MSA Fiberglass airdams

[kcoke]

So my 71 240z has been in the body shop now for about a month and a half and the Z is looking good! Its ready for paint! I got a call from the body shop saying for me to come down and look at the fiberglass airdam that I purchased from MSA. (type 2) . I go and they show me these little cracks all over the thing. Its small cracks in the gel coat. They said it would probably show up in the paint!! And if I want it to be perfect they need to spend about 8 hours on it!!! Whats the deal should it take that long to prep a fiberglass airdam?! I was told all you have t do is sand it down to the fiberglass and then throw a couple coats of primer on it? HELP!!? Im not going to pay another $500 to get the damn thing prepped. Other than that the Z is looking good and there doing a good job on the restore of the body.

[geezer]

A couple of questions come to mind here. How do you get "cracks all over the thing" and have it confined to only the gel coat? Did you do like most of us and buy it long before this anticipated paint job? If it was recently bought, I think I would either return it, if it's a manufacturing defect or deal with the shipper if damaged in transit (if insured). Most of my fiberglass experience comes from repairing fiberglass boats. Normally I see damage to more than just the gelcoat when dealing with stress cracks. Usually it entails digging out the crack in a v fashion and flaring out the repair with glass & resin. It is possible to strengthen the repair from the backside of a spoiler also. It can be labour intensive and it's too bad you have to go through this with a new part. The body shop did the right thing pointing it out to you before doing anything. It's not their fault and I give them credit for not just temporarily covering it up with paint. I don't think they will charge an extra $500 to prep it, that seems excessive.

[kcoke]

I bought the air dam the day the car went into the shop which was about a month and a half or so ago. Then it saw in there body shop for about a month or so... They are all little black cracks that are in just the gel coat. They said to make it perfect it would take about 8 hours to fix..which I believe is hard to believe. They Body Shop is really good they have been doing a good job on the whole Z and it was nice for them to point it out. I am going to take it to a fiberglass specialist tomorrow. Hopefully he will have some good news for me? :/

[Mike]

Most fiberglass parts will need some kind of preparation before they are painted and installed. 8 hours seems a little excessive, but, I don't know what kind of work they need to do. I would think 4-5 hours for an airdam is appropriate (prep work and paint). There should be at least an hour or two for install (depending on the amount of work needed to mount it properly).

I agree with geezer.. maybe you can call MSA and ask them if the other air dams have the same problem. They could do a swap out... but, you'll have to wait.