The attached photos are of a buddy of mine's FFR Roadster.
The car was done from raw gelcoat/glass to final buff & delivery by the same guy... the same guy who did my car. He is recognized in the FFR community as "one of the best guys to do your car", and has literally 100's of 'em under his belt. He's no noobie to working with fiberglass bodies.
The pictures are of the paintwork with 4100 road miles on it. The nasty ones are of the rear wheel opening "spats"/flares that kick out in front of the rear wheels (this is a known hi-impact area for grit kicked up by the front tires).
As you can see, there is PPF (Paint Protection Film) on the spats area, but not fully covering it. Look at the area(s) below the PPF, and especially under the PPF. It looks like the paint has failed/fractured under the film!(?) The unprotected area is chipped/chunked down to primer. (Lets just say he's scared to peel off the PPF for fear of taking the topcoat with it)
The chip pictures are of hits on the nose & hood area of the car (they have touchup filling them). Again, not just a chip/scratch, but a hunk of paint fractured out.
I'm asking for opinions, ideas, thoughts on the subject of paint adhesion or an error in prep before topcoating with color.
Is he running sticky tires? Current 200tw performance "street" tires are kind of known for beating the paint off of cars.
Lost in the 60s said
Dec 3, 2023
I've been thinking along that line too. It looks like he has been driving 50mph down a gravel road. Been a LOT of pot hole patching this summer with loose stones flying around.
-- Edited by Lost in the 60s on Sunday 3rd of December 2023 09:38:16 PM
dashboard said
Dec 3, 2023
Is the paint separating from the gel coat or is the gel coat separating from the fiberglass. I ask only because the point of failure appears to be fairly deep.
John D said
Dec 4, 2023
To answer some of the questions:
- He is running the "stickier" Nitto 5xx series street tires.
- No gravel roads or dirt-trackin' it... South Central Wisconsin two lane blacktops or interstate - I guess you could call it the average sampling of road conditions over our driving season.
- 95% of the damage is Color & Clearcoat are chipping off the primer.
Derek69SS said
Dec 5, 2023
Since the failure point is consistent, there is a possibility that it's an adhesion issue between the paint and epoxy sealer. Could be any number of things. Maybe sealer set too long before basecoat applied?
I doubt it's an issue with activator being bad or mixed wrong, since the sealer is staying adhered to the layer under it just fine.
I would expect there to be some peeling, or curling though if there's an adhesion problem.
-- Edited by Derek69SS on Tuesday 5th of December 2023 11:38:31 AM
dashboard said
Dec 5, 2023
Derek raises a good question. What color are the primer and sealer?
Lost in the 60s said
Dec 7, 2023
Has he tried to pick paint from the open chips with his fingernail or edge of a razor ? If it chips off, that would be an indication that there is an adhesion issue.
The attached photos are of a buddy of mine's FFR Roadster.
The car was done from raw gelcoat/glass to final buff & delivery by the same guy... the same guy who did my car. He is recognized in the FFR community as "one of the best guys to do your car", and has literally 100's of 'em under his belt. He's no noobie to working with fiberglass bodies.
The pictures are of the paintwork with 4100 road miles on it. The nasty ones are of the rear wheel opening "spats"/flares that kick out in front of the rear wheels (this is a known hi-impact area for grit kicked up by the front tires).
As you can see, there is PPF (Paint Protection Film) on the spats area, but not fully covering it. Look at the area(s) below the PPF, and especially under the PPF. It looks like the paint has failed/fractured under the film!(?) The unprotected area is chipped/chunked down to primer. (Lets just say he's scared to peel off the PPF for fear of taking the topcoat with it)
The chip pictures are of hits on the nose & hood area of the car (they have touchup filling them). Again, not just a chip/scratch, but a hunk of paint fractured out.
I'm asking for opinions, ideas, thoughts on the subject of paint adhesion or an error in prep before topcoating with color.
I've been thinking along that line too. It looks like he has been driving 50mph down a gravel road. Been a LOT of pot hole patching this summer with loose stones flying around.
-- Edited by Lost in the 60s on Sunday 3rd of December 2023 09:38:16 PM
- He is running the "stickier" Nitto 5xx series street tires.
- No gravel roads or dirt-trackin' it... South Central Wisconsin two lane blacktops or interstate - I guess you could call it the average sampling of road conditions over our driving season.
- 95% of the damage is Color & Clearcoat are chipping off the primer.
Since the failure point is consistent, there is a possibility that it's an adhesion issue between the paint and epoxy sealer.
Could be any number of things. Maybe sealer set too long before basecoat applied?
I doubt it's an issue with activator being bad or mixed wrong, since the sealer is staying adhered to the layer under it just fine.
I would expect there to be some peeling, or curling though if there's an adhesion problem.
-- Edited by Derek69SS on Tuesday 5th of December 2023 11:38:31 AM