sabre81

Any ideas what it would cost to have a fiberglass hood stripped and repainted a different color?

Also, is it difficult to strip it myself???


Thanks dudes

danksontl

I'd be very careful with chemical paint strippers. Any chemical that can remove paint may hurt the resin matrix that the hood is made of. Paint can be removed by plastic media or baking soda blasting. Both are much less aggressive than sand or bead blasting. If it were me, I'd probably sand the paint off.

Ryan 97 Ram Air T/A

Don't use chemicals or bead blasting on a fiberglass hood. There will be 3 layers on the hood. Color/Clearcoat - primer - gelcoat. You want to get down to the gelcoat but Don't Sand Through It.

You could save some cash by sanding it yourself. But if you are taking it to a body shop for paint anyway they can do it much faster and probably better.

I would think it would be $300-$400 to get a quality shop to sand, prep and paint both sides of a hood. No harm in making a few calls to get a quote.

frank mn

I agree Do not use chemicals it WILL eat through the gelcoat and the resin just sand it, and be careful not to make waves

sabre81

I've been told that fiberglass paint stripper is relatively safe... no?

Z28SORR

Just buy the strippers that are made for composites. They are completely safe, and do not eat into the gel coat!!!!!! You still don't want any of this stuff in the cracks and seams. So tape around them and just strip the large flat areas, sand the rest.

Fast Orange

you guys missed a very important question.. why are you stripping it? the hood can just be repainted a new color with out stripping..

sabre81

Hmm, wont it then take a crap load more paint to do that? I will be going from blue to red.

Fast Orange

no way man.. just one coat of the appropriate sealer most likely value shades 1 or 2 and 3 coats of read and you should be ready to roll.. if you strip it you got to strip it, sand it, prime it, block it, seal it and paint it.. i think sand, seal and paint sounds easier

sabre81

Sounds like i'll be taking the short way Thanks

Fast Orange

np.. btw.. spellin error.. haha.. red.. thanks..

sabre81

One last question... Would it be worth it to sand this bad boy myself? What type of grit sandpaper would i need? Would i just be looking to lightly sand it, to remove Wax, and impurities?


Thanks

Fast Orange

if there are no chips.. wash it with warm water and dawn soap.. rinse and dry.. then i would reccomend some type of solvent wipe like super clean, or dx330.. i think the super clean is alcohol based and the dx330 is petroleum based.. either way you need some type of solvent that grab the remaining wax or grease.. then wipe that off with a clean lint free towel.. next "if there are no chips or scratches" then you can just use GREY scotch brite. rub it so that it dulls the paint.. should have a nice haze.. give it to a reputable shop and inform them of your prep job.. "if it does have chips" i would reccomend sanding them with a block with either 320dry(my preferance)or 400 wet and feather them out..after youve feathered them lightly circlesand the area you blocked to remove any straight scratches.. the eye tends to catch anything perfectly straight, then use the scotch brite.. either way a good prep job makes a paint job look so much better.. btw.. the reason i said 320 dry is because they are going to have to use sealer anyway so the scratches arent going to show through..