What is the finish supposed to be on the fiberglass AC box in the engine bay? Raw fiberglass? Or painted black, or what?

I'm scraping the dried goo off of it and getting ready to put back on the firewall. It looks like there might of been black paint on it, can't tell. The assembly line used a bucket of goo to stick it to the firewall tho. http://www.nastyz28.com/ubb/frown.gif



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Scott
Dallas, Tx
1975 Camaro
1999 Formula
www.74-77camaro.com

they are supposed to be raw fiberglass to the best of my knowledge.

Thank You, Sir!

On my 70 the suitcase was a medium gray fiberglass color. It also had a hint of white fiber in it. I dusted it with a SEM interior dye gray I picked up at the body shop that matched almost exact.

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70 SS 454 CI Dynoed 684 HP, 702 TQ All Aluminium Fuel Injected Small Block , plus 200 - 500 HP NX nitrous system.

On my 70 the suitcase was a medium gray fiberglass color. It also had a hint of white fiber in it. I dusted it with a SEM interior dye gray I picked up at the body shop that matched almost exact. This was almost 8 years ago I did this so I don't have the exact color anymore.

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70 SS 454 CI Dynoed 684 HP, 702 TQ All Aluminium Fuel Injected Small Block , plus 200 - 500 HP NX nitrous system.

The below is resto in from JEFF BETZ. Until recently he owned the WORLDS BEST restored 77 Z-28. The following is Jeff's instructions for restoring an A/C box or Fan Shroud to look correct WITHOUT using "BLACK" paint.....

Sent from Jeff Betz 8/3/03


What I have done to restore several shrouds and A/C boxes is strip all
paint and grease and undercoating off them first. Then sand out any
scratches with appropriate paper and grit and hopefully get most of the
scratches out. Sand with nothing rougher than 400 grit paper before
the next step. Then I lightly blast the plastic with fine glass beads
to give the entire piece an even look. This will really make the part
look like heck, but the next step brings back the color very nicely.
Apply a coat of polyurethane clear satin to the part and let that
cure. I continue with coats of polyurethane clear to fill the
remaining imperfections while sanding significantly in between coats.
This is a long and boring process, but eventually you will get the
imperfections filled in. Finally finish with a coat of satin
polyurethane or if you prefer a flat urethane, depending on your taste
for shine. This method really allows the original plastic mold marks
to show through and doesn't give that just painted "black" look. I
have had no adhesion problems and used MinWax polyurethane spray bomb
available at Home Depot or similar stores.

Thanks, guys. The box is from an '81 that I'm placing into my '75. Right now I'm using razor blades to carefully scrape the thick crusted goo off, hopefully without hurting the gelcoat finish too much. I may try kerosene or brake fluid here to get that final last bit off without too much damage. Underneath it is kinda grey with white flecks in it.

I may have to try the poly spray idea on a shroud. So far I'd just been cleaning the heck out of it and applying Mother's Back to Black, which works great on rubber but not so much on the shroud plastic. I do have a blast cabinet with glass beads but I will have to check my shrouds to see if they will come apart enough to get them into the cabinet.

Also, what did you use to seal it back to the firewall? Rope caulk, seam sealer? I was thinking about maybe a very fine bead of RTV in the groove on the lip of the box. Just enough to seal.

Scott

[This message has been edited by sjones (edited December 21, 2004).]

I used strip chalk on mine, you want a good seal or wind noise could be a problem as well as water leakage. Also the Kerosene or something like that should get that stuff off. Check to see that you don't have any damage or dry rot by the lower motor corner. I found that mine had dried up and was about to crack from the exhuast heat (stock exhaust manifolds too)and I applied some putty to it to prevent it from getting through.

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78Z/28 done up like 81 383,350T...
80Z/28 in restification 355,350T vortecs....
1971 Firebird in waiting
2002 T/A WS6 A4
www.geocities.com/z28f41/ (http://www.geocities.com/z28f41/) AOL IM Secondgenmanic