I am trying to get my car back together as quick as I can in preparation for a move in a few months. Meanwhile, I have some parts that I have stripped and want to put back on. However, I want to at least get them primed as easily, quickly and cheaply as possible. I have read about brushable primers, but can't seem to find any info on these. Are there any that you guys have used or heard of? If so, are they compatible with the more common paint systems? If I have to strip them again, I guess I'll just have to do what I have to do, but, as I'm sure you all can agree, I'd rather not. Any ideas?

Well, I took a shot and got some dupli color primer sealer. It recommends reducing it, but I figured that was only for spraying, because it says that it CAN be brushed on. My advice? Even if you brush it on, reduce it. It is like trying to spread warm caramel with a paper knife. It starts to tack up almost as soon as you put it down, but it does cover well and stays on thick.

you use a reducer in order to allow it to do as it says and "self-level" this is the reason for the brush on application being reduced. it works well from what i'm told but haven't tried it yet!

I use a 'wash primer' when I just want to put something on hold. It's very thin. I get it from the paint store so that it's compatible to my surface paint.

I would recommend you buy some of Southern Polyurethanes epoxy primer. Over reduce it so it flows out. Use their hot weather reducer. Roll it on with a two or three inch roller (one not made of foam). Use a chip brush to reach spots the roller can't get to. That will seal it better than a wash primer. Wash primer is porous so it needs prompt top coating to lock out moisture. If the metal prep is good, you can block sand the epoxy later on and continue. If the metal prep isn't finished, whatever you use all needs to be removed when you pick up where you left off.

If your prep is complete, another choice would be to take your project to one of those shops who spray out $300 paint jobs. Their painters do a decent job spraying paint. Bring them name brand epoxy products and pay them to spray out two coats of your epoxy and ask them to discount the job $50 or so from their materials cost.

Whatever you do, stay with automotive paint products unless you're taking it back down to bare steel later on. I have a friend who used Rustoleum fish oil based primer on the rust prone areas of his Datsun before spraying on Dupont enamel. He thought it would be better at preventing rust than Dupont's automotive primer. Within months, each of these "specially treated" spots was molting large flakes of paint. He might as well have top coated over wax.

This is what the pros use in that situation;

No, it really isn't what pro's ues for a car that will sit waiting for completion. They topcoat that product very soon if they use etch or they seal the job in epoxy. It surely don't sit out in the rain. Etch is porous. It lets rust form on the metal beneath if it sets wet for too long. And you can't even see the rust beneath until later when it causes paint failure. We have all seen this. Rust pushes off the etch primer on projects set out in the weather. It is a great product for metal that has minor questionable rust flash, (if flash rust is very minor, maybe a color cast on the metal) but it won't hold out rust when a car sits in the weather or sits in humidity waiting completion. I've bought a few panels covered with etch and I always bring them back down to bare steel, because this product, as good as it is, is porous and it won't hold out water for a stored project.

Additionally, this product is unsatisfactory over body fillers, old paint, or any other substrate other than bare steel. It is unsuited over any OEM finish, even the tiny amounts you might have missed while preparing the car. On the other hand, epoxy is suited over dman near any clean substrate that is solid. It won't peel back off of a minor glitch of OEM finish left behind and it works over fillers just fine.

Chemical stripping of etch primed parts I have bought shows rust forming on panels covered with etch. Some you see rust bleeding though on lots of "driver" projects that are work in progress. You won't find any reputable restoration shop using etch for projects that encounter months of delays. Etch is a fine product for adhesion to bare steel when it receives a prompt refinish. But it doesn't hold out moisture over the long term anywhere like epoxy will. Use over anything other than bare steel is not supported in the product data sheet. A project that has no OEM finish remaining anywhere would be rare, perhaps dipped in chemicals or media blasted like my own project.

Since we are posting product photos, I'll post the only primer trust my project with.

Sorry. I didn't know it was going to sit out in the rain. The wash primer is good for storage indoors. It's a lot cheaper then epoxy and it cleans off easy. It was recommended by a paint rep. at the paint store. It works great for me. Any time you have bare metal just splash some on and you have a temporary seal.

Yeah, I admit rain was sort of a stretch for this discussion, but Zappa talked about a project being moved, his car moving and though implication loosing control of the project and storage for a few months. I figure that may include something other than garage cover and some rain. If I were going to spray top coat in a week or so with no moisture exposure, I wouldn't hesitate to use etch. More time or more moisture exposure, I wouldn't use etch without top cover. It really relies on the top coat to seal water out. For a project that is open ended (get back to it once moved and the dust settles) and it needs to be "closed up" for protection, I would use an epoxy primer. I like PPG's DPLF. My photo shows my conviction to PPG. (I like Dupont too, but the local shop isn't too friendly to diy) I won't trust anything less because this is a hell of a lot of work. Many say the SPI stuff sands pretty well, so that is why I suggested it. DPLF sands just fine when it's a week old. Three months from now, rollered DPLF will block sand flat, no problems. In fact it's necessary to sand epoxy and recoat it after seven days.

I have applied DPLF epoxy with a brush and roller where the gun can never reach. Where appearance doesn't matter (in my instance inside the cowl panel) or if you can sand it to continue the job I think it's the way to go over bare steel.

My no 1 choice in this instance would be to bring a gallon of PPG DPLF and enough activator to a "spray and pray" shop and pay them $300 to cover the car with two coats. Those guys paint a lot of cars and they could crank this one through with a nice job on the primer. These low budget shops spray lots of cars and the bucks is from skimping on the prep and products, which here is provided for them. That keeps the job moving, assuming this is truely bare steel and really ready for primer. If not ready for primer, I would look at Picklex. That might hold things a while. I doubt it would guard against rain though. Anything above 50% humidity seems to cause problems here, much less one rain or some outside storage. Even one night bare metal outside at 90 percent humidity had set me way back, lol.

68 Bigbird Quote; No, it really isn't what pro's ues for a car that will sit waiting for completion.

Actually, I just got off the phone with the paint rep and as an afterthought I asked if the pros are still using wash primer. He said, "Of course, they aren't going to pay $150 a gallon for our good stuff to just clean it off!".

Of course, I always use the good stuff when I'm building a substrait, and I'll stop just short of showing the product info because I'm not recommending it for the situation described. It's just too darn expensive to leave all of it on the floor!

Howdy
How about Slicksand or dp90???

http://www.mcmaster.com/

see p.2046

Anyone have experience with the spray or the self priming epoxy coating.

I can't stress this enough; When picking out any primer you work backwards from the kind of paint you are going to use. You pick out the brand of paint and then you don't get a lot of choices for primer. The paint store guy will show you which primers are compatible.

noted...thanks

Hey Jim, we agree on something! You start off learning the product sheets (P-sheets) on the paint product line you intend to use after visiting a local vendor who will service you start to finish with the necessary products.

You chose a paint system within your budget and goals. Then you follow the system start to finish. The most important section on a product sheet is what the product is compatible over top of and what products are intended to go over top. On restoration of a 40 year old car, bare steel is where you need to start.

The primer "open" window is pretty important. I see cars at shows that were top coated after the primer was fully locked up. Those are the ones where the paint lifts in a big chunk from minor impacts that should leave at most a scratch.

Most primer products have a short "open window" somewhere between one day and one week before top coats are applied. Few restorations proceed at that wonderful progress rate unless you have the cast of "Overhauling" working on your ride. If you miss the window for top coating, you need to scuff the primer and apply more of the same primer before applying the top coats. That means if you store a project a under primer and its a while before you complete your repairs, you need to scuff the job, and apply another coat of that primer product before you continue to the next steps. This is because the bond between primers and top coats is chemical.

Since many paint products say "can be applied over OEM sanded finish" that hints at deviations from good practice that "should" work. This advice on the product sheet means on your 1998 Honda, you can freshen up the paint without stripping to bare metal. This has no relevance to forty year old car restoration. On a forty year old car, you have to assume the OEM finish is not a satisfactory foundation for new paint. On a forty year old OEM finish, you would ignore the advice "over sanded OEM finish" and go back to bare steel so your job will last. Exception might be if there is a more recent refinish job that involved modern products applied over clean prepared steel.

Thanks for all the feedback on this. Just for clarification, the parts that I am priming are the fenders. Like I said, I put the dupli-color on and it went on THICK. Just for kicks, I sanded some down just to see how it did. It sands easily and is supposed to be compatible with most paint systems. (Of course, that may be true, but they might also just be saying that to get you too buy.) Either way, the parts look good and there is no rust, and I can't believe any will form as thick as this stuff is on there. The parts will be both indoors and outdoors for a while, so there isn't much I can do about the environment. Just have to deal with what comes. On an ironic note, I started pounding out some dents on these fenders and am now not even sure if they are worth saving. I have already created a fiberglass patch panel for one and the rear of that same one had filler a half inch thick on it. When the filler came out, there wasn't much metal there to repair, and what was there was totally rusted out. I figure I can pony up the money for some new finders or spend countless hours and dollars to fix these. I am leaning towards replacement now.

Again, thanks for the feedback. Good advice for future needs too.

Later,
Zappa1