Gel coat and hot summer!

[Stu Kaynes]

Hi Guys

I have a GD which I completed last spring . I am running the car with the original gelcoat finish[royal blue]. When I first put the car on the road the body was totally flat with no undulations.

I now notice that the whole car is covered with on orangepeel finish which is so bad that I can actually feel the uneveness. Also in a couple of places - i.e. the footwell bulkheads you can now externally see the line where the bulheads are fixed.

Me questions are:
1. Is this normal?
2. Will it get any worse.
3. What advise can you give as to when to spray.

Any advice would be greatfully accepted.

Stu Kaynes

[RichardG]

Sorry about that Stu,

I think the footwell bulkhead ripple is "normal". I've seen it on lots of GDs in the past, think its all part of the ownership experience All to do with the semi monothingie body construction I believe. The shrinkage is proportional to the material thinkness and at the bulkhead join, the material is going to be pretty think...

Maybe it'll be a little better when its a bit warmer?

Richard

[kdavies3]

I think this sort of thing is fairly normal on most fibre glass shells not just GD.
Most good body shops will preheat the body to accelerate any bubbling and movement prior to final finishing and painting.
"Touch wood" my Dax is still looking pretty straight 18 months after painting (apart from some stone chips) x( . Although the body had been around in all weathers for a couple of years before it was painted.

http://www.woodoouk.eclipse.co.uk/Wales.gif

Kev Davies
Dax, 383ci Chevy Stroker, Tremec TKO
South Wales

[cefin]

The advice I was given was to wait for a couple of years before painting to allow the glass fibre to settle down. I think it is the glass fibre not the gel that is live.
I took four years to build mine so obviously took the advice seriously. I did see a Dax that had a very expensive paint job that then rippled like mad the next summer and that was young body.

Cefin

[Stu Kaynes]

I forgot to mention in my original post that my GD is a dark colour - Royal Blue - do you think that dark colours are more prone to this problem as they absorb rather than reflect the heat of the suns rays?

Stu Kaynes

[Steve]

I had an old unbuilt dax body, 10 years old no less! which was completely flat and in gelcoat.

I completed this car and ran it for a while and it was fine. Then after a hot summer trip to France (nearly 40deg) it moved all over the place. The painters sorted it subsequently, but it suggested to me that the gel/resin would move, even after years if it gets hot enough.

The body shop who painted it said the best method was to bake the body for a period, to induce all the movement, so that when it was prepped, all that movement marking could be removed

HTH

Re colors, The place my body was worst was along the top of the wings, where the exhaust heat collected, I figured this was worse than the sun, but the panels get really hot anyways. Light colors "mask" any body imperfections, whereas dark colours make it worse, so I'd only paint a fibreglass car light colors for this reason



Steve
GDEuro/LS6/T56 in progress
sgullick@waverider.co.uk

[Stu Kaynes]

So some good advice then - if you want your Cobra body to stay looking good - wait for a nice wet day before you take it out!

[BILKO]

DAX TOLD ME TO NOT PAINT MY CAR UNTILL IT'S BEEN ON THE ROAD FOR A YEAR, THEY SAID THE SUN MAKES THE BODY EXPAND AND CONTRACT BUT WHERE ITS BEEN BONDED TO THE INNER WINGS AND BULKHEAD MEANS THESE BITS ACT AS A SORT OF RSJ AND DONT ALLOW THE BODY TO MOVE AT THOSE POINTS.
I ONLY WISH THEY HAD TOLD ME THIS BEFOR I ORDERED MINE 2 YEARS AGO THEN I WOULD NOT HAVE ORDERED THE BODY IN GREY GEL, THOUGHT I WAS GONNA PAINT IT BEFORE IT WAS READY FOR THE STREET NOW I'VE GOT TO SUFFER TATTY GREY GEL COAT FOR A YEAR. ALTHOUGH A TATTY GREY COBRAS BETTER THAN NO COBRA AT ALL ME THINKS .

BILKO;( ;(