It's Spray Time : Part 2

Ok, with the serious repairs completed, or at least those that I can find, it's time to complete the preparation of the shell.

Sadly, this is just a case of "remove old paint until you meet gel coat", very tedious. Once we were there it was a generous coat of spray filler over all visible surfaces, which is the white coating you can see here.

These days I consider the spray filler coat to be essential on these fibreglass cars. Although it is difficult to spray for a DIY guy, it's worth persevering with it.

It looks awful going on but rapidly settles to an almost smooth finish and I rarely do anything other than lightly de-nib with dry 240 or 320 grit paper.

I think it's important keep everything dry at this stage, in fact water hasn't been near the body apart from a damp sponge to highlight cracking at the bare shell stage.

For the next stages I alternate coats of grey and white primers, the colour doesn't really matter it's just so you can recognise the layers when you start on smoothing the layers with 400 or 600 paper and soapy water.

I aim to keep at least one layer of primer above the spray filler.

I was using 2-pack primers and satin black for inside the boot/door panels, but decided to stick with cellulose for the bodywork.

Yes, 2 pack would last longer and no doubt have a better gloss, but I like the polished look you get from cellulose on old cars, at least it's "period".

And it may be "period" but it's one of those things you just can't rush. The paint may appear touch dry but the more layers you apply, the longer it seems to take for the solvent to fully evapourate.

After several days of morning and afternoon coats, the paint takes a depth which starts to look half decent.