PHSSSST!!! Ever seen an Avanti naked

[sweetolbob]

Or better titled:

What to do with an Avanti with bad paint, 150 single edged razor blades and 50 hours of free time!!

The 74 originally looked like this when I dragged it home last fall.



After 50 or so hours with razor blades you get this.



It sure looks better in the picture than it does standing 5 feet away.

Folks on the forum warn you about the use of a DA sander to remove paint from a fiberglass car. Just as proof, here is what the PO did with a DA when he attacked the roof. You can see it's down past the gel coat in many places.



What I plan to do from here is to repair the damaged/cracked area by glassing the back side and using Evercoat Vette filler (Made to adhere and fill fiberglass and SMC panels) by deepening the cracks. I'll sand it to level it and then go over the entire car with 180 grit and spray with Morton Eliminator polyester high build for adhesion. I'll then resand any areas that need filling and use Evercoat Rage Extreme. Followed by more Morton and then the normal skin coats of Evercoat top coat and sand untold hours until smooth. Then prime and paint.

If any of you folks have any advice on my process or improved methods, Please chime in.

Another reason that there are no cheap restored Avantis. I'll bet most of the restoration folks that do Avantis media blast instead of hand scraping.

Bob

[doug]

Heck of a job, don't quit in the middle. Hats off to doing it right.

[Bob Langer]

I used razor blades and then wet sanded with 320 to remove the remains of the factory primer on my project 63. (not the one in the signature line.)

[bezhawk]

MFG or Studebaker didn't use a gel coat. They laquer primed right over the glass. It isn't a normal chopped glass sprayed into a single sided mold. It was pressed between two molds .
Very much like SMC is today. If you repair it with normal fiberglass, and a wet resin repair, it will show the repair every time. You must squeege as much resin and sop it up as possible. You only want enough to stick the glass matts together. I usually cover with plastic and squeege the excess with a plastic spreader.
There is a new polyester primer out from evercoat, called 'slick sand 4:1' it doesn't use resin hardener, and has better holdout than most traditional polyester primers.
When I strip a car down the first primer I put on is PPG DPHS 52. It is a super high build epoxy. It's better than the chip prone polyester.
If you do put a polyester primer down, be sure to sand it off every edge and opening, or you will get chips too deep to fill after the car is finished painted. (it's that brittle).
When glazing final body work I like to use micro-spheres or bubbles mixed in the glaze, it prevents sand scratch swelling further down the line. (be sure to use a respirator when working with that stuff.
prime with a good 2K urethane for final prime. NOT production primer. I like PPG K36. I block every grit up to and including the final 800 grit recommended by Sikkens. I use powdered gude coat between sandings.

[Gunslinger]

I never realized that Avantis weren't gel coated until maybe ten years ago I went to look at a '67 for sale. The body and paint were in great condition...except at the right angle you could see the seams in the body underneath the paint. They were faint but visible. I was surprised the cars were finished like that. The seams may not have shown when built in '67, but regardless of the smoothness of the finish, the seams became visible. Maybe the color of the car had something to do with

[53k]

I never realized that Avantis weren't gel coated until maybe ten years ago I went to look at a '67 for sale. The body and paint were in great condition...except at the right angle you could see the seams in the body underneath the paint. They were faint but visible. I was surprised the cars were finished like that. The seams may not have shown when built in '67, but regardless of the smoothness of the finish, the seams became visible. Maybe the color of the car had something to do with

I don't know about other seams, but the '66 I bought years ago had very visible seams where the added front wheel opening panels were joined to the original fenders.