Antique & Collectible body/paint question

[jerry w]

Hey Guys,

Starting to plan ahead, I am getting a gelcoat paint/finish from A&C, but I want to have stripes painted on and then a clear-coat applied. When I start talking with painters I want to speak knowledgeably about what I want done. Educate a newbie on body prep. What has to be done to the gelcoat to prep for the stripes and gelcoat? Anyone have a good painter to recommend in NY? I would be willing to take the body most anywhere in the Northeast (I live in the North Eastern part of NY). By the way I am watching it snow with 12-14 inches! Think Spring Thanks for your comments.

Jerry

[Roscoe]

Send an email to Tony Madrid....I believe he had his done last summer.

Roscoe

[TonyMadrid]

Jerry,

Shoot me an e-mail with your # and I'll call you with info on who did mine and what exactly he did.

Tony

[John Poling]

Hey Tony, glad to see you've made it through the tough winter over there.

You may want to post some information here, this could be helpful to others in the future.

How's the engine?

Hope everythingis well.

John

[TonyMadrid]

Hey John,

What do you mean made it through the winter. Winter's still here. We got about seven inches yesterday and this AM it was snowing again. Supposed to snow, on and off, until Friday afternoon. Seems like Old Man Winter is fighting to stick around.

Anyway, I spoke with Jerry about clearing over the Gelcoat. What I had done is that I took my body to a local painter and he scuffed up and cleaned the gelcoat finish. He then taped and painted on the stripes. After that, he shot a few coats of clear over the entire body and then buffed it out.

The stripes are buried under the clear so there's no ridges at the edges of the stripes. The clear gave the finish a deeper luster.

As for my engine, it was fine when I put the Cobra to sleep before the Winter. I was hoping to fire it up this week, but with the snow, that won't happen anytime soon.

Everything else is good and I'm just witing patiently for the warmer weather as I have a lot of cruises and shows already on my calendar.

Tony