Refinishing weathered fiberglass hood

[amuller]

So I bought a 1971 60 hp Evinrude triple. The hood is the most weathered of any I’ve noticed. The gel coat (if that’s the term) is mostly gone and one can see and feel the glass fibers. It must have sat out in the sun for many years.

Any suggestions as to how best to refinish this?

On the same item: Is there a convenient source for the foam acoustic liner in these hoods? Rodent seem to like it.

[outbdnut2]

If too much fiberglass cloth weave is showing for sanding, primer, and paint to fill in, go to an autobody supply or good auto parts store and get the "Bondo" type body filler that’s very light-weight and spreads really thin; and coat the whole thing and block sand until smooth, prime and paint. This is the industry accepted way to restore old cars now (steel or corvettes) and get them smoother than when they rolled out of the factory. Caution – the filler should not be thicker than a credit card when you are done sanding, and it’s OK to have the base fiberglass showing some as long as it feels perfectly smooth to the touch. If you watch the Velocity Channel’s old car restoration shows, all of them use this stuff now. Old school method was to put many coats of primer-surfacer on, sanding in between each coat to level the surface. This works too, but is a nuisance waiting for each coat to dry so you can sand. Primer-Surfacer is primer with a lot of solids in it to fill stuff in.
DAve

Note Bondo is a trademakerk of 3M.

Here is a small container of it:
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/MMM262

Be sure to get a spreader:
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/MMM354

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