Bodywork questions?

[Faron]

I bought a used Body from a guy in Houston, and did not care for the color combo. I love the shape of the body, but I gotta have FLAMES!!! Being the jump in with both feet kinda guy I am. I started sanding, sanding and sanded some more. I thought I had fixed most of the problems, and I had fixed most of the large problems. However....I had a bunch of stupid little darn pinhole imperfections. I have filled them in with Fiberglass Jelly, but as soon as I think I have them all filled in a few come back!!! Ahh Help me what the heck am I doing wrong, or am I? Do i just keep going until I don't see any pop up?

[Buggy1]

Body work on a fiberglass body is done a little differently than you would think,
1. When filling holes, camber the front of the body a little so that when you put in the new fiberglass it will overlap then original hole.

2. You will need to put a glass patch on the inside of the body and be sure to put some new fiber material in the patch. For some reason if you put glass fiber in the patch hole along with the resin it works out better.

3. when you have the body sanded smooth you will find pins holes in the body as glass fiberwill always have small air holes trapped inside the body panel.

4. Use a primer that is made for fiberglass..........you can ask your local paint store what is best to use.

5. pins holes can be filled with a spot putty that does require alot of sanding which will only bring up more holes.

6. When you got those pins holes done, then I spray a light primer coat ( same primer ) then sand carefully to remove overspray and then your good togo with the colors. Good Luck


One last thing, some bodies are not very strong, I sometimes put extra mat in stress areas to build up the body to 20 mill thickness. Do it before you paint and then you seen craks in the body when your driving her down the road.

[Gunfighter]

Faron, I just finished doing what you are attempting to do. Like Hawk1 says Fiberglass is a different animal than metal. I assume you have all the holes filled you want. If so and you have sanded the entire car as smooth as you can go over the patched areas with a product called icing. You can get it at any auto paint store. It is a very thin version of bondo and is made to be used as a finish coat. Spread a very thin coat over the areas you keep getting pin holes in. It will fill in nicely. You'll still have to sand a bit when it drys but it will give you a much smoother surface. I would use a high build primer next then more sanding. Make sure you have all the sanding residue off before thinking you are done. I used compressed air to blow the car off then a tack cloth to get the small stuff. You'd be surprised at what you miss sanding. After you are satisified you have all the pin holes filled you are ready for paint. Good luck. It's a tedious process at best but don't get discouraged and take your time. The quality of a paint job is all in the prep work. Without good prep even the best of paint will show imperfections especially the dark colors.

Tom

[blackthree4me]

I can attest to the tedious task of paint and sanding.
I watched my guy do it for over a year LOL.
what the other guys said is great advice.
what I have to input is the flames
when you paint the car use a base coat clear coat combo.
once the base coat is put down tape out the flames spray
wet sand the edges then put the clear on top of both.
be sure not to sand thru the base coat when feathering in the flames
once the tope coat has dried a couple weeks wet sand and buff
as stated before take your time and keep the faith.
hard work shows but so does haste.
blackthree4me

[MURZ]

Faron, I found out the hard way on my project that NEW is better than " sacrafice the kids, wife, job, marriage---OLD". What I am saying here is that a new shiney body can be had with the pods for less than 2 grand. A qaulity paint job will cost at least 1500 and 15 weekends of your hard work. If I had to do it all over again I would opt for a hawkeye chassis , a new tub body, fresh 1600 engine and be done with it. I am 4 years into my project, mostly because this is a $100-200/month hobby for me----BUT because it has taken soooo long my interest is dwindling. A new body goes a long way to speeding up the project and maintaining the excitement. My two cents.
MURZ

[carlos del carpio]

Hey Murz! Nice to meetcha!

I too have had 'a slip of faith' on keeping a schedule with completing my buggy. Mine is based on budget, with my daily driver dying completely, 3 bucks a gallon gas, and bills, bills, bills, the buggy ended up on the 'back burner'. A few parts would come in, and they would go either in a bin or on the wall.... "I have the front beam ready to be installed, but not the beam clams, so that cant go on.." etc. etc. Almost a 'snowball' effect... but, when it DOES come time to work, I just roll it outside, and...sit in it. That is enough to get the 'cogs turning' again, to build interest.. also, I have recorded (on my PC) a couple of TV show episodes based on the VW buggy, so that sparks things up too.. don't lose the faith!

[GregR]

I second, third and fourth Murzi. If I had it to do all over again. I wouldn't fight that fight...go new if you have the choice. Here's a few pics of what I started with in '96 took me 6 years picking away at it before I could drive it...and then only after the wife said,"it runs or it goes." http://mysite.verizon.net/res17fxn/id9.html
Keep us posted

[Buggy1]

That has been a standard inspiration for most of us Greg, I heard the same speech whille working on mine. Except the added comment, "NO MORE DRIPS ON THE GARAGE FLOOR" It got me off my butt cause my wife is stronger and taller than me and I knew I would looose the fight real quick.

[MURZ]

Oh yea, forgot to add: Buy a RUNNING donor car. You will be way ahead of the game. It doesn't seem like it but a buggy takes about 7-8 grand to do it right. I did mine the hard way and .....Well, lets just say I spent waaaay more than I wanted too.
MURZ

[David Head]

I have to agree with Murz, You can spend a lot of time and money on body work and paint. I too spent a ton of bucks on paint and body,however my body is a Manx. If it were not such a rare body, I would have opted to get a new body with gel-coat already on it. Good Luck, David

[Faron]

I know it would be much easier to buy new and what not. But this is a huge stress relief to me. I find myself out in the garage sanding and tinkering way longer then I plan when I go out. Although I see that it is a pain in the butt, its a a ton of fun. Plus look at what fun I will have when I am finished! Thanks for the advice, but i think I will just plug plug along!

[David Head]

Therapy is a great thing.

[Gunfighter]

By all means if you have the time and enjoy doing it then it is well worth the effort. If you don't have both time and enjoyment then save yourself the aggrivation and buy an new one. I have one of each. I bought a buggy turnkey with a gelcoat finish and I redid one (which is for sale by the way on this forum )from the ground up. When someone says how nice it looks and asks if you did it yourself it's nice to be able to say yep. Why am I selling it you might ask? Simply because I don't need two and I like the yellow one better than the red one. It's a long long story. Anyway good luck with the project. Keep us all informed on your progress.

[Faron]

It looks like more then one person knows the body that I bought. It was Bill K's, and I bought it from some goofball he had sold it to in Houston. Bill & I were talking and he asked me to email him photos of my body...and he responded that it was his old buggy! Kinda neat!!! I figured that I had bought a fairly good body, but after talking to him confirmed it. After sanding it down and fixing the holes & small blemishes it is really shaping up to be one really cool buggy. When I bought it had a fairly mild blue and gray paint job. Now it will soon have Metal Flake Black, with BRIGHT Green & Yellow flames. I have big plans for this buggy, and when I get it back from the welder I will post some photos of it in its current state. I had always wanted to do something like this but never really had the spare money to do so. In looking back I wish I had started this a long time ago. Going out in the garage and escaping the daily grind is VERY refreshing!

[Buggy1]

I know Bill's Buggy He had and it indee was different but it will make a great buggy. I would love to see some pics posted as you go along, makes the winters seem less cold and lonely. I enjoyed deCaprio's website lots of good ideas in there.