For my money, stripping the body by hand (or a DA sander) is an incredibly mind numbing process.
And while a DA will do all the large areas just fine, the black hole of time consumption is in the small areas - inside the headlight recesses, the tail light recesses, all the concave curves etc. Also consider how to manage all the areas inside the engine bay and under the front bonnet.
When I did mine, I had the body sand blasted - I know, I know.
This was long before anyone offered niceties like soda blasting. I realise it’s somewhat controversial and many will rightly point out the dangers. The vital key to success with an aggressive process like sand blasting is the operator.
The guys I used were well versed in fibreglass cars and had done many before mine. I’d be very hesitant to use someone without that background and Ive seen such an example which wasn’t pretty.
Don’t expect a guy who blasts shipping containers every day to be sympathetic with a fibreglass body.
The up side to any blasting method, apart from the enormous time saving, is that you get a body back with the faults clearly showing. That’s very important and often underrated in my view. Plus, of course, any blasting method will remove the paint from all the rough inside surfaces like the engine bay etc.
Modern soda blasting is much less aggressive & risky, so that’s what I’d do.
Chemical stripping always concerned me. I’d want to be 100% sure there was no remaining stripper hiding away unseen and untreated, so, I’d vote no on this one.
As for finishing, it’a all about the shape, I reckon.
I use the usual repair methods - grind out and fill with chopped strand matt for serious damage and tissue for the spiders. Then, I skim over the repaired area with polyester filler to restore the shape.
For myself as a home gamer, I found the biggest hurdle was to develop a feel for surface straightness.
As part of that, I discovered that filler is softer than fibreglass and the amateur like me can easily think the panel is straight when there’s actually a dip where the filler was laid down . . and that’s even using a longboard.
Then, someone put me onto polyester spray filler (Duratec? - can’t remember) and that solved a couple of issues. Firstly, it provides a uniform surface that’s easy to sand dry and the often overlooked issue of pin holes.
Gel coat is pretty much standard for boats for obvious reasons but not needed on a car.
Epoxy primer has a stellar reputation for hold out so that’s an easy decision. With that said, I think I used a polyeurathane primer with no issue.
