So I'm like all the other normal guys. I do small repairs at a time. A section of a door, a patch panel on a fender, bed side an so on. I do these over months, maybe years. Now I'm not talking about frames and brackets. Those are no sweat. Paint them with Rustoleum and use them like that. I'm talking future painted body parts that in the back of our minds we think we will do the body work and filler work and let "a Pro" paint it...or Maaco; But maybe we will try it ourselves.
We, I say we, which could be just me, don't want to screw around with buying some epoxy, mixing it, spraying it, cleaning gun with paint thinner, putting it all away and hope we don't go past the shelf life of the paint, which we may do, for a small area. I've only painted once with my gun in 2006. I don't live in a wet zone but you can't leave bare metal here either.
So here's my small patch with some bare metal and filler which is feathered out to old paint which could be lacquer or who knows what. Even though I'm not supposed to, I spray it with Rustoleum auto primer. Lightly. It's right there on the bench, you just shake it a push the button. Heaven. According to everyone it's actually hell. So when it's time to paint, is there anything yet that can be sprayed on it to seal it or will epoxy seal it after months of Arizona sun heat? I don't want Zero rust or ospho or acid etch or Kills. I just want to know if this Rustoleum will ever not outgas/react/ruin a proper coating later. If I paint a top coat of enamel, will that not react? Will the solvents/carriers in Rustoleum wait to attack me forever? People use guide coats of rattle can. Is that ALL sanded off?
I don't think I will ever stop using it, I am much to lazy and stubborn and cheap and it makes me mad that there is nothing I can do about it.
New and Old body shop guys will always say the paint is only as good as the prep, so use a good 2k primer or epoxy. These guys have all the stuff in a cabinet at work, all the materials, paint stations, cleaning stations, big dry air supply, paint booth, good guns, and experience and hate rattle cans. I don't blame them but I ain't them. There has got to be a way to protect small areas with something that will accept epoxy and then urethane top, that comes in a rattle can. If we can send a man to the moon....never mind.
My plan B is that I have calculated that paying the painter guy to sand off the light coat of Rustoleum Auto Primer will be less money and bother than buying 1 gallon of epoxy primer and 1 gal of activator every 6 mo's when the old one's go bad.
Let me have it, I can take it.
