How to prep 1st gen blazer fiberglass top

bmenard

Member
Has anyone had experience with these? Aside from needing some minor crack repair which a skilled guy at a boat shop is handling (no paint expert)
they are made of SMC (?) and have an odd granular textured finish on the outside. My gut says epoxy prime and sand only but wondering if there are any good ideas here. Have 3 of these to do eventually.
 
Depends what you are trying to do. We did our jeep and just ended up sanding thru the texture and made it smooth. You can do a texture with a modern gun by lowering the pressure and opening the fluid all the way to blend them together. Normal textures are done with a pressure pot where you increase the flow of paint thru the hose while lowering the pressure and are more controllable.

The other option is to use a paintable bedliner that has a similar texture. I just say paintable because most are epoxies with no life in uv and the few I have seen with urethane are only part urethane and part epoxy. I do not know if the texture was in the fiberglass or whatever they are made of, so sanding it smooth would probably require a gel coat again for a professional job.
 
So sanding smooth and 2 nice coats of epoxy not an option for a base? why gelcoat instead of epoxy. Genuinely curious have not painted anything fiberglass I cared about before.
 
Epoxy is better than gelcoat as far as flexibility and strength. I have done the texture with epoxy by spraying 2 coats, waiting an hour or more and backing off 18-24 inches with very low pressure and just dusting a coat moving very quickly. Not perfect but it works.Try it on a scrap piece before shooting the top to get pressure and technique right.
 
So sanding smooth and 2 nice coats of epoxy not an option for a base? why gelcoat instead of epoxy. Genuinely curious have not painted anything fiberglass I cared about before.
Just from reading here about sanding into the gel coat and ruining paint jobs I have read here. Pretty sure if you are sanding the texture off, its thru.
 
The texture was in the mold . Sand it and apply a urethane tinted bed liner or epoxy and splatter coat .
 
Back
Top