Fiberglass top refurb

orange150

orange150

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Fairfax City, VA
I’m finally getting around to this fiberglass top.

The paint on the inside is all cracked and chipping. I know I have to sand it all day and build back, but is there a sander that makes the job easier than another? Right now I only have my little black and decker ‘mouse’ sander that I’ve had for probably about 20 years at this point.

Any other words of wisdom for this first step? Aside from wear a respirator :)

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You really don't want to spend all day using an oscillatory sander. You should use a dual-action (DA) sander for any type of body work like this. You can get them in electric and air power. Random orbit sanders would be the next best thing. Belt sanders are way faster than any of the above sanders but you have to be careful with them because material can disappear in a hurry and for body work you can quickly gouge a ton of straight lines into the base material due to the single direction of sanding.
 
Yup use a DA start with 60 grit, have to use a sanding pad on a die grinder for the radiuses and that'll look like a mouse chewed on it so go light and then hand sand the rusted out or run the DA on it tucking the edge into the shape. Finish it with some 300 grit and it'll be grand.

Open the rear hatch and put a box fan behind you to blow the dust away and you'll have a much better experience.
 
In case anyone needed a reminder. This ish sucks.

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I’m hoping to build a FRS 12 at some point in the near future and have read a lot about fairing. But man. This is not fun. All the nooks and crannies in this top are a pain plus not one surface is “flat”

I’m assuming the best way to attack spots like this is by hand?

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Yup, hand sanding is about it for the edges and valleys. If the glass starts to get fuzzy the best thing to do is go to Lowe's and buy some resin and then paint the resin on any rough surface to get a smooth finish. If you get a bad corner or edge you can go to west marine and buy some micro balloon filler and mix that in the resin to make a putty and smear that in to fill holes, ridges, wavy stuff or whatever. It should bond much better than body filler and be really easy to shape/ fair in.

Or just brush on some herculiner and move on with life...
 
Unless building a "show piece"... I'd knock off the loose crap with fine wire wheel, hit the high spots with minimal grit paper, and hit it whatever "liner" I could find in a LIGHT color...
 
Maybe I’m wrong but would a good stiff bristle scrub brush and soapy water be enough to “clean it”? Pressure washer? and then just paint with what you desire. I mean it’s not like you’re going for a smooth finished surface.
 
I think I’m done with initial sanding.
I used a mix of DA, the mouse for tighter spots, hand sanding for tightest spots, and a wire wheel cup in my drill.

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What’s the best thing to do with these pock marks? Should I fill them with hardener? Go over the whole thing with fairing compound? Or just buy lizard skin / herculiner / whatever and move on?
I’m trying to decide if I can live with seeing all the little bumps and what not once it’s done.

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I'd smear some fairing compound in the voids and call it good.

You could always roll the paint. Even if you spray it, you can come back over with a roller and put some texture in it. The finish on tops like that was never that good to begin with, so just knocking off all the high spots and filling the voids is going to look pretty good, not to mention that it's probably better lit in your garage right now than it'll ever be once it's back on the truck.
 
shawn said:
I'd smear some fairing compound in the voids and call it good.

You could always roll the paint. Even if you spray it, you can come back over with a roller and put some texture in it. The finish on tops like that was never that good to begin with, so just knocking off all the high spots and filling the voids is going to look pretty good, not to mention that it's probably better lit in your garage right now than it'll ever be once it's back on the truck.
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That’s right where my head is at, and I was planning to roll it from the get go.
 
I know you didn't ask about the exterior...however, mine was faded and looked like it didn't match very well....so I rolled the outside of my YJ. Looked phenomenal too

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I also rolled the inside black as well. I preferred it to the factory white as it kept it much darker inside. Though it wasn't cracking, I did hit it with kilz first to make sure what I rolled stuck to the inside.



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CasterTroy said:
I know you didn't ask about the exterior...however, mine was faded and looked like it didn't match very well....so I rolled the outside of my YJ. Looked phenomenal too

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I also rolled the inside black as well. I preferred it to the factory white as it kept it much darker inside. Though it wasn't cracking, I did hit it with kilz first to make sure what I rolled stuck to the inside.



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What paint did you use? Mine is just primered black that I did real quick before we moved to NoVa.
I'm still not quite sure what paint to use on the interior either. I used Killz on my half cab and that has held up great, but is there something better I could use as far as a durability and sound deadening? I figure temperature insulation is what it is, gotta be better than my soft top
 
orange150 said:
but is there something better I could use as far as a durability and sound deadening?
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Followed the old @Rich thread (summary: "Peel-N-Seal"d the interior of his WAM) on my old '93 Mullet (Mustang) GT with excellent results! While full application (*every* interior metal surface + roof) it took every rattle & resonation out, dropped general road noise numerous db's...
Fast forward 10-20 years, bound to be dozens of cheap "boom mat" solutions on Amazon to bring you the OMG?

Otherwise, if you looking for both a deadener *AND* coating... think LizardSkin has couple options?
 
Received @Clubbs old striker plates from his wrecked top today(thanks again!).

Interesting seeing how different yet similar my “original” plate is compared to the two he sent.

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