I'm getting my whole car ready for paint, and due to my cf hood being basicly destroyed cosmeticly I'm painting it, since theres so much spiderwebbing / chips in it.

I'm probably gonna get going on it soon starting with sanding the whole thing down to reduce the spiderwebbing.

One of my questions is how far should i bring the gel coat down? I know your not suppose to hit the weave. What sand paper would you recommend? I'm probably gonna go at the hood with a D/A with 80grit, then smooth it out with 180.

Also i have a few chips, i was just gonna use fiberglass resin / matting to repair it, Does anyone have any better idea's? Just wondering in case i'm doing something wrong.

Thanks guys.

I would diffenetly not start with 80 grit. Remember its easy to remove material but very difficult to add it. All you really need to do is scuff it up with a scotch brite enough to take the gloss off and allow the primer to have something to bond to. As for the rock chips if they are down to the weave or close I would add some resin to those spots and smooth them out with 400 grit.

fastasseclips95 said:

I would diffenetly not start with 80 grit. Remember its easy to remove material but very difficult to add it. All you really need to do is scuff it up with a scotch brite enough to take the gloss off and allow the primer to have something to bond to. As for the rock chips if they are down to the weave or close I would add some resin to those spots and smooth them out with 400 grit.

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I'd have to agree that 80 grit would be much over kill

I'm using 100 grit at the moment right now to repair my hood. Personally, I would use 80 but then again I'm sanding by hand. Process is slow.

fastasseclips95 said:

I would diffenetly not start with 80 grit. Remember its easy to remove material but very difficult to add it. All you really need to do is scuff it up with a scotch brite enough to take the gloss off and allow the primer to have something to bond to. As for the rock chips if they are down to the weave or close I would add some resin to those spots and smooth them out with 400 grit.

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This is true only in the case of an undamaged hood.

If your head has excessive spider-web cracking you will want to sand all the cracks out. I would start with 80, and make sure to feather them out nicely so as not to leave noticable lows in the hood. Then, like you said in your first post, hit everything with 180. Lay a nice coat of primer down and go from there. Also, unless the chips are monstrous you can just fill them with a putty of some kind- no need to use glass.

Scrymerr said:

This is true only in the case of an undamaged hood.

If your head has excessive spider-web cracking you will want to sand all the cracks out. I would start with 80, and make sure to feather them out nicely so as not to leave noticable lows in the hood. Then, like you said in your first post, hit everything with 180. Lay a nice coat of primer down and go from there. Also, unless the chips are monstrous you can just fill them with a putty of some kind- no need to use glass.

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You do have a good point about the cracks. It might take a few coats of primer and sanding in between coats to get everything level to where its perfect, esp around the area's you use filler.

Yeah, its horrible spider webbing. So almost all of the gel coat needs to be taken off.

I'm painting this myself professionally in a booth, so ill be using a filler primer. Hopfully i won't need more then 2coats or primer.

I would not do the primer first. I would sand it down, then coat it in a layed of resin, resin is a bonding agent. Your not adding any strengh with primer. I would sand it down with 100 grit until the spder webing is gone and then a layer of resin then primer.