How to prep fiberglass cart for painting

[ehadams]

I am getting ready to paint my 81 Harley 3 wheeler.

The fiberglass is pretty rough. Running a bare hand over it can give some fiberglass splinters.

What sort of recommendations does anyone have to prep this body for paint?

Should I just sand and primer?\

Do I need to put some resin on it as it seems very dried out?

I will be using House of Kolors for the paint. I have some left over from a motorcycle project that I will be using.

Thanks

Eric

[miferrel]

To BGW

[master66]

First of all Welcome to the forum. Now without seeing a picture of the ares in question "which would be nice if you could post one" There is actually a few different ways you could go here but this is my recomendation. Start by sanding the whole thing with about 150 to 240 grit paper, the areas that are exposed fiberglass can either be filled with a short strand fiberglass filler "it comes in a quart can". This basically is like applying body filler but it has fiberglass strands in the filler. Or you could just use a polyester body filler as this will also stick to the bare fiberglass as long as it is clean, you may then sand that with 150 to 240 grit and proceed to primering. Good luck and let us know if you have more questions.

[master66]

Sorry about not telling you the brand of fiberglass reinforced filler, the one I use is by USC and is called Duraglass but there are several companies that make it, Bondo and Evercoat are a couple others.

[ehadams]

Here are a couple pictures of the cart. hopefully you can see what condition the glass is in.

This one is over the front wheel. I understand how to fix the hole, but it is the rest of it that I had questions on.



a second one.


Thanks
Eric

[master66]

that's a heck of a chunk missing! So the only real way to effectively fix cracks "and have them last" is to grind into the crack a little ways down about an 1/8th inch, this will, one clean out the crack and two create a trough effect to house the fiberglass filler or a two part epoxy glue that will bond to bare fiberglass . You can also do this on the back side to make sure you are getting a good bond. I will also if possible try to pull the crack apart a bit to see if I can get some filler or epoxy in the crack . Just remember to keep the fiberglass trough lower than the surface because you will have to put body filler over it.

[ehadams]

So do you think that the rest of the body just needs sanding and filler over the top.

Thanks
Eric

[master66]

Sanding yes then the only places you need filler are nicks and scratches you think the high build primer will not cover "not counting the fiberglass repaired areas of course".

[ehadams]

great thanks.

Eric