The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop painting after wire wheel stripping ??

Will good Direct To metal primer stick to my body parts after cleaning them with a wire wheel?

I had a lot of parts like the cowl, cab and fenders cleaned with a mild acid dip. I want to put primer on them so they can be safely stored for the winter. They look great but definitely need a quick sanding or rough up before painting. I am afraid the shiny metal is to smooth for the primer to adhere to properly. This is my first complete paint job going down to bare metal, as well as being my first paint job of anything bigger than small pieces.

I would go over the surfaces with scotch brite or sand with nothing courser than 320. Then clean with some good wax and grease remover/prepsol before painting. If you use a good coat of epoxy primer that should do a good job of sealing against any corrosion. As with most primers that have sat for a length of time you will need to sand/scuff the surfaces before top coating or any filler work.

Sounds good. Just wondered if the wire wheel leaves too high a polish for epoxy primer to stick to the metal. Scotch brite it is for the shiny spots.

If the wire wheel was brand new, you have a chance of being ok. If it was ever used to clean parts with grease or oil on them, your chances of success declined quite a bit. It will drive little bitty bits of oil/grease into the lines/grooves created and this will leave fisheyes when you paint...even if you use a high quality oil/wax remover you may not get it all off.

Maroon Scotch Brite works best.

My current project, the Tamco D.T.A. Primer (Direct To Anything) flows out smooth on my 80 grit sanded steel and paint. And I mean smoooooth!!

Read the TDS of the primer you plan to use. It will typically tell you what the product will cover and what is the best sand paper grit to use for their product.

I have the scotch brite coming in the mail..... Yes, brand new wire wheel on freshly acid dipped parts. I was concerned that the primer might not stick to the metal due to the high polish look where I used the wire wheel. I am hand sanding all the easy areas but the nooks and crannies get the wire wheel, and now will get scotch brite as well.

I believe epoxy primer is the only primer that is moisture proof. It’s great if you and not going to finish the project right away.

PPG says it requires a clean metal scratched surface using about an 80 grit sandpaper.

Everything else goes on top including bondo. The idea being to get everything that draws moisture away from the metal and the epoxy as close to the metal as you can.

I know, not everybody does that though, especially the bondo .....


Mike

Read the product data sheet very closely if you are opting for EPOXY primer over a surface that has been acid washed and LET DRY.
Epoxy primer does not adhere well over an acid based substrate.
Confirm that the acid dip was immediately rinsed off with a sheeting water rinse at your stripping place.
If not you may need to reactivate the acid dip then while wet rinse off with water. Immediately wipe dry then wipe down with Prep Sol or similar. Let sit for at least an hour for the degreaser to outgas and leave no film then spray your epoxy.
Epoxy primer also likes a slightly abraded surface to take a bite. Confirm the grit size per the data sheet.
A good idea is to hold the ambient temp to at least 65 degrees for 24 hours to get that initial set up cure.
Again..for epoxy primer only.
Hope this helps!