Another Pace427 heading to Vic

[400TT]

Just wanted to add a note about our gelcoat bodies.

Our original intention with the body quality and finish was the following:

* Provide a high quality gelcoat body finish that produced a higher quality end result when painted. Also providing better long term durability and a cheaper paint price due to the lower amount of work involved.

* Provide a high quality gloss appearance body to the customer so that while the body is not painted it looks attractive to the owner, friends and family. And the body could be left unpainted for the build, registration process and then painted at the end.

We never intended for our cars to be left unpainted as in general kit cars are painted because they have to be, the gelcoat body finish is unsightly.

80%+ of our PACE 427 kits are planned by the owners to be left in Gelcoat and are fully detailed or will be fully detailed.

We do provide a factory option to detail the body ourselves. But it takes a lot of work and a high skill set to produce good results. We also go further and specially spray the under panel returns etc. when doing our detail.

The gelcoat depth can only be a set thickness without causing issues and we are very careful to provide a consistent gelcoat thickness over the entire body.

Yes, we use special gelcoat on our bodies, not the same gelcoat that you see on a typical kit car. That is why our gelcoat does have the appearance of paint. It is also why is holds such a high gloss and why it is durable as a final finish on our kits. Since gelcoat is typically a solid colour without clear on it, it does not typically show depth. But we give the illusion of depth to the gelcoat by introducing translucency to the gelcoat.

If anyone is going to home detail our bodies, please contact us to get some important tips. The big rule number 1 is minimise gelcoat removal. We even tape the body up on either side of each seam, so that you only take material away from the seams and not from the surrounding areas as much.

I saw that Guy has noticed what he suspects might be thin areas. These might not be actually thin areas, but depending on the level of body you get from us will vary the amount of carbon fibre that is used in the body creation. The Carbon Fibre layers effectively block out the body and reduce or virtually stop light from transmitting through it. Guy's body may be just transmitting light through it making it look like the gelcoat is thin and transparent. Applying black paint/body deadener to the underside will reduce or completely eliminate the transparency.

On the subject of durability, Gelcoat is pretty unique. Although it may be softer than 2-Pack paint, it is actually more durable and a lot easier to repair than 2-Pack paint. So we recommend Gelcoat finish on cars that are used on the track.

Gelcoat will never look as trick as 2-Pack paint as it is just a sold colour, no clear, no mica/metallic/perl effects like you get in nearly all paints these days.

But at the Nationals the 3rd and 4th cars in the Show and Shine were both PACE 427's with a gelcoat finish. So Gelcoat finish is certainly acceptable.

Today at the workshop we are packing up a black detailed Gelcoat finish PACE 427 and the finish is amazing, very few people would guess it was gelcoat.

We also recommend using the likes of quality fine auto polish and carnauba wax to bring out the best look to the gelcoat. And the carnauba wax will also protect the gelcoat from UV and exposure, like it does for traditional 2-Pack paint.

Enjoy your beautiful Gelcoat finish Guy!!!