The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop what to do and how to do? epoxy prime? media blast?

Have a 51 truck. recieved some history about it. truck was run until 1978. for 25 years it sat. sold 3-4 years ago to a guy who tackled some bodywork. Now I have it.

There is some pitting around the door frames and the truck is from the NW and I suspect (without knowing for sure) that the cab top may have some pitting under the seal coat of bondo. Definitley some pitting under the dash probaly from leaking around the window and fresh air cowl.

Cab has grey primer on it. looks like rattle can primer. underneath the grey is what appears to be some red primer on top of a skim coat of bondo and repaired sheetmetal (looks like rattle can red primer too). Owner did a nice job cutting out cab corners, floors, and other rusted out areas and patched with repair panels. Welding looks very clean and done right.

Cab is worth saving. BUT this is my dillemma: A small silver dollar size piece of primer and skim bondo lifted and I picked at it and popped it off. Metal was clean anbd bright underneath but, the bondo flaked.

Around certain areas of the cab are some very small dotting areas of what looks like flash rust coming through the grey primer.

So I have been thinking about the right thing to do...and have toyed with just sanding through the primer or washing it off, and retain the bondo repair areas where the patch panels were blended etc. The truck certainly does not have globs of bondo lopped on, but rather it appears it was laid on just enough to smooth out areas.

The other option is to haul it two hours away and have the cab media blasted down to bare steel and start over....which I don't really want to do...I would like to try and save the bodywork done.

But if the body work has flaked in one spot...it more than likely will do the same in other areas. ??

I want to epoxy prime and lay down some nice top coats when it's done.

So, what to do what to do?

If I wash off the existing primer coats and leave the bondo and spray with epoxy primer will that seal the small areas of flash rust and bondo? And will that prevent rust through of the new paint job in a year or 5?

Is the risk too great and that the bondo may flake after I pump some expensive primer and topcoats over it...and kis that taking too much of a risk.

So...give me some advice...

What would you do if you want to paint the truck and make it look really nice again.

tom

Keep in mind this is just my opinion.

" A small silver dollar size piece of primer and skim bondo lifted and I picked at it and popped it off. Metal was clean anbd bright underneath but, the bondo flaked."

It would appear there was something on the metal to keep the filler from bonding to it. It may be just that spot or could be a problem in other areas.
If there is rust coming through the primer you are going to need to sand all the primer off and take it back to bare metal. If you are going to use 2 part epoxy primer, my opinion would be get all the old body filler & rust off the metal, clean it with marine clean then cover with the epoxy primer, re-do the body work, prime,seal & paint. You can also put the body filler on the bare metal & then prime it. It depends on how much money you want to put into it and what you are looking for when you are done, a daily driver or a show truck.The only reason for the marine clean is you don't know what the PO did that made the body filler not bond. That will take off all grease,oil etc. I personally would cover the back of the metal where you can with POR-15 to keep it from rusting through from the back side where it was welded.
Got any pictures you can post so I can see what it looks like?

You've already found two pieces of evidence that the body work is suspect... not a good sign because a paint job is only as good as the prep work.

If you have access to a place that will blast your cab, that's what I would do just be sure that the prep work is good from the steel out.

Better to be safe than sorry.

to be sure what you have .take it in and get it sand blasted that will get rid of bondo and rust thats there from weather damage the bondo thats on there can easly be redone on freash metal then dont let the weather get to it till its painted other wise if you paint without striping you will have rust bubbles surface for sure thats what i would do good luck!

32fire is right, but I would have it sandblasted, and shoot a couple of coats of Epoxy primer on it right away. You can do you body work on top of the Epoxy with no problems. That way if you can't work on it right away, it won't rust.

Most of the time, I will epoxy prime the bare metal and let it set for a few hours. Then I apply a couple of coats of 2K primer.

Reason for this is.... If you wait past the recoat window for the epoxy, you have to sand it before you can apply the 2K for blocking. Epoxy is hard to sand, but 2K is easy.

You can apply your filler on top of the 2K and take your time getting the body straight.

After you get your bodywork done, then apply 2 more coats of 2K over everything and block sand. Repeat this process until you have the body straight.

Then you can apply 2 coats of reduced epoxy for a seal coat and apply your basecoat of paint.
Frank

ant time you think you might save by leaving some of his suspect bodywork will be lost if it fails later. you have to absolutley know where you stand so blast it. body filler sticks extremely well to bare metal so something is up

countilaw, that is what I have done except that I used an acid cleaner you spray on scotch brite then hose off. Since it is warming up I am getting ready to do body filler and blocking. Do you need to sand the 2k before filler? and if so what grit do you ues?

Thanks

Tom,
I agree with the above on gettin it blasted ...mine was COATED an I mean coated in old bondo ..only after blastin did we find what it was hiding ...my metal was BEAT up but sound ..an after seein WHAT we had ..it was the process off bangin out dings an dents ...some spots like the bottom of the doors needed some lead to fill the pin holes , but at least we knew what we we dealin with ...made life allot easier .
If you are dealin with a questionable base as you stated ...in my opinion you will be hounded later down the road when the body work you are questioning fails ....
As my Pappy told me years ago ...IF YOU ASK YOURSELF THE ? OF WHETHER YA SHOULD 99% of the time .. YA JUST ANSWERED YOUR OWN ? ...YA SHOULD .
Just my 2 pennies
Tim