This is a very questionable project...it would take an incredible amount of work

July 1, 2012 | By Richard Prince

Question:

My girlfriend has had a Bradley GT2 kit car sitting under my deck for the last three years. She took the car apart and started body work on it back in 1993. At that time she was married to a body man, but he wouldn’t help her or touch the car. I would like to get this car running and looking good again. I have some body work experience, but I haven’t done any body work since back in the 1980s when I painted my 1969 Chevelle. And that project was done with lacquer paint. As you can see in the pictures I sent to you, this is a fiberglass car. The fiberglass panels have pimples, cracks and chunks of fiberglass broken out around the wheel flares and elsewhere. I don’t have any fiberglass experience, but I am willing to learn.

Body repair products have changed since I last did body work. So what products do you recommend to repair the fiberglass and paint the car? How do I repair the broken wheel flares, cracks and pimples?

Also, what steps should I take to get the old engine running again? I don’t want to get into an engine rebuild at this time, if I can help it.

Answer:

Judging from the photos you sent along with your letter I can say with certainty that your girlfriend’s ex-husband demonstrated profoundly good judgment when it came to not touching the Bradley GT’s body. What a mess!

Before laying a finger on the car, you should think very carefully about what you really want to achieve. If you will genuinely enjoy the misery, I mean experience, of restoring that horrendous body and the rest of the car then I would certainly encourage you to attack it with gusto. On the other hand, if your patience is thin to moderate, and/or you don’t want to have more time and money into the car than it’ll ever be worth, don’t even get started.

For about $5000 or $6000 you can buy a really nice Bradley GT that needs nothing or perhaps only a few minor things that aren’t serious or expensive. If you completely restore the one you possess you will easily have at least that much money into it just for parts and material and, of course, there will be all those many hours of your time on top of that.

If you do want to move forward with a restoration, the repair materials you should use for the fiberglass body are pretty straightforward. You’ll need lots of fiberglass matting and woven cloth (get a few different weights of each) and a couple of gallons of resin.

There are various ways you can remove the scabby old paint from the body, including chemical stripping, abrasive blasting and sanding, but as a starting point you should try scraping it off with a single-edge razor blade. Sometimes old paint blows right off when you use a razor to scrape it. When working with a fiberglass body you obviously have to take special care not to gouge or scrape the fiberglass while scraping off the paint. If the paint won’t easily scrape off I’d recommend using a mild chemical stripper specifically formulated for use on fiberglass. Your local auto body supply store can recommend whichever brand they carry. Unless you are very experienced with a DA sander I suggest staying away from sanding the paint off because you’re likely to damage the body surface by putting a lot of waviness into it.

In order to repair the missing sections you’ll need to scavenge them off another “donor” body or recreate them from scratch. In order to do the latter you can use a variety of different materials as a form to allow you to lay up resin-soaked fiberglass matting in approximately the correct shape and size.

For example, you can fabricate that missing triangular-shaped section of the wheel flare as follows: On both the front side and reverse side of the body sand down into the fiberglass with very coarse paper a few inches beyond the broken edge all the way around the perimeter of the missing section. Bevel the area sanded so that it tapers down toward the edge of the missing piece. Clean the front and reverse sides of the surrounding area with solvent and then apply aluminum foil duct tape in layers on the reverse side in order to bridge over the missing section. Wet the sanded area on the front side with catalyzed resin and then apply several layers of resin-soaked fiberglass matte against the foil backing and overlapping onto the sanded areas of the body. Use a fiberglass roller to flatten the matte out and roll out all air bubbles. Apply enough fiberglass and resin so the entire area is a little bit higher than the surrounding body. When it dries, peel off the aluminum tape from behind and then completely rough up the reverse side of your fiberglass patch. The easiest way to do this is with a small air grinder and a coarse grit grinding disk. After completely grinding the rear, apply several layers of resin-impregnated fiberglass cloth that covers the new section and extends a few inches onto the adjacent body area.

After this has cured you can finish the topside by sanding the repaired area so it’s even with the surrounding body and applying and finishing body filler to address any imperfections.

If all of the blisters in the paint are from corresponding blisters in the underlying body those will need to be ground out and fixed with fiberglass.

If they are only in the paint then they obviously will go away when you strip the paint. You’ll also have to go over the entire body and repair all of the stress cracks by grinding them out and filling the voids with resin and fiberglass.

As far as painting the car, it’s really no different from painting a steel body car. After all the body work is completed, spray on a high-build, catalyzed primer and finish sand that to get the flattest body surface possible and repeat with more high-build primer if needed.

The typical next step is to spray on a sealer and then your catalyzed urethane color and clear coats. It’s always advisable to stick with a single manufacturer’s system of undercoats and topcoats, and follow that manufacturer’s directions for applying and finishing the products.

Regarding the engine, when was the last time that ran? I see that the registration sticker on the windshield is dated 1993 and that, in conjunction with the overall appearance of the car, makes it likely that the engine has not run in almost 20 years.

You can remove the spark plugs and squirt oil into the cylinders and then try turning the engine by hand to make sure it’s free. If it is, change the oil, clean the fuel system and add fresh gas, install a new battery, do a basic tune-up with new plugs, etc., have a couple of large and fully charged dry chemical fire extinguishers within reach, say a prayer and turn the key. If it’s your really lucky day the engine will start and run better than new with no leaks, bad noises, fires or other unpleasantries.