buugiewuugie

Hey guys. Today I recieved a body kit, that i got for free. It was primered black and was pretty rough from the guy throwing extra fiberglass resin across the whole thing to make stronger... well in the process made it look like hell.

What would be the best way to prep this kit for paint. I have already sanded all the old primer and resin off fairly smooth but I used 60 grit. What do i do now?

And anyone know someone that could paint the kit gloss black to match my car? and how much?

Fabrik8

First of all, I feel your pain. Resin with no fiber reinforcement doesn't reinforce anything, and is very brittle. Get rid of as much of that extra resin as you can or your paint will crack the first time something flexes a little bit.

It you've already used 60 grit, you've got some filling to do. 60 grit leaves BIG scratches that need to be filled before you get it painted. You can give it a light skimcoat of body filler ('body icing", which is thin body filler, is made for doing this), then follow up with finer paper, or build up the surface with high build primer and knock it back down with finer paper. The body filler is the easier way to go, that will fill in the deep stuff and not affect the rest of it. I wouldn't go coarser than 200 grit after that, and go up through 400-600 grit before primer. You'll be able to see what else needs to be dine after priming, a lot of flaws will show up with the change in contrast.

Try not to sand through the original gelcoat on the body parts if you can, and if you already have, make sure to prime it soon. Exposed fibers can wick water along their length, so if the body parts have been rained on, etc., without being primed, you can do permanent damage.


One last thing, kick the guy you got it from square in the nuts for slapping resin on it without bothering to rub his second brain cell against ihis first one. People who don't have a clue do way more damage than good, period.

sucio7

x1 very well explain

buugiewuugie

There are scratches in the fiberglass. But i dont think I really had a choice because it was caked on there pretty good. It would have taken me weeks to get it all off with 200 grit. But yeah, looks like I will be doing some filling. There are a couple of small spots that the gel coat came off of the fiberglass but its in the garage, so do i still need to hit it with primer?

Also, this is the first time I have ever worked with fiberglass and the guy was a complete nut and tried to make this kit (dodge avenger) and tried to make it fit a neon..... So he cut a few of the edges to fit it up there. what would be the easiest way to reshape them. I know it would be easier to just buy a new one but this thing was free, Im bored, and its a good learning experience.

Thanks!

sucio7

if u dont have patience dont do it

buugiewuugie

I have plenty of patience.. otherwise i would have never started. and i am some what of a perfectionist.

Fabrik8

You're fine if it's in the garage and you've sanded through the gelcoat. It will all get sealed up when it's painted.
Adding pieces back is much a much harder job unless you have the pieces that were cut off. Fabricating patch pieces is a pain in the ass, and takes a lot of skill and effort because you don't have a mold to work with. Basically you have to make everything freehand. Modifying a kit is one thing, but this sounds like it's going to be a lot more involved than that.
If it's that far gone, you may just want to buy a new one.
I'm curious now, post a couple pics of what's missing, etc.

buugiewuugie

ok I will when I get home. I was thinking about just going to the junk yard and buying a front bumper off a stock avenger. The pieces that are cut, are same as the stock bumper... And then cut to fit, and mold it in.

Fabrik8

Most likely you won't be able to cut an splice pieces of a stock bumper onto fiberglass pieces, it's very hard to bond to TPO or whatever the stock bumpers are made of. I know that some domestic cars use ABS, which is actually fairly easy to bond to. Anyway, you may have to use the stock bumper as a mold, and make the fiberglass pieces on that, then attach and blend those to the cut up fiberglass bumper.

buugiewuugie

Here are the pictures of the body kit.


This is the whole front end and what i have sanded it down to so far..


This is the corner at the very top next to the headlight. It looks like this on both sides.


If you look closely you can see how the edge was cut off.


A crack that shouldnt be too hard to fix


This is what it looked like all over when i got it.



I know there is a lot of work to be done. But I dont have a life so it should be fun.