Mini-proj - hole in panel fix&spray lotsa pics !!

[djivesp]

Finished my 1st real repair/spray jobbie, and was quite chuffed with the outcome, so thought you lot might find it interesting who have rust holes in need of a fix


Needed some work to tie me over till i make some bonnets, so, started off with my wanky £40 1hp compressor , some fibreglass and some paint mixed up from partco .. And an aluminium Land Rover Discovery in need of a good patch

This was the task at hand



After some more chippage ended up with this:




After some wire-brushing, keying and warm soapy water, duck tape'd the panel so i have a good reference of original structure




Some fibreglass mat


Then cut&clamped it in place so it doesn't move around





A good splodge of resin later, tape is peeled off:




Some bodyfiller&wet sanding later:


Then sanded some more, and masked off the area to be painted. Chose the bend in the arch to break up the 2 areas (old paint from new paint) as it's more difficult to spot the transition this way, and the arch lip was getting some oxidisation:


After a layer of etch primer:


(missing some in-between pics) but sanded down the primer a tiny bit with 800 grit, and sprayed the main coat on. Roughed that down with 1200 grit, then an aerosol laquer finished it off. (shop only had aerosol at the time )

et voila !!


Its quite obvious that the paint is new, but once it's had some cutting compound it wont be obvious at all

And the orange peel isnt so bad, considering it was done outside, AND with aerosol laquer

Then, noticed that the transition to the new paint was quite a thick step, and some of the adhesive from the masking tape had melted itself into the paint, it made a bitty line that i wasn't pleased with, so i roughed it down, masked off a slightly larger area, (next arch bend), and gave it another coat of paint and laquer.

That's the end result:




I dont think it came out too bad tbh, considering all odds were agaisnt me (**** compressor, wanky gun, thunderflies , aerosol lacquer)

any feedback/tips appreciated

chaars

[Jack]

Looks very nice, impressive stuff.

How stiff is fibreglass once it's hardened?

[djivesp]

Thanks man

Its very good, when it's hardened it has a small amount of flex, then it snaps, but if you give it a knock it actually sounds like aluminium all the way ... It's very strong to tension and compression, not so good for torsion (twisting)

[LongLiveTheNova]

Looks a top repair job, nice work

[Benn]

Very nice dude,
but you shouldnt sand the colour before lacquaring,

[djivesp]

no ?? thing was, the blasted bugs got stuck to the paint there was about 3 of them, so i thought i'll wait for it to harden then sand them off abit

i know what you mean though, it was difficult to then get the colour coat all even for the lacquer

but got there in the end wehey methinks i need a new compressor/gun for spraying the tigra , it was a right pain in the ass, the tank doesnt hold much air

[Benn]

when you sand the colour off it can go patchie,
and lacquar wont fill scratch marks from the sanding,
dont worry about evenness,as the lacquar will fill that in...

[CraigGreen]

Do you sand/flat lacquer though Benn?

And would you lacquer a colour like flame Red assuming that was metallic above?

Nice work though Djives. Well respectable tbh.

[Benn]

yeah you flat the lacquar off the polish it up...(flat and polishing)
removes the orange peel,and brings up the shine,
you can lacquar directy gloss yeah,helps with shine and durabilty (sp?)

[djivesp]

thanks chaps !!

So benn, if i went over the lacquer with wet&dry, what sort of grit would you suggest ?? is 1200 fine enough ?? I thought it'll go dull ? or is it the buffing afterwards that brings it back up ?

[Benn]

yeah will go dull,
then polish it up with a compound will bring the shine back,

does it really need it?
looks ok from here,
but if you wanna go with 1500 very wet,

[Jack]

I used 1600 on mine. Put a few coats on, was nice and orange peely. 1600 to make it flat, and then polished it up.

It's a bit crappy and light in places though. I lose at painting.

[Benn]

1600 then paint?

[Jack]

Nah, I ran out of paint and was so cheesed off with it that I just compounded it back to shininess and stuck it on.

Sod it. Might put another coat on if I'm ever that way on again and have a tenner burning a hole in my pocket.

[Benn]

ah cool,

[MarkyG]

that looks spot on with the tools you used. next time use colour can and lacquer from the gun as its the lacquer that really determines the finish.

[djivesp]

hehe thanks,
now i know,
would have done it differently now but hey it's all a learning curve

[corsarob]

you should never wet flat filler! its porous (sp) as **** so will soak all the water up

[djivesp]

thats when an air-gun comes in handy - blasts all the water right out

i've found it depends what filler it is, the stuff i got (i think its loctite?!) was non-porous (lol whats the term?!) so it was alll gravy

[Jack]

Originally Posted by djivesp

non-porous (lol whats the term?!)

Non-porous.

[P17FLD]

Originally Posted by Jack

How stiff is fibreglass once it's hardened?

Stiffer than Ron Jeremy's winker

[djivesp]

Originally Posted by Jack

Non-porous.

lol, english never was my strong point

Originally Posted by P17FLD

Stiffer than Ron Jeremy's winker

just breaks abit easyer