Bye-Bye, Berzerkeley

Update by Tom Heath to the Berkeley Sports project car
Sep 11, 2009

Removing the body would allow us to do a nice job on the prep and paint. Whether you’re dealing with fiberglass, metal or body filler, you can’t lay down a smooth coat of paint over a rough surface.

Thanks to some intense testing and sorting, our Berkeley’s handling issues were mostly cured. Even our gearbox woes were finally resolved. So we turned our attention to the Berkeley’s paint—or lack of it.

Be sure to check out the November 2009 issue of GRM for more details, but here’s the short version:

For months the Berzerkeley had been nearly naked, wearing nothing but gelcoat over its heavily modified 1958 fiberglass. We figured it was time to freshen it up a bit, so we removed the body from the frame—again.

Removing the body would allow us to do a nice job on the prep and paint. Whether you’re dealing with fiberglass, metal or body filler, you can’t lay down a smooth coat of paint over a rough surface.

After smoothing and filling some pinholes, we were ready to go. We decided to stick with white because it looked sleek and the red wheels popped against it. We shot the paint outside, and our patience was rewarded with a nice, smooth finish.

We finished off the look with red stripes from Hawkeye Graphics—the perfect complement to the vintage race car look.

After that, we realized there wasn’t much left for us to do with the Berzkerkeley. So we’re calling this one finished. Luckily, a friend offered to take on the project and continue developing it, so future updates are entirely possible.

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