Epoxy primer question

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BobbyY

Old Mopar guy
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Here goes a paint question, and yes I have searched the forms but don't see anything that addresses this. Before some one ready this and assumes I am talking about painting the car in sections, I am only talking about doing this with the direct to metal epoxy primer from PPG or House of Kolor.

First, my car has had at least one repaint on it and I'm not sure if it has others or not and also do not know what steps were taken during the repaint but I have serious doubts about the quality of the work due to the less than adaquate finish cote of single stage summit paint. For this reason I am seriously considering taking the car to bare metal. Here in Central Texas with relitive high humidity that poses a problem, rust starts to set almost as fast as bare metal is reached making it very hard for a weekend worker to get the complete car to bare metal and getting primer on it before surface rust starts to show up. I am thinking of sectioning the car off and taking a portion down to bare metal then priming that section before moving to the next section, I don't see this as a problem with the two front fenders, doors, hood, and trunk.

However, that still leaves the core of the car. This is where I will need to split the car into sections. I can see doing the top, A&C pillars and front & rear pinch welds first, and then splitting the rest of the car into the left and right sides. I guess my concerns are where the epoxy from one area would stop and the next area would start, but with proper sanding the fresh epoxy should adhere to the already applied epoxy allowing the edges to be feathered in. I have also not decided on how I am going to get the car to bare metal but I am guessing it will be a combination of chemical stripper and a random orbital sander with 80 grit.

Keep in mind the epoxy primer will not be the primer the color will be sprayed to but rather a sub primer. I plan on doing what little body repair is needed on top of the epoxy using a final skim-coat with a final sanding then shooting a 2K primer over the entire car with the color coat going within the recommended window.
As this is a lot of work I don't want to screw something up here so I would like to hear from some folks that might have done something similar.

Thanks,
Bobby
 
I did a car in stages . When I did the core as you say I sanded it all at once.I used what I call a mud hog 8 inch with 80 grit. You can also use epoxy as a sealer then top coat.Ypu have a 24 hr window. hope this helps.
 
You will be fine doing it in sections. You can scuff the epoxy if your planning on over lapping. You will also need to scuff the whole car before spraying the 2K. Make sure you read the directions.
 
I used Southern Polyurethanes Epoxy Primer and I really liked it. Spayed nice and sanded nice. But I've never used any other epoxy primer so nothing to compare it to.

SPI claims a 7 day recoat window without scuffing. But since the overlap areas will be minimal, I would scuff it anyway. No problem with your approach.

If you spray two wet coats of epoxy, you'll be able to scuff your epoxy with 80 grit before applying filler without going through to metal.

I sprayed epoxy again over top of my filler and then used a primer surface that was a different color. That allowed me to see when I was about to sand into my filler or through to bare metal.
 
Save your self the headache of stripping by hand. take the doors/ fenders/ deck lid and hood and have them blasted. epoxy when they get back do the shell the same way. much better results and a ton faster.
 
prrc said:
Save your self the headache of stripping by hand. take the doors/ fenders/ deck lid and hood and have them blasted. epoxy when they get back do the shell the same way. much better results and a ton faster.
Click to expand...

Good advise....if you can afford it, this is the way to go.
 
All, I have read most of the paint primers and one of the underlying messages is to use the same brand primer as the paint. My question is does the same hold true with epoxy, or can I use SPI epoxy primer (or any other brand of expoy primer) and then go to my choice of 2K primer?base/clear. While on Southern Polyurethane's (SPI) site, I ran across a an intresting article called the perfict paint job ( http://www.southernpolyurethanes.com/perfect paint.htm ). Interesting but confusing as it looks like they just mix and match primer, base coats and clears.[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
 
SPI sells primer and clear but they don't sell base coat (color). Therefore, everyone using their primer is spraying something else on top of it. If this were a problem they wouldn't sell much primer.

You generally don't spray color right on top of epoxy. Usually you have some primer surfacer in between that gets block sanded to get everything perfectly straight. At a minimum, you will likely spray some sealer in between.

I used SPI Epoxy, SPI Regular Build Primer, Pro Spray solvent base coat, and SPI Euro Clear. No signs of trouble yet but the car has never seen the sun or the elements.
 
Thanks 65 Dart, did you etch the metal or is the SPI considered a self etching direct to metal primer.
 
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