The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop primer

I plan to have my truck sand blasted then primered. What primer do I need to use? I do not plan to paint it right away and it will be outside.

Does this involve a primer and a primer sealer?

TIA

If you keep it covered any good 2K primer will do. I'm building mine in the carport and keep it covered with a plastic tarp.

If you plan to sandblast your cab expect to have sand falling out of places you never knew were there at the most inopportune time, like when you start painting.

Sealer goes on just before color.

I guess the best thing to do is get it sandblasted and primered. Then buy and cover it with a truck cover. They seem to be somewhat cheap and easier to form/hold onto the truck.

If you live in high humidity areas be careful with covering and trapping moisture. Under a shelter would be way better than a tarp in my opinion.

+2 on sand falling out when you're painting. Been there, done that, re-painted, wet sanded, yada yada.

Be sure to blow out the sand from every orfice you can find. It took me over two hours, and it still came out of my doors when I painted!

The cab has a lot of surface rust. Outside and inside. I believe I could sand the outside and coat. But the inside is my concern. Would it be better (so I don't fight sand) to simply coat the interior with a rust converter then primer?

I thought the sand blasting idea was a good one but would reconsider.

Oh. Humidity is not a big problem in Dallas. We are not real close to the coast. But closer than Oklahoma

TIA

If you want all of the rust removed from all of the blind channels, recesses and closed areas your best bet is having the parts dipped and chemically cleaned and rust treated. Not cheap but the ultimate solution to rust.

If that's not possible you can always clean off as much surface rust as possible and then use a rust treatment coating. Personally I prefer the Eastwood Rust Converter and Rust Encapsulator for such things because they are easy to use, easy to clean up tools and work well. I treated all of the rust in my truck with these products.

It's the rust you don't see that's going to come back to haunt you.

I sand blasted my 55 Belair 20+ years ago in my yard when you were still allowed to do it in a residential neighbourhood. I used a siphon blaster set at lower pressure and a full rotessiere set up. A little sand ran out over the years but nothing significant. It has not rusted again and this is an extreme damp salty climate (although it gets stored every winter).

You want an epoxy primer to protect the metal from rusting again.

Any ol 2k primer will not do. Urethane primers are 2k, meant correcting minor surface imperfections, not designed to adhere to bare metal or prevent rust. Urethane primer when left exposed will wick moisture.

Epoxy primer is designed for adhereing to bare metal and corrosion protection. In addition, epoxy will stand up to the outside elements, it will chaulk up, meaning it will loose some color because of the sun's UV rays but the overall product is still working correctly and preventing rust

Fitting my doors now and just this week sand left over from when I blasted my doors got in my door latch mechanism. And these doors were blasted over two years ago and been on and off the truck at least 20 times since then. Yea, 20 times... my cab was twisted and I spent a lot of time getting it right.

There's a moral to this story.

look u ned to use a good self eching primmer or u will regreat it. with rust comming back over and over trought the other primmers

What would be a good self-etching primer that would not allow rust-through before painting (brand & product)? Presumably some brand of epoxy self-etching primer?

Self etch primer is porous just like urethane primer and will wick moisture.
Also, self etch primers are lacquer based, have no durability what so ever. Left outside it WILL rust again and quickly.

Self etch primers MUST be topcoated, they can not be used as a stand alone product. They are designed for adhesion on bare metal thats it.

Do yourself a favor and get an epoxy primer, its the ONLY product that will hold out the elements.

I like SPI or Southern Poly Urethanes. If you go the PPG route get the EPX900 much better then DPLF.

DPLF is certainly not as good as the old DP.

PPG's DP epoxy has not been available since the mid to late 90's. Its replacement DPLF is another animal and no were in the same league as the old non-available DP.

If one was to go down the PPG route I would suggest the EPX900 epoxy found in the industrial line. Myself and others have found it to be a good product much better then DPLF.

Personally, I now use only SPI, to which I find it as good if not better then the old non-available DP epoxy.

Diamont or R-M and Valspar both make good quality epoxy primers, I have used both.

Etch primer is good for smooth new metal. It etches the metal so that paint will stick to it. You can't use filler on top of it.

When to use etch example: Let's say you have an exterior door handle that needs to be painted the same color as the car. It's hard to sand all the little nooks in and around the handle. Spray it with etch primer and it will help eliminate any areas that you could not sand very well. You will still need to seal the etch primer. And that is done with the epoxy primer as a sealer.

Epoxy is hard, non filling, non-porous and sticks like crazy. You can paint anything on top of it. Eurathane, polyester, enamel and POR-15.

Here is a little hint:
Let's say you've had the whole car/truck sand blasted. You have a lot of shiny metal that is going to flash rust in a hurry. A single coat of Epoxy will prevent the rust from forming.

So now you have a fender or two in one corner of the shop, a hood over there, rear fenders stacked in another corner, doors standing against the wall. And you can't do all the body work that needs to be done within the next week and if you wait longer, you will have to scuff all that epoxy.

So what do you do? Well, when you got back from the sandblaster, you applied a coat of epoxy. If you apply two coats of 2k as soon as the epoxy flashed you will have covered all the epoxy. Now all those parts sitting around can wait until you get to them to do the body work. The 2K is a lot easier to sand than the epoxy, and plastic filler will stick to it.

The best filler I have found is Z-Grip by Evercoat. It will stick to anything, so don't drop any on anything you don't want to sand. Why pay the extra price for Rage filler when Z-Grip is just as good. It makes for a smooth application without a lot of pin holes, sands easily and doesn't clog your paper, thus saving money on sand paper.

I own a body shop, and I don't have any etch primer in my shop. There is really NO need for it.

If you want to see what we do at my shop, check out the two links in my signature.

What we are doing in my shop

2010 Challenger with painted lazor stripes and logos

Frank Cox
Cox Custom Cars

ihave a rusted roof top right above windshield should i weld new metal or sandblaster and fill holes with epoxy

I need to look up Rio Vista on my Texas map. Are you close to Dallas?

Hi Gregory,

A warm welcome to the bolt. The area above the windshield is a very tricky spot to work on so I would not fault you for cleaning as much rust as possible and filling the area. Be sure to use a waterproof filler like all metal or similar.

That said, the repair will eventually fail. It may look fine for years but if you will be putting a many thousand dollar paint job on the truck that you want to last for 25 years or more then the best way to go is repair the area with new steel.

By the way, I don't know how many people will see you post here. If you want more feedback go ahead and start a new thread.

And finally be sure to post pics when you can. We all love pics.

looking for a 1966 c10 hood