I'm curious about something. Whenever the subject of stripping paint comes up there are different opinions about which is the best way to go. Eventually some one will jump into the discussion admonishing to have the bare metal covered with primer ASAP and not to touch the truck with bare hands to prevent body oils and salts from starting the bare metal to flash rust. This makes sense but latey I have seen a few posts here and articles in national magazines showing trucks sitting around in bare metal, outside. These aren't trucks that were just brought home from the stripper, they have complete drive trains on them and sometimes complete interiors indicating they have not been in primer for an extended period of time without any type of protection. All of these trucks look like they had major metal work done to them and metal finished with fresh sanding marks. One person I asked about this on the board said he coated his truck with WD-40, which I can see can cause a whole different problem when it comes time to painting later on. Do these trucks get coated with some kind of transparent sealer? I try to prime bare metal as soon as I can after removing paint, even if I am going to keep it inside a dry, warm building. I just don't see how these guys can do all of this work and take a chance of having all their work ruined by not protecting it.

On one hand everyone is paranoid about primering ASAP and the other hand people seem to be leaving their vehicles in bare metal forever. What am I missing?

 

The full bare metal vehicles you see in magazines are shops "showing off" their metal working skills. Fair enough! They are likely kept in AC'd shops with low humidity, and also likely freshly sanded for the pix and again before painting. The workers know better than to touch them!
As far as using WD40 as a rust barrier, DON'T DO IT! WD40 is hygroscopic, it will absorb moisture not repell it. That stuff is the most overhyped snakeoil mix of oil and kerosene out there. My late father told me that many of the residents at his FL retirement community were even spraying it on their joints claiming it help their arthritis!!!

What you are missing is a WHOLE lot of work keeping bare metal from rusting if you prime immediately.

 

When I stripped my truck to bare metal, I sprayed it down with POR-15's "Metal Ready". It's their clear rust nutralizing spray. I buy it by the gallon and it's pretty cheap. I left my cab bare for 4 months and my front fenders have been bare for over a year now and there are no signs of rust. I live in Upstate NY so it's definitely not warm and dry up here.
Good Luck - Brad

 

I wasn't interested in doing the bare metal thing, just curious as to how/why some are doing it. To me it looks like they're looking for a lot of extra work to do. I would never apply any kind of lubricant on metal that I was planning to paint. From working in the body shop industry I know what a pain in the a** it is to try to repaint a car that someone has used ArmourAll on the rubber door seals. Talk about fisheyes!! I can only imagine the WD-40 seeping out once you start spraying the paint on, or worse yet, once the paint is dry watching it peel up at the seams

 

It takes a very skilled metal worker to do custom body work without using any plastic filler at all, but the only way to see that fact is to show the vehicle in bare metal. I suspect others that are not showing off their skills do it because of their monkey see... mentality: it's in the magazines so I'll copy it.

 

Ok, mine was in bare metal for about 2 1/2 years while I worked on it. I live in Michigan and the truck was in a heated garage (60/65 when I was in there and about 50 the rest of the time) I never had any rust and the only primer was spray can over what ever filler i used. George (also know as Earl) and his son were in my garage and seen the truck in fact there are a few pictures of it in my gallery.

I don't have any idea why it didn't rust but was quite happy it didn't. Oh it was sanded done to bare by me no chemicals and no sand blasting.

Chuck

 

gibbs, I think from roadsters.com

 

This is sorta related.

So after I get my cab body mods done sometime this summer, I plan to take it over to the next twon to have it sandblasted and primered. He blasts it and then hits it with epoxy primer.

My question is - say I decide to do a few more body mods to it. It requires me to sand off the primer to get at the bare metal. Can I touch up the reworked area with non-epoxy primer? I thought I heard somewhere you can't mix epoxy primer and non-epoxy primer? You can't buy spray bombs of epoxy primer can you?

Thanks,

 

If it were me doing it: I'd use a different color rattlecan primer than the epoxy primer, then when ready to paint, sand off the RCP (it will sand off easily) and shoot another coat of epoxy primer over the whole thing.

 

What I have read the best way to apply filler is over epoxy primer. The epoxy primer bonds better to the metal than the filler. The one thing you have to remember about the epoxy primer is once it has cured, scuff it up a little before applying anthing over it, filler or paint. If you don't you it might not stick. You shouldn't have any trouble spraying spray bomb primer over the epoxy primer.

You want the epoxy primer as your base primer so if your sandblaster is going to prime it with epoxy you should be good to go. I wouldn't apply spray bomb primer and cover it with epoxy primer, the epoxy primers bonding ablities will be only as good as the primer under it.

 

Carl Casper (Who ownes the rights to the General Lee) is a big time hot rod builder just re-did his first chev. that he built in H.S. he stripped it down and clear coated the car to show how nice it reallt was and that all the seems and body work were leaded and not bondoed. I would asume that this is what these people are doing to so off there metal skills. Personally I like hiding my bondo!

Kyle

 

Bob & Ax,

The snadblaster will epoxy prime it after he blasts it. I would only use RCP on any spots that I play with afterwards that require me to take it back down to metal. There could be some filler going on top of both the epoxy primer and the RCP as well though......

By using an epoxy primer are you forced to use epoxy paint as well? Will the spots with RCP and filler cause problems?

 

Filler can be applied over epoxy primer but not RCP. I prefer to use plastic filler on bare metal, epoxy prime or epoxy primer surfacer then catalized surfacer putty and finally another coat of epoxy primer before color coats. When you see them putting a layer of putty over large parts of the bodies on top the primer on TV they are laying down a thin coat of surfacer putty to smooth all the little nicks scratches and ripples. They then shoot another coat of primer before the color.
I wouldn't recommend using RCP as your final primer under your body color coat, that's why I'd use a different color RCP so I could easily see when I've sanded it all off. You can apply any color paint system over epoxy primer, but not over RCP. RCP should be considered only a temp coating unless you're planning on painting it with RC color. I used RCP on parts like underhood panels, brackets etc that I then painted with RC paint. Do you have a decent size compressor? get yourself a HVLP touch up gun and use that to shoot epoxy primer over your body work rather than using RCs. It'll be cheaper and easier in the long run.