Respray

[davidball]

My 1987 Cat is looking a bit tired. The nosecone and front mud guards are crazed and chipped. I will probably change from the present red to a silver colour. Do I need a special primer when respraying them?

[Sam_68]

Yes, ideally you need to use etch primer onto the fibreglass. Then on top of that you'll probably need a high-build primer to fill/smooth any surface imperfections.

But you'll also need to grind out any cracks, fill the ground areas with fibreglass tissue and re-gelcoat before preparing for spraying. It's a pretty labour-intensive process so if I were you I'd be inclined to just bin them and order a new set from the factory.

[davidball]

Thanks for the advice. I will look at the costs but the wife is away on vacation for two weeks soon and I will be home alone so I might try the respray.

[Sam_68]

Trust me, unless you grind out the crazing in the gelcoat, it will come back sooner rather than later.

It's one of those jobs where you're wasting your time unless you do it right, and doing it right takes more effort than it's worth for such simple mouldings.

[davidball]

Thanks, but if I will probably need to buy new moldings anyway there will be nothing lost in trying. It will be good practice.

[Chris71]

davidball said:

Thanks for the advice. I will look at the costs but the wife is away on vacation for two weeks soon and I will be home alone so I might try the respray.

Any idea on quotes to get it done commercially? In two minds as to whether to get mine done - it's smart enough for a track car (primarily) but certainly showing a bit of patenna. Depending on the cost I might look at having it done (plus a stripe... I wanted on with a stripe!) or I might just leave it.

[Noger]

Give Tony the Brush at TSK a call ?

[Arewethereyet]

While CC use TSK for many of their cars those in the know would use http://www.townleypanelandpaint.co.uk/

[davidball]

Well Sam_68 you were right. After 6 days work and about 120 Euros for paint the result is mediocre at best. I am not happy. When the paint has hardend enough to allow me to refit the panels I will post some photos. The rest of my holiday will be spent with my feet up, glasses of Trappiste beer in hand and the Beeb world service on the radio.

[Murph7355]

davidball said:

...and the Beeb world service on the radio.

Rock and rollllllllll

[rubystone]

fit bare carbon ones - so much easier, no painting and if the car is silver, they look great in their natural colour

[Sam_68]

Do Caterham lacquer their 'bare' carbon fibre, do you know?

If not, be aware that it eventually goes cloudy with UV exposure, particularly if it's moulded using the much cheaper polyester resin instead of epoxy (which would be normal for non-structural components). The carbon bodywork (although not the epoxy carbon tub, fortunately) of my Westfield is going to have to be painted shortly (at 9 years of age) because of this problem.

Sorry to hear it didn't work out too well, David.

[davidball]

Here are before and after photos.


The black stone guards were made from rubber car mats stuck to the oringinal chrome ones then riveted back on. The black snout was a pain to do. I tried to measure it accurately but gave up and did it by eye. When I had finished putting the panels back on I became convinced that the front mud guards were fitted the wrong side round so I took them off and swapped them over. They looked exactly the same! That summed up the entire week, lots of work for little or no effect.

Edited by davidball on Monday 31st August 09:52

Edited by davidball on Monday 31st August 09:56

[allen l]

Not sure if I like the rubber stuff with the silver rivets, but the car still looks a lot better.

[davidball]

Thanks for the feedback Allen. I tried leaving the chrome ones as they were but they looked really insipid on the silver.

[allen l]

David, you may consider to put some black on the rivets?