Thread: Followed Me Home, '33 Build

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Roger, The old "masking tape on the run" trick worked better on old Alkyd and Acrylic Enamels than it does on modern Urethanes, but it's still useful. For small runs in the clear, I just let them harden completely and then "shave" them off. I have a piece of an old Vixen file about 1 1/2 inch long. I wrap each edge with a strip of masking tape and then shave the run down until nothing more is coming off. At that point, the remaining part of the run is only as thick as a piece of masking tape, so it sands and buffs easily.

As for the hood - where the old 'glass meets the new and shows up - that's called "read-out". I worked at Eckler's Corvette years ago; any area of a car or fiberglass part that had the gelcoat disturbed got re-gelcoated before final sanding and paint. If you didn't gelcoat the new 'glass work on the hood after you finished working on it, that could be the problem. If you gelcoated it and it's still showing, it could be a difference in the resins (whatever you used may be slightly chemically different than what the hood was made of) and the new and old 'glass have different shrink rates. My advice is leave it alone for about a year until the new 'glass is "seasoned". If it's still showing read-out then (or if it gets worse) and you decide you just can't live with it, strip the hood, give the whole thing a fresh coat of gelcoat, and repaint it.

Originally Posted by J. Robinson

Roger, The old "masking tape on the run" trick worked better on old Alkyd and Acrylic Enamels than it does on modern Urethanes, but it's still useful. For small runs in the clear, I just let them harden completely and then "shave" them off. I have a piece of an old Vixen file about 1 1/2 inch long. I wrap each edge with a strip of masking tape and then shave the run down until nothing more is coming off. At that point, the remaining part of the run is only as thick as a piece of masking tape, so it sands and buffs easily.

As for the hood - where the old 'glass meets the new and shows up - that's called "read-out". I worked at Eckler's Corvette years ago; any area of a car or fiberglass part that had the gelcoat disturbed got re-gelcoated before final sanding and paint. If you didn't gelcoat the new 'glass work on the hood after you finished working on it, that could be the problem. If you gelcoated it and it's still showing, it could be a difference in the resins (whatever you used may be slightly chemically different than what the hood was made of) and the new and old 'glass have different shrink rates. My advice is leave it alone for about a year until the new 'glass is "seasoned". If it's still showing read-out then (or if it gets worse) and you decide you just can't live with it, strip the hood, give the whole thing a fresh coat of gelcoat, and repaint it.

many years ago i pick up one of them vixen files sold by stec ? made for paint drips came mounted in a small wooded block .i did not like it. still in the top of my tool box .i use to take a razor blade single strait blade and round the corners off and use that. they work good and what we call... a snot block ..it was like 1200 girt in a small block that you could sand to form it to the shape of panle you where sanding what was nice about the block as it was soild grit it could be sanded if it started to load up
use to do alot of SMC and used fiber gell made by swiss had very good hold out . the good old days alkyd and enamels with no kicker will weed out the good painters fast