hello all. i'm in the process of restoring an old pantera. i'm blocking it down right now and i'm wondering if i should shoot a layer of high build surfacer on it to really get it straight.

i'm using ppg concept over ppg dplf epoxy primer. i have alot of spot repair so i'm going to primer the whole project. (i have the material on hand)

any insight on this? i really want the boat to look great and i'm shooting the sides in black with a white deck so the straighter the better.

thanks and have a good night, rob.

if you need to do a lot of fairing you should to stick to marine specific products if at all possible. For large stuff use 3M's Premium Merine filler and for a good high build sprayable product try Duratechs VE fairing primer.

hello dave. thanks for the reply.

my thought process was to stick with one manufacturer for all my material. since i already have the ppg dplf and the concept i thought i should use a ppg product for the surfacer.

is the "ve" duratec primer the way to go even with the ppg epoxy primer?

when you say use the 3m marine filler for the big stuff, do you mean it's ok for deep "v'ed" out cracks and filling in old snap holes and such or do you mean it's good for large flat areas that need fairing? maybe both?

i really appreciate your advice as i really want this project to come out as best it can.

thanks, rob.

Rob i guess the question of mixing brands depends on how much fairing needs to be done. Theres certainly no problem crossing products as long as you know what they are and how they work(I can help ya there lol). When i use the term big stuff i mean large areas where the entire surface is out of true in the 1/8th inch and deeper category. If i wanted a boat to be as straight as possible i would first fill the deepest waves with the 3M filler, block that to the existing surface and then hit the whole thing with Duratecs VE then long board it down then use the DPLF then straight to concept color. I tend to like to keep film build as minimal as possible and work the surface as much as i can along with proper use of the products i listed. Basically you need to balance building up fillers and working down the current gel so you end up with a trued surface instead of filling everything up to a new level.

Anything V'ed out will need a high density filler like West Systems 404 then topped with 3M Premium. Most automotive high build primers are limited in there ability to straighten a surface, Its not really a good idea to dump them on in the amount needed to fill anything more then paint/surface imperfections and feathered areas. Unfortunately its extremely difficult to make boats look "perfect". The biggest problem starts with how they are initially lofted and built. Long straight panels (older Cig, Apache, . . . . Pantera etc) may never look straight by virtue of fact that as a panel approaches dimensionally linearity so does your ability to "gun sight" the surface and nothing looks straight at that level. If you look at most (if not all) new boats they have some sort of crown thrown into the surface and this masks any lack of straightness. That and many plugs these days are done on 5 axis machines in HD foam. I think the 24 Panteras may be exempt from a lot of this with only the back third of the boat being flat so ya can probably get pretty close. Good luck with the project

thanks a lot dave! you are a great help.