Fiberglass hoods hard to get good paint?

[spoulson]

I had a new Cervini's cowl hood put on and have been having a hell of time getting good body work. I went with a local shop that a Mustang enthusiast friend recommended.

The short story: I test fitted the hood and by my blunder I botched the latch alignment which caused the hood to fly up on a test drive. So, I got the car to the shop to now fix the cowl in addition to paint the hood.

The cowl turned out great. But, the hood just can't seem to get just right. The shop owner claimed to have baked the hood before and after paint, but can't seem to explain why there's these marks in the paint job that he says are either paint getting sucked into the resin or resin being baked out if the glass. What I see are several small dimples, lumps or lumpy spots. I tried my best to get it in the pics.

The shop owner can only give me excuses as to why fiberglass is so hard to get perfect, I may have cracked the gelcoat when the hood flew up, or that I basically paid for an economy job. I dunno, I felt I spent a bundle getting all the work done. Is this really something to expect when getting body work done in fiberglass?

 

[2BADSTANGS]

I just installed my second Cervini's ram air hood, and the instructions called for a special type of primer to be used on it, forget what it's called, I'm sure Cervini's can tell you. They also said to let the hood sit in the sun for a few days. I let mine sit in the sun for about a week, and used the recommended primer (kind of expensive stuff) Mine came out perfect, I didnt have any of the issues you are describing. Check out my garage for pics, it's on the '93. I would be inclined to believe that the shop did not follow Cervini's instructions down to the letter... (can you say shortcuts?) Just my opinion... Hope it all works out!

 

[spoulson]

Yes, I do have that instruction sheet. I reminded the shop owner about it and he said he knows and blah blah, we know what we're doing, etc. Well, I guess I know who not to go to for future work. After all, I'd love to have all the panels matching.

 

[seths99cobra]

first of all you dont have to have a special primer to prime fiber glass if that helps just another way to get money from you. the hood that i put on my car was so thin when i bought it you could literrally see threw it in the sunlight. so this is what you need to do i paint cars for a living im not going to screw you over. i sanded the gel coat 180 on a soft block then with 220. then i wiped the whole thing with fine glazing putty in a squeez tube let it dry then i sanded it again with 80, 120, 180 all on the soft block then 320 on a da with a soft pad on it carefully not to mess up the smooth and flat surface. then i primed the hell out of it with water bourne primer from basf thats what i use everday but you can use any descent primer nason, ppg, basf, keystone. primed it then went over it with 400, 600, 800 on the da then i sealed and based and cleared it. this is something you can do in your garage for around $500 or less just what you buy. far as the spots you see thats a contaminate and its causing the primer to bubble up eventually itll start peeling, probly from something where they fixed a imperfection in the gel coat and when they painted it it reacted badly. if you redo it and you use any water bourne primer you have to have to use a water bourne sealer and base and clear. if you use a lacquer or solvent based paint it will eat up the water primer and screw up the fiber glass causing alot more trouble. my buddy did a right up on his hood when he did his but its on streetcarsusa.org if you wanna see pics step by step. hope that helps