Gilbern Chevy GT Body Restoration

[Keep it stiff]

The challenges of GRP bodied cars, I thought it might be interesting to post the progress on the Chevy GT from very tired hand-painted shell to restored body nearly ready for prime and it's new paint.







|https://thumbsnap.com/CEBLwfL8[/url]





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[Turbobanana]

Thanks for posting, KIS. These are great little cars and I'm keen to see what this looks like done.

Are you keeping the original colour scheme, as you did with the other GT?

[Keep it stiff]

Yes, I will be recreating the original colour scheme for the Chevy, red body with white bonnet stripe.

Records suggest that the original red might have been called Peony however I don't think this is correct. Peony is on the pink side of the red spectrum and the colour used on this GT was on the orange side of red. The hand-applied repaint is not the correct colour, the painting around the number plate shows the difference, also I found the original red in various other places as I stripped the car.



I have purchased multiple bottles of touch up paints in a quest to find an off-the-shelf match, also I have had the paint shop scan the original to create a trial sample. From this I narrowed it down to a shortlist of three.



I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the colour that is top left, this is the mix that the paintshop had created from their scan.

[Ambleton]

When I first saw the picture, before reading anything, I said out loud "F"

Looks closest to me.

I've heard prepping GRP for paint is more tricky because the polyester in the resin crazes and mucks up the paint. Is this truth or not really an issue? Or is that only when a gelcoat is used?

[Lotus Elan +2]

https://www.itv.com/walesprogrammes/articles/vanis...

A 23 minute programme about Gilbern........ Don't worry it's in English

[Keep it stiff]

The Gilbern Chevy GT is back from the paint shop. I'm very pleased with my choice of red however I have discovered it is a difficult colour to photograph, to the naked eye it is bright red, to the camera it is looking looking pink-ish!

I can now crack on with mechanical issues and top of this list is repositioning the engine which right now is so tight to the body that it is impossible to fit exhaust manifolds or carb.

[Lotobear]

Nice result - did you strip back to gel and, if you did, what method did you use?

[Keep it stiff]

Lotobear said:

Nice result - did you strip back to gel and, if you did, what method did you use?

Yes, back to gel coat, by hand using thinner. Tissue applied and plenty of rubbing down. The same process was applied to my other GT, four years' ago, and no spiders so far.