eLeXkupe

If anyone has any input please let me know...
I have a kit/rest of car that needs to be painted.
I'm trying to do the body work myself.

The kit is supposed to be blue fiberglass style.. so the outside gel coat I guess is the question. for all the body work guys ... do i need to sand down the outside coat till i see the fiberglass. As a result no blue outside coat. I know some people say its paintable. I went to a few body shops and one said.. sand it all the way down.. others didnt say anything. Any help will be appreciated. I'm trying to get the kit as ready to be painted as possible... if you have any steps or procedures that I should go through please let me know. THanks.

Fabrik8

There is absolutely no need to sand it down, it's gelcoat, and is made of the exact same resin that the rest of the kit is made out of. It's just blue.

All you should need to do is give it a wet sanding to scuff it up and break the gloss on the gelcoat. Make sure to wash it well and that the body shop uses prepsol or something to get any residue and mold release off right before painting...

If you sand all the way down through the gelcoat, you will expose the fibers and that will cause all kinds of problems like weakening from water intrusion and other stuff if anything gets under the paint.
It will paint the same as any other fiberglass parts, the blue is nothing special except a different color to tell it apart from the standard (cheaper) line of body kits. Gelcoat comes in any color the body kit maker wants. (I like orange for most of my stuff)
So good luck and happy sanding.

eLeXkupe

hey thanks a lot for the response.. i checked around and i thought I was doing the right thing... so like you said... happy sanding.. =) the fun has just begun.