I'm now ready to prime my 1971 Ford F-100. It currently has lacquer primer on it. Can I use a epoxy primer over the lacquer primer? And is it better than the lacquer? And last, what primer will build up to cover miner scraches and imperfections Thanks all for your help. Jim TN

 

<cr>
Epoxy will go over lacquer but remember, your paint job will only be as strong as your weakest link. Lacquer is the weak link.

Lacquer primer is not waterproof and subject to issues such as solvent swelling. Epoxy is waterproof, & will seal in any micro-rust. It provides an excellent base to build your remaining paint job on.

The other primer you mentioned is commonly called 2K primer. Hi build and easy sanding. The brand I use is made by Evercoat and is called URO-FIL Buff Acrylic Urethane Primer Surfacer. My only complaint is about the color. If you get a chip, in a dark colored paint, the buff colored 2K primer shows up like a sore thumb. Tinted 2K is available but spendy. My suggestion is to at least find a 2K with the same shade, as your paint.

 

Epoxy primer is better then lacquer primer. It is not good as it used to be though, being as they regulated the lead content out of it. I primed some spots with only epoxy primer, and rust is coming back through, but it was nason brand or something. With the old ppg dp epoxy primer before it became lead free, you could prime with epoxy and not top coat it and stuff wouldn't rust, and it stuck really well to bare metal. Now I may try using self etching primer and using urethane over it, and see if there is any difference in corrosion protection compared to epoxy then urethane primer which is what I've always used. At any rate, I think it would just take the lacquer primer off, and start with a foundation of epoxy, and use a quality filler primer over the epoxy. Yeah aek, I hate that most high build urethane primers are yellow too. I like Mar-hyde high build for an affordable urethane primer, but hate the yellow color. Makes you have to use a sealer over it just to get the color close, as the yellow takes forever to cover with most base colors. Remember an old laser red probe I painted years ago at a dealership I worked at. I swear it took somewhere between 10 and 15 coats of base over the yellow primer to get the base to cover as it was very transparent.

 

<cr>
My vendor is a painter also. He says he has gone to 800K (I don't know who makes it) so he can get away from that buff primer. I have a 65 Mustang I'm doing for a guy. I think I'll give it a try if the guy decides to go with a dark color.

BTW, I think they have taken the chromate out of most of the self-etch primers. PPG now recomends epoxy, filler work, and epoxy over the filler.

 

Marhyde has a tintable primer I seen at a paint supply store. It is grey and is tintable with your paint companys mixing base. I may give this a try. I don't know if it is as high a build as the yellow stuff, but if you do decent bodywork you shouldn't need utra build like at the used car dealer I worked at, where you took your finger and smeared it to fill all the pinholes in the cheap bodyfiller they had. Last time I called they said they didn't carry it, must of been a dork on the phone, cause when I went there last time they had everything he said they didn't. This included Mar-hyde clear which I've been looking for because it is reasonable, and not super thin like the cheap nason and others. I believe the Mar-hyde primer runs around $60 a gallon with the hardener, and the yellow stuff I've used in the past sands really easy, much easier then the ppg( I think k200) I used years ago on a car.

 

<cr>
My truly favorite clear is Select. Touch it with a little reducer and it's almost orange peel free. For a higher value job, I like Diamont clear. Sprays almost like Select.

I've never used any Mar-hyde products. I assume you like them. How about longevity? Do you have any jobs you have kept track of for 5 years?

 

well the marhyde primer is fine, we used it at the used car dealer, and seen some cars later down the road and the bodywork all seemed fine. The omni base and clear we used would lose a little gloss over time. The Marhyde clear I used at a bodyshop I worked at. He was using chromabase and the Mar-hyde clear because the Dupont clear was so expensive (like the chromabase basecoat wasn't) and was pretty picky about everything so I assume if the Mar-hyde clear was a problem he wouldn't use it. The times I have used the Mar-hyde clear, I haven't seen them later. I've used both Nason select and Western refinisher select and they both are comparable. They both lay out very flat. I believe the Western is a tad less expensive. The main problem I have with the Nason is getting it so I don't have any dry spots, as it dry's so quickly, but have been using the faster activator. I like the Mar-hyde clear, because it is thicker, and I like to lay the clear on kinda heavy. I think all the less expensive clears are comparable, and haven't seen a real problem with any, but then again you don't really see stuff 10 years down the road. On the average car it is probably all scratched up or damaged before that time.