Restoration of Blazer Top and Hatch?
 

Was hoping someone has some experience in restoring the fiberglass top and hatch of a Blazer. First, my paint is a mess; chipping, cracking, etc. What is the best way to get this paint off and start from scratch? I don't want to sand since I want to keep the original texture. What is the best way of going about doing this? I wouldn't think you could have it blasted??

Secondly, I have to fix some minor cracks in the fiberglass. What is the best material to use? Should I have this done by a fiberglass repair shop?

Lastly, what type of primer/paint is the best to use and what is the original color of the top? Mine says white, but I know there are a "ton" of different shades of white.

Any help would be great. THANKS!!!

I don't have all the specifics you need, and we had our top restored a little different because we went with a smooth finish, but here is what I know from having ours done.
We used chevy white, and had the painter add a little flatner to it so that it wouldn't be to shiny. I am not sure what happened, but the first time he painted it the color looked grey! They he redid it without the flatner and it looks nice and white. We had a friend who builds boats redo the fiberglassing to get rid of any brakes or cracks, and I am not sure how he did it. I was told that we will probably get cracking in the seam above the back of the side windows because it is a stress point, so we shouldn't have filled that seam. Check out BobbyK's webpage he shows redoing his top and keeps the orig. texture. He is a great guy to get info from too. You may have to sand off your chipping paint, or use some sort of paint removal method, then retexture the top. Good luck to you- wish I could be more of a help. I will ask the guy who worked on my top what he used for fiberglass repair-
Diane

Diane:

That was one of the other questions I had...is it good to fill the stress areas or leave them as is. The top I have is in pretty good condition as far as cracks go; there's a 1 1/2" crack near the front, but other than that, it's just stress cracks here and there.

Chevy White looks good. I saw a pic. of you Blazer top and it looked "really" good. I just want to go basically original and keep the texture and have near the same color that it came originally.

Oh..and do you have the webpage you talked about?? I'm not sure what the web address is.

Thanks for "always" being so helpful :D

A few guys over at ck5 redone thiers and to get the tecture back sprayed it with bed liner and it is close to origanal and you can get it in white so it does both adds the tecture to the top and paints it white. for the fiber glass work I would use the west sytem to repair it you can get it from west marine its used to fix boats.

Umm,well I don't have a web page,just site I store my pic's on.
Click the link in my sig. to see ALL the pic's I took while re-doing my Blazer or here are the pic's of the top.

I had cracks like this on all 4 corners of the single wall top.


http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...a/fc92ad01.jpg

sanded off the orig. finish here.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...4/fc666698.jpg

This is the area around the back hatches T-handle.It was BADLY cracked here.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...4/fc666677.jpg

This is the bedliner I sprayed on.It's a two part system and it's white in color.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...4/fc6665a1.jpg

this is how the bedliner turned out.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...9/fc256534.jpg

close up.http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...8/fc25652f.jpg

Thanks so much for the pictures. Your Blazer top looks really good; that's exactly how I would like mine to look with the texture. What material did you use to fill in cracks prior to spraying on the Gator Guard II? Also, what did you use to sand the top and did you do the inner top the same?

Sure do appreciate the information.

I prepped the top by following the instruction on the can of Gator Gaurd.I needed to get all "loose" material off so the Gator Gaurd would have a good base to stick to.

I sanded the top down with regular old sand paper,100 grit I think.Don't get too aggressive or you will get into the fibers past the gel coat(grey color in pic's).

We used an epoxy resin to fill the cracks.
I'm sure if you go to a autobody supply they can give you the right products for the job.Just make sure you tell them exactly what you'll be using it for.

I only coated the outside of the top.I'll be painting the outside and inside with a marine grade gloss white in the near futor.

The Gator Gaurd was a dull white right after it was applied but has since turned to a off white.That's the reason for the paint.