repairing glass fibre body panels

[andygo]

Wonder if anyone can help here.

I need to repair a sidepod on my formula ford after a fellow driver took a bit of a liking to it.

I know the gelcoat colour, but has anyone had any success blending in a gelcoat repair?

I have tried before, but end up getting a visible line where the underlying fibreglass shows through. Been on several boat sites where they show you what to do, but all the boats are white. My car is red so a bit harder to disguise.

Thanks,

Andy

[teamHOLDENracing]

Would it not be easier to make the repair and then paint the whole panel?

[andygo]

probably. Been to the local motor factors who do a range of aerosols from a vast range of colour samples, but none matched. I know the gelcoat colour but it doesn't equate to a 'RAL' or 'BSI' number, so again, impossible to cross reference.

Nuisance really as the cars only 8 months old and I wanted to keep it looking as new as possible, rather than a dogs dinner of mismatched panels.

[CNHSS1]

to be honest it'll be a pig to match up. trouble with the gel coat itself, is that like a transluscent paint, the shade will change with the thickness of the gelcoat itself. im guessing (hoping) that being a race car, the gelcoat will have been sprayed onto the mould originally to give a thin even covering (gelcoats quite heavy for very little strength)so even with the correct gel coat, getting the thickness and thus the shade will be a sod. may be easier to cheat and make a 'feature' of the repair ie separate repaired area with a pinstrip or painted swage line as two differeing shades of gelcoat seperated by an inch or so will be much more difficult to spot than an attempt at blending in the repair. if the gel coat wasnt sprayed into the mould first, it will probably be quite thick to get an even finish, so you may get away with it, but only one way to tell im afraid and thats have a go. might be worth asking the panle manufacturer how the gels applied first though
as for painting, any decent body shop should be able to mix paint, and then paint the panel as a whole to match the rest of the cars gel finish.

[andygo]

Didn't really want to give the job to a body shop if I could get an aerosol to match.

Did the front nosecone with a aerosol and its matched pretty well perfectly with a really good finish at a cost of £7 for the aerosol as opposed to a quoted £65 for a pro job.