Painters (finally sanded an cleaned)

Well got to the paint store this morning, I was going in with all my guns cause of the primer activator that was bad, the guys says good morning to me, and hows it going, ohhhh man I wanted to lay right into him, all I could say was, not so so good, a little pissed also, as I held up the can of activator, said my weekend wasn't that great, anyways he gave me some new activator and another can of sealer, I was happy got home red scuffed the car, blew it down and tack clothed it, primer is all on just need to sand it,clean it, seal it, and paint, hope to be done today,and undress it tomorrow after work, looks a little funky all primer....

Start over. If the car was taken down to bare metal, then, you should seal the car with an Epoxy Primer/Sealer such as PPG DP-40. Then do the filler work/repairs, then prime and guide coat and block the car. Seal the car just prior to applying the paint. If you are working on a car that has a factory paint job that has been thoroughly sanded, you almost never seal the car first. The only time you seal the entire car first is when you are burying a crappy paint job that has the potential to lift and ruin the paint you are spraying. The only time this is done is when you are trying to get by without stripping the entire car. It is a bad solution to a major potential problem. There is absolutely no reason to prime the entire car. That just adds to the overall material build. A good paint job should be no more than 4-5 mils thick. Excessive material build up just leads to early paint failure. This is not just my opinion. This is what is recommended by PPG, Dupont, Sikkens etc. I owned a body shop for 17 years. I do have a little bit of paint/body work experience.

Machzman,

Make sure to talk to your supplier about what you did to make sure you don't have a lifting problem when you go to paint the car. Also, realize that 70% of the people that work in paint supply stores don't have a clue what they are talking about. What you want to do at this point is get the phone # for the representative of the manufacturer of the paint you are using. Bad advise is free, except for the cost of all your materials and time you put into this project. Depending on the type of sealer you put down, you may, or may not have a real time bomb on your hands.

Hawk

I did talk to some people at a bodyshop that uses the Nason paint line (Dupont), where I had taken the car down in areas to the bare metal it was good that I sealed the car, there is not much bodywork to do, there was no rust and I had to just fill a few nicks an dings, the reason I sealed the car first was (1)bare metal (2) the primer activator was jellied so I thought it best to get the car covered, so Tuesday got the new primer activator, scuffed the entire car, laid down a coat of primer, and I'm finishing the final sanding stage today, I will then sealer it and paint, I hope by tomorrow......Thanks for the help the guys at the bodyshop I went to said I should have no problem as long as I do these steps, just hope when I paint it comes out good.........Rod

Well finally finished all the sanding, boy wasn't that fun also just finished up with the final wash, gotta take a break for a few minutes, I did the final wash with Dupont 3939, looks pretty good so far for my first time doing this, gonna head outback in a few to seal the car and start the topcoat, going to put 2 coats and the 3rd coat will be mixed with intergrated clear, hopefully give it that deep shiny finish, well hope it comes out good this is the end of my project, I will post up a couple pics of the final paint, and then it will be detail work, but I will snap a pic of the finish paint work.......Rod

I never owned a body shop, but I've worked in them for 14 yrs then went into doing my own stuff. Bikes, helmets, my own cars. Hawk is right. The exception ONLY exception to the 4-5 mill thickness is when using House of Kolors paint. It's desinged to be used for multiple layers. But that's another topic. Whenever I've done a complete stripdown of the paint, I've always used a self-etching primer first (after all body work is completed), then however many coats of primerit took for a smooth finish, then sealer, then paint. On spot repairs or not a complete strip-down, basically the same as before, complete body work, primer repaired area, the seal and paint (wether it be whole car or spot repair) I prefer to use HOK's self-etching primer as it has an 1100 hr salt/corrosin rating where as most other leading brands have only 300-400 hr rating. Just my .02
John