The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Dazed and Confused

After a lot of searching here and on other sites I thought I understood the best way to proceed with panel preparation. Sandblasting was not an option for financial reasons. I am taking the panels to bare metal with a variety of mechanical devices and then treating the metal with a phosphoric acid solution. I am pleased with the limited results so far. Like many of you I am slowly working my way through 1 panel at a time. Most people seem to agree that in my situation, priming with an epoxy primer until all parts are ready for paint is the way to go.

I started looking for an epoxy primer and that is when the confusion increased. Two of the local paint suppliers want $235-$239 a gallon ready to use. Eastwood's epoxy primer is $90 a gallon for the 2 parts. Several people suggest SPI. SPI says NEVER use their epoxy primer over treated metal (it has a metal etch in it). Several other forums have people very strongly advising against using any epoxy primer over any metal etching product claiming many failures months or years down the road.

I cannot find any advice against using Eastwood's product over phosphoric acid treated metal. Is there a problem with their product and etched metal? Are the other companies epoxy primers that much better that they cost 2 1/2 times as much?

I did the phosphoric acid treatment several days ago and it is very dry and does not have any powder or loose residue. Should I just epoxy primer over it and quit worrying or should it be completely removed as some people recommend.

Chuck

just DO IT! I've used a range of different products over phosphoric acid and haven't noticed any problems - I always wipe down with wax/grease remover first, should take care of anything

epoxy primer is very spendy stuff, not sure about Eastwoods, but have never seen any that isn't 2 part - even in a sealed container it has a limited life once the activator is added

Bill