Chevy Cameo Fiberglass Bed repair

[polysci]

He all...

I'm getting ready to fix some of the fiberglass on my Cameo. One bed side is really nice and smooth, but the other is pretty ruff and I see fiberglass strands peeking through the ratty paint thats left.

I'm gonna start sanding these down smooth...I don't really need to do much with the passenger side, but the driver side...which is the ruff side, is where I am a little worried.

I guess my question is did these beds have gelcoat? That's what seems to be missing from the ruff side. Maybe I need to apply a new layer of gelcoat to that passenger side thats ruff? If they didn't use gelcoat on these, do I just need to sand the strands down to where the glass smooths out and call it good?

Any advice would be great. I have zero experience with fiberglass and need some help.

[_Ogre]

i associate gel coat with pre-painted items like boats where the mold is gel coated, painted then glassed
then the painted boat is popped out of the mold, i doubt if gel coat was around in the 50s

if the fiberglass isn't damaged down below the surface, i'd scuff it and prime it
then after total paint removal do the same to the rest of the fiberglass panels

any hair line cracks or impact dents will need to be ground out and tapered then fixed with fiberglass mat
3/4 oz mat will allow you to taper back to the surface without too much work
then body finish with polyester filler

[polysci]

Thank you Ogre....

I did a little research too and it seems that GM didn't gelcoat anything like you said. Thats cool it will make for a lot less work.

Most of the fiberglass looks ok, there are some cracks that I need to deal with around the tail lights but other than that it looks pretty good. The ruff areas are on top, maybe from the sun beating on if for all those years.

I went ahead a bought a 3M kit that has the resin and mat...I'm gonna give it a shot. Thank you for the advice...I guess it's time to get itchy now.

[_Ogre]

look in my build; i did a lot of the itchy stuff
i think i also explained the process and methods in some of the posts

those cracks around the stress areas (corners and tail lites) are the ones that need to be ground out
if the glass is 3/16 thick try to taper out 2 or 3 inches to each side
that way the repair will be as strong as the original

those kits usually come with fg cloth, not a fan of the cloth as i can't get it to lay flat or bubble free

[_Ogre]

when cutting the mat to fill the tapered crater think in layers
cut the first piece 1'' wide, and progressively wider for each layer
use a couple layers of masking tape on the back of the crater to keep everything from running thru

buy a bunch of 2'' chip brushes from harbor fright, cut 1/3 of the bristles off
mix 3 or 4 oz of resin in a paper cup, use the brush tip to wet the substrate, apply 3/4 oz mat strip and pack it down with the brush to smooth it and get rid of all the air bubbles
apply next patch strip and with just the tip wet, jab it into the mat
don't brush, you want to jab, jab, jab with the tip; this is called stippling
with the cloth stippling just introduces more bubbles into the cloth and bunches it up