an opinion but gel coats up front seem to take the hits a little better. A few years back I started using a vinyl wrap as a nose mask for that very reason. Works well, just change it out every 2 to 3 years.

[MNChief]

I about to order some sandable gel coat from a marine and boat supplier, with wax and hardener. They say to lay it on 20 mils thick! First gallon will be put on without pigment over all the fillers to smooth out the body work, then fine tune the finsh with spot puttys and get it real close, scuff the whole workst and then another coat of Gel coat with pigment added in the final color. They said to wet sand and buff the final gel coat and it will be a much tougher finish than paint over the fillers. I thought the first coat of gel coat over the fillers would give it a hard finish to work off for the final body work also, so I don't gouge into the innumerable radius's and round edges of the body. Then the final coat of gel coat in color means I wont have to paint. Good Plan? Any advice at this point is appreciated. (The glass suppliers want to sell their products so I'm not sure of their advice)

[MNChief]

[jspbtown]

To be honest I think it (gelcoating) sounds like a hell of a lot of work.

Rough up the surface, skim it (I used Rage Gold), long board it, shoot a polyester primer (I used Evercoat G2 but SlickSand is also fine), guide coat it, and block it.

If you want to shoot a sealer and then shoot your base and clear.

Millions of cars on the road with a BC/CC finish. The urethane clears are pretty darn tough.

[MNChief]

It was the thickness of the filler that I was worried about being not hard and needing something hard over the top of it because I'm some spots it went on 1/4 inch thick

[Letterman7]

No matter whether you go gel coat or paint, the filler is going to move first. Nothing "hard" applied over top is going to stop that, especially at 1/4" thick. You will get cracks, it's just a matter of when. And filler shrinks, too...

[joescoolcustoms]

The best results I have gotten was by not using any filler. If it needs more than 1/16 inch filled, I use more glass and resin. Less than 1/16 inch, I use slick sand. BC/CC right on slick sand. That way the body is all polyester resin with paint on top.
_________________
Bad News Racing 2018 NORRA 1000 3rd in Class
Best Day Ever Racing 2022 NORRA 1000 2nd in Class and first All Female team to complete the race

Everyone is gifted. Some just do not open the package.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

[jspbtown]