bare metal parts. question

[Steven R]

when you have you sheet metal to bare metal and there are places that will knowing need filler work, do you fill those areas frist, and then epoxy prime or epoxy prime then expose the area to be filled back to metal for the bondo/glaze putty?

OR

do you epoxy prime, DA with 80 grit, the needed area but not down to the bare metal, then bondo/ glaze putty?

pls help me confirm that i and right or wrong lol

[mongocanfly]

Epoxy first....heavy sand....then do the body work over epoxy...then prime over body work when satisfied .....thats how I did it...

[Jcfcamaro]

I've read both ways,but my SPI epoxy primer says to spray it first then do the body filler. But if you read the Evercoat instructions they say to sand it down to bare metal. I like the idea of putting the epoxy on first to seal it.

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by Jcfcamaro

I've read both ways,but my SPI epoxy primer says to spray it first then do the body filler. But if you read the Evercoat instructions they say to sand it down to bare metal. I like the idea of putting the epoxy on first to seal it.

I asked the Evercoat reps about this once, here is the story, epoxy first is the best way to go, the problem is Evercoat can't recommend an epoxy! Being they can't say "spray an epoxy first" because there are crap epoxies out there that wouldn't be as good as bare metal, so they can't say that!

They then can't recommend a brand because that would knock them out of every store that didn't sell that brand epoxy.

But epoxy primer first is the best bet. HOWEVER filler over bare metal is what is done still in 95% of the body shops across America and has been done that way since the first "bondos" were used 60 years ago and if it's primed properly after the filler it's going to be just fine.

The thing is with home projects how soon do we get to the filler work? If something is stripped and then epoxy primed it's protected, done deal. That's why I like the epoxy on there first.

Brian

[Steven R]

Thanks for all the reply's I will take the info and see what we decide later. tks

[72c20customcamper]

From my experience and from company reps it all depends on relative air humidity and the time frame of the job. Car coming in for production body work no need to epoxy prime as the metal is sealed within a few hours. Now during restoration where it going to sit for some extended length of time epoxy prime first. Again mileage will vary here in the northeast in summer metal will flash rust relatively quickly. Some place like Phoenix could sit for days . Doing an AMX right now and the car was dustless blasted and epoxy primed within 24 hours.

[sprint_9]

With Spi put 2 good coats down, keep the metal temp above 65, let it cure out overnight and then next day put your filler down. No need to sand if you don't want to. If you do you can very lightly block it with 180 and it will show you the low and high spots.