The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Tinted Primer

I sometimes see primer tinted to a color. What are the advantages if any? What do they tint it with? Paint? Or just a pigment?

not sure what they use for pigment, but it helps to have a primer that fits w/ the top coat yer gonna use - light gray or something for lighter colors say, rather than 'red oxide' or such - means less problem makin the color coat cover - different color primers also work good during the sanding phase as "wear indicators"

my buddy shot the front of my 58 w/ a gray epoxy primer that had a cool greenish tint when I was first redoin it and it was dark gray, and I drove it the first year that way until the rest of the bodywork was roughed out, then we flew at sanding the whole thing

Bill

The tintable primer I've used is PPG's K-36. When you mix the primer, you add the top coat color as an extra ingredient. The big advantages are 1) if something chips your paint, the color below is the same as top coat, and 2)topcoats do not need to be excessively thick to achieve full color coverage of the primer. Paint coats getting too thick can be a problem.

The main advantage to tintable primers is that it save time by allowing you to use less coats to completely cover the primer.

Aloha, Are you refering to the young kids, rockabillies and whatnot, shifters car club types cars? If so the tinted primer just looks cool, kinda rebellious, and you can change the color monthly if you want, kinda has a cool '50's style suede look. My roadster is baby blue, I don't remember what i used but it was a white sealer with a little pigment the paint shop uses to match paints, it's been 8 years since I painted it and now it has a real cool "patina" or aged look that makes it look like an authentic hotrod from the '50's, which in fact it is.