primer issue

[Chopz]

I'm having trouble finding out what types of primer I need to use after I remove the existing paint to bare metal.  The fenders and hood and such seem to be fairly straight, and the floors will look great, after I remove a small amount of surface rust around the drain plug under the pedals.  How perfect does the primer need to be spayed on? (first time with a spray gun).  If I mess it up will it ruin the future paint job, or will it just be sanded off?  I see alot of people here use  por15, but I'm guessing thats just for undercoating or sealing?  Also, what is a good type of seam sealer to put in the interior?   

Thanks so much

[Steve]

Good questions....welcome to the board.

OK...Let's look at this big-picture wise. We need to start off with some simple questions like the extent of your restoration, will you use a rotisserie, are you going to have the car dipped or blasted, stuff like that. The reason is that you really need to plan things out to avoid having to redo work.

Bare metal must be treated or primed to keep it from rusting...nothing new there. I personally used Ospho to keep bare metal from surface rusting. Large dings and dents should be hammered and dollied out. I prefer to do this on bare metal, but you can certainly do this once the car is primed. You will break the surface of the primer (most likely) and have to do spot touch up.

Any panel that will be painted body color, IMO, must be primed with a 2-part epoxy primer. PPG offers the DP line. Dupont has an epoxy line and a primer/surfacer line. I prefer the epoxy primer to the primer/surfacer. The difference is that epoxy is not designed to be sanded while a surfacer is designed to be sanded. Lay down 2 coats of epoxy primer on clean, bare steel. You can use your body fillers on top of the epoxy. IMO, spraying Epoxy is easy.

Now, for the inside of the car, I used Zero Rust. At $60 a gallon, it's 1/3 the price of DP40. Three light coats of Zero Rust and you're good to go. Surface prep doesn't have to be as meticulous as when using Epoxy, but you do want to make sure to remove loose rust, scale, grease, etc. Don't worry about seam sealer until much later. Eastwood offers a line of "correct" sealers while your body shop jobber will have seam sealer in the tube, can, etc. 

Do yourself a favor and find a local supply shop that you can trust. I chose PPG. It's expensive, but I only plan to do this once! The store manager or the factory rep should spend a lot of time with you to get you going. In my case, the folks at Ben's Paint and Supply here in Orlando were just super. They spent a lot of time with me to set me up with what I need.

[Chopz]

Thank you very much for taking the time to explain this for me. I've read alot about primers in pieces, but couldn't put it all together. I went to a supplier close to me, but they knew nothing about paint, or painting, or primer, or pretty much anything that was in their store.  As for restoring the car, I'm going to try a paint stripper for the cars shell for the most part.  I bought a lil sandblasing unit but still don't know if I'm going to use it on the car or not. Some of the posts I've read here have me a lil bit worried about warping and such.  I'm not gonna put it on a rotisserie, cuz I dont think my wife would want me to take up her half of the garage, and I'm gonna try to do this on my own.  Minus a few questions here and there on there, as I have 0 experience doing this type of stuff.  Thanks again for the reply, and for shedding a little light on the subject for me.

[Steve]

Find a different store.

Chemical stripping works, but is very messy. I prefer using the 3M stripping discs. They make these in 4.5" and 7" versions. You would attach it to a grinder/buffer. Also makes a mess, but just dust. Works fast!

Sandblasting with a home unit will not warp these panels. You will need at least a 60 gallon compressor and lots of patience. I think you will find it to work best on the inside of the car, trunk, and engine bay...places where mechanical rust removal is difficult due to the tight corners. This is why many choose to simply knock off the scale and grime (like with a pressure washer) and do the inside with a rust converter/primer (i.e. Zero Rust, POR-15).

On the rotiserrie, I have a standard garage and the car didn't take up any more width on the rotiserrie than just sitting on casters. Now, the rig was a bit longer, but there was still plenty of room to park my wife's car in the garage. Before you say no to the rotiserrie, beg and plead with you wife. Trust me, it's the only way to go if your doing a full-out restoration!

[Steve]

By the way, where are you located? I have a rotisserie sitting around.

[ShelbyDogg]

Steve, I have a rotisserie available to use for the cuda that I'm restoring but was told not to use it while my quarters were off. I had to do some frame repair also and told the same thing. "NO Rotisserie" till I get the frame and quarters fully welded, due to body and frame flexing.   Did you notice any movement while yours was apart?  I'll wait till my floors and rear are all back together till I flip it to finish and weld the frame connectors.

Rob

[Steve]

I did the floor pans on the ground but had the quarters off when the car was up on the rotisserie. I didn't have a problem that I can tell. Most guys that have done Mopars will say that this is not a problem unless you have a convertable.

[Chopz]

I agree with you, the rotisserie is a much better way to restore a car.  The way I look at it though is I could almost buy a new tranny rather than a rotisserie.  It will take longer of course, but I'm in no hurry.  I have to save cash up before I work on the next step.  Right now I have the interior out of the car except for the steering column and the gas and brake pedals.  The whole front end is off the car, and lovin every minute of it .  Stopped at a different body shop supply store today, and it was a much better experience.  Very helpful and knowledgable.  Got some conditioner for the rust, some paint remover, and some Variprime self-etching primer by Dupont to start out with.