My truck has a ton of pits and dings......How do I fix them in prepping???

clean them...strip them...clean again...prime...fill...prime...color. Use a wire brush to remove paint/rust. Use a sandblaster to get to the hard to reach areas. Use some acid based rust "converter" on the whole area (this will take care of any rust left behind in the tiny pitts and etch the clean steel) before you prime...I recommend an epoxy primer and sandwich any filler between epoxy primer. When it comes to filling anything...only use 2k (2-part) fillers.

Are you saying to put filler over self etching primer then?

...I recommend an epoxy primer and sandwich any filler between epoxy primer.


I still recommend an epoxy primer.


If you're dead set on an etch primer...put your filler over it. However, I am not a fan of using etch primer over filler.

I always thought you put filler on bare metal. Are you guys saying to put in on top of self etch primer or expoxy?

You CAN put filler on bare metal. You CAN use filler to fill holes instead of doing it right and welding them closed. You CAN use a one-part primer and laquer paint.:)

There is a lot that you CAN do and get away with it.;)

However, if you first apply an epoxy primer to bare metal...you are removing the chance (propability) of moisture forming between the filler and metal....causing rust in the distant future. IMO, the epoxy adheres to the metal as close to 100% as you can get. The filler then adheres to the epoxy BETTER than it can to metal (it does so chemically and physically, not just physically), and the final coats of epoxy over the filler results in an as close to perfect surface for color as you are going to get.

sorry for bringing back a slightly old post here.. but for bare metal i always heard you should etch prime first? so should you etch, then epoxy, then filler, then epoxy again? then a urethane primer over the epoxy to sand for paint?

Thats a lot of substrait under the paint

so.. no?