Flashlines

Probably the most laborious job of the whole build will be removing the flashlines from the body. These are small ridges of gelcoat left over from when the body was made in the mould. The GD body has a single flashline that runs right around the outside edge of the whole car. Removing the flashline involves reducing the small lip as much as possible before rubbing down with wet 'n' dry paper. I used a small file to remove the high spots. To prevent or at least reduce the chance of scratching the body I wrapped the file in masking tape to leave just small section exposed. By running the file sideways and concentrating the small expsoed area on the flashline, any other part of the file coming into contact with the body was wrapped in tape and should prevent any unwanted scratches.

So to begin, first take your perfectly formed, very shiny and impeccably finished GD body:-

Lightly file along the flashline, sand with 600 grit wet 'n' dry to remove the ridge and then with 1200 grit to remove some of the marks made by the 600 grit and get left with this. Sacrilige !

OK, so there's obviously a bit more work to do, firstly with 2500 grit to remove the marks made by the 1200 grit and then various stages of rubbing compound before polishing to the final finish. Here's a picture of someone elses to give you an idea of what can be achieved with a little elbow grease. This car has not been painted, it's just polished gelcoat!