Thread: Followed Me Home, '33 Build

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I can't seem to find my little piece of Vixen file or I would post a pic of it. For anyone reading this who doesn't know what a Vixen file is (cometimes called a Vixen rasp), it's a flexible file with big curved teeth (8 teeth per inch) normally used for doing sheet metal straightening and shaping lead. Eastwood and other auto repair suppliers sell them. I attached a pic of one. I had a piece cut off about 1 1/2 inches long.

We used two kinds of gelcoat when I worked at Eckler's. They stocked a sprayable gelcoat in quarts and gallons and we also made our own sometimes by mixing body filler with resin (more about that later). The surface being gelcoated had to be bare fiberglass or gelcoat; there could be absolutely no paint or primer on the surface. We prepared it by sanding it with 80 grit. The commercial stuff was a polyester resin based product that contained talc (like primer). It had to be mixed with liquid hardener, just like regular resin. If the gelcoat needed to be thinned, it was reduced with liquid styrene. A small area could be applied with a brush, but the application was smoother if it was sprayed. If spraying, it had to be done immediately before it set up in the gun. After hardening, the gelcoat was sanded to final paint-readiness. If we sanded through the gel anyplace, it had to be prepped and gelcoated again!

For small areas (like your hood edges), we sometimes used a mixture of ordinary body filler and polyester resin (It's advisable to use regular body filler, not the lightweight stuff that contains glass beads). We would put a blob of body filler in a cup (butter tubs work good for this) and stir in resin until we had a brushable mixture. Then add the liquid hardener, stir it up and brush it on the prepared area.

Whichever method you choose, make sure you blend it onto the existing gelcoat far enough that it can be "feathered out" and apply it thick enough you can sand without going too thin or breaking through. If you're going to spray the commercial stuff, get a cheap gun that you won't use for anything else ($9 at Harbor Freight?) because if the stuff kicks in the gun you'll have to throw it away.