Polishing fibreglass

[Maldini]

Good day all,

I have been asked to polish an 04 vette, as we all know that car is all fiberglass and well my experience with that is somewhat low. I will be using my Makita rotary with the full a line of poor boys polishes, optimum polishes/compounds and of course all the pads from Lake Country. The paint is not in that great of shape, more then just swirls there are some signs of abuse and poor washing.

So anyone with experience polished a vette, or working on fiberglass that can offer advice I would really appreciate it.

Thanks.

[killrwheels@autogeek]

first.... Vette has not been fiberglass in years, it is a plastic polycarbonate material most similar to painted lexan these days.

second ... the C5 and C6 Vette have about the hardest clearcoat known to man and need alot of work to repair. Using a rotary over PC is a good choice for the experienced.

You can treat the car just as you would any other car, since paint and clearcoat are over the plastic material. An Orange LC pad with SSR 2.5 is a nice starting point. Realize you will likely get some micro-marring and need to move to a lighter (white) pad and lighter (1.0 SSR) polish. You might even then want to jewel the surface using same polish and a finishing pad.

Good thing is paint on an 04 (last year C5) should still be salvagable and likely no clearcoat failure. I highly suggest a good wash, claying, paint cleaner (to remove any oxidation), and then polishing and finally protecting.

[Maldini]

Killerwheels thanks for the reply. Lots of good information and advice there as I did not realize the vette has such a reputation for a hard clear coat.

What speed do you work at with the SSR 2.5 on vette and how quickly does the paint heat up?

I will for sure take your advice clay the car before attacking with SSR 2.5.

Thanks for the help.

[killrwheels@autogeek]

with a rotary I would not play above 1500 rpms ... I would usually stick to 1200. If you decide to use PC then full tilt. Wool pads cut well on the Vette, but seriously harsh so please be careful.