I have little experience with fiberglass and have some questions that I hope some of the experienced builders can answer.

I am building a Gen 1 ’33 Hot Rod and am incorporating some aftermarket parts from a now-retired third-party vendor. One item is a hardtop that works with the roadster windshield. The hardtop was delivered to me in late 2016 and sat outside until 4 months ago. The top was wrapped in plastic, but that disintegrated after a few years and since then the top was exposed to the elements. After bringing the top inside and cleaning it up I found a few issues:

1. There are two large patches where it looks like the gelcoat is clear and very thick, where everywhere else it is dyed black (see poor photos below). It seems like everything is solid – no apparent voids. It just looks odd. Is this anything to be concerned about?

2. The top of the hardtop is sunburned(?) It looks like the area was lightly scuffed with a Scotchbrite pad, but the sides and interior are pristine gloss black. Does anything special need to be done to this surface before bodywork / painting?

3. I found a small crater (photo below, ~1.5" x 0.75" x 0.25"d) under intact gelcoat (intact until I happened to grab the hardtop in that area and the gelcoat layer just cracked and flaked out), Should I just fill the hole with HSRF, or is some other repair technique necessary?

TIA for any information or suggestions you can provide.

Cheers, Keith HR #894

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