What type of paint should I use to paint fibreglass flares?

Hey Moose,

Fibreglass can be a little pain full to paint especially if it hasn't been moulded all that well. However you do need to give the gel coat a good rub with 180-320 grit then give'em a good spray with primer. Gel coat is really porous, once sprayed you can see all these little holes in the primer called pin holes. You need to fill all these holes in or you final top coat will just do the same, pin holes everywhere. If you don't rub through the gel coat a primer-filler will be fine to spray on, but if you have lots of bare fibreglass you should probably put on some kind of etch primer to help with adhesion.

Two-pak would be the best way to go, but you can use acrylic, which is easier to spray with out all the professional equipment. You could take to a crash repairer and they should be able to do it and shouldn't cost to much, and they can colour match it to the new one, or colour code it to the rest of the car.

good luck

simo

Moose,

I sprayed my fibreglass flares and gave the gelcoat surface a clean with shellite or white spirit to get rid of the release agent, then a light sanded with 280 wet and dry, followed by a coat of plastic primer and then top coated with acrylic gloss all from cans.

They are four years old now and the paint is fine.

If you use cans just give the face of the nozzle a wipe with a cloth every now and then to stop paint build up as you spray, if left it will spit a blob of paint onto the surface

Repainted my bullbar the other day and wish I had used spray cans, the pressure regulator stuffed up on my compressor and I had to rub it back and start again.