How to prep a fiberglass hood?

[nighthawk15]

Not really something I've done before, but as far as I can tell this hood I have doesn't seem too terrible so maybe its a good beginner project? I have heard before that there is some special stuff that you are supposed to do to fiber glass before paint. I already have a guy that is helping me with paint and helped me get my car put back together after the minor wreck I got myself in last fall, but he already about threw the hood across the garage trying to make it fit up (turned out fairly good though!) so to be honest I don't really want to ask him for more help than he's already given me on that particular part if that makes sense :p Especially since he was a little against an aftermarket hood in the first place. Anyway, I was wondering if anybody would have a good explanation for a new guy as to how I'd go about the prep? Hell if any of ya happen to be looking for something to do I'd be happy to buy somebody lunch in exchange for showing me a few tricks.

[SOMTA]

Best I would guess is to make sure you degrease the door, KC auto paint has some thing you can wipe on it, this way you don't get any "fish eyes" showing up. If you touch the hood with your bare hands or anything that might contain an oil on it you end up getting those little rounded bumps. Than just want to make sure the surface is rough and I imagine spray on a good primer coat. Than lay the paint and clear over top and avoid touching it with your bare hands. If its a metallic, good luck. I tried spraying a replacement door for my TA and after my second attempt (after sanding down some crap that flung onto it from some plastic to protect surrounding stuff) it turned out pretty smooth, only the metallic was heavy on the corners of the door. Ended up spending $800 on paint and supplies (think that included the guns) and at that point I could have taken it to a local body shop and paid them to do it the first time right for near the same price.

[nighthawk15]

Thanks for the heads up, man. I'll definitely check into that cleaner. The entire car is getting repainted by the dude who's been helping me out and he knows pretty well what he's doing, so as far as shooting the paint goes I'm set. I just want to make sure it doesn't end up looking hella wavy from low spots or anything after its painted like I've seen before on some fiberglass parts. Again this hood seems pretty quality overall. In fact its from supposedly one of the better companies around (VFN Fiberglass)......but its still aftermarket, so some work is to be expected.

[SOMTA]

I would put the hood on the car and make sure it all lines up right. I got my hood from Trufiber for the TA and because of size the headlight covers had to be adjusted. As the guy told me when he first put it on "there is a big enough gap there we could have thrown a cat in there." The people we got the car from weren't 100% up front about the car and the body work done to it and things were tweaked with the car to try and make it look as best as possible, and not being a body shop person, I didn't even know where to start.

Just don't rush it. When things get rushed with things that take time it just ends up sloppy. ;)

[nighthawk15]

I would put the hood on the car and make sure it all lines up right. I got my hood from Trufiber for the TA and because of size the headlight covers had to be adjusted. As the guy told me when he first put it on "there is a big enough gap there we could have thrown a cat in there." The people we got the car from weren't 100% up front about the car and the body work done to it and things were tweaked with the car to try and make it look as best as possible, and not being a body shop person, I didn't even know where to start.

Just don't rush it. When things get rushed with things that take time it just ends up sloppy. ;)

Yeah definitely. Its already on and mostly lined up, but there is one gap that's a bit bigger than I care for on the driver's side. I asked VFN about it in a message with some detail shots and they seemed to think if I send a pic of how its sitting overall one of the techs should be able to help me get it lined up the rest of the way. The weird part is the rest of it is borderline perfect. On teh side with the issues the fender I got is also just a tad jacked up so I just ordered a different used OEM one and we'll see if that does anything to the gap.