Somebody Asked About Primers

[tony barnhill]

Here's the sequence we're following on my '63 Midget - a little different than I usually do a car. This car had only been painted once after some accident repairs & was solid so I decided not to srip it to bare metal or to completely disassemble the tub.

1) First photo is the tub as we started.
2) Second photo is as we took the 2nd coat of paint off to identify the previous repairs & evaluate the original factory work.
3) Tub completely covered with 2-part epoxy primer.
4) Body work being done. We removed all the previous bodywork which was very good & redid everything to our standards.
- the entire car was wiped down with foamy glass cleaner to cut any grease or body oils from it. Then,
5) A second coat of epoxy primer was put on all the repairs.

Next (not shown in photos, they'l come later) we'll spray a red sandable primer on the body - photos Thursday. Sanding that coat will reveal any minor bodywork that still needs to be done.

Then, we're wipe the car down again with window cleaner & reprime it. The final sanding should give us a straight tub (if not, we'll continue working on it to achieve that).

We don't spray a sealing primer. What we do is spray 1 coat of body color & let it 'tack off' for about 15 minutes. It then becomes our sealer over which we'll spray the remainder of the color.

Then we'll sand the finished cars & spray the clear coats.

Here are those first photos:

 

[zimmy]

thanks tony...looks good..and straight. :wink:
well, mine wont quite b a show car,
but i think everyone will b amazed when
i whip out the before and after pics!
im spending alot of time on the bodywork...
mostly cause im learning, but im still
pretty darn picky! ...
im happy with it so far, and its "almost"
enjoyable learning a new skill...haha.......zimmmmmy

 

[tony barnhill]

There ya go, zimmy - slow & steady, don't bite off more than you can handle, tackle small parts instead of the entire car...you'll make it.

I posted this process just so people could see what we're going through on this particular car...on other ones, we totally disassemble it & take it back to bare metal - but that's not always necessary.

 

[jlaird]

When does the red bed liner go on tony?

 

[tony barnhill]

When does the red bed liner go on tony?

Up under the undercarriage? Right before they spray the paint on the body & wheelwells.

 

[jlaird]

Can't wait to see a pic of that.

 

[tony barnhill]

So, an update:

The reason we like the white epoxy primer is because it shows everything...we thought all the body issues were solved until we reprimed it with the white....so, today, they're correcting those minor issues & will spray the red primer tomorrow & do another sanding....hopefully, the problems will be solved (& the problems right now are so minor that most paint jobs wouldn't worry about them!)

Won't be coming home before I head to Honduras & Puerto Rico!

 

[zimmy]

assuming i make it to mg2008,
i cant wait to compare my home
paint job with a professional one :wink:
save me a parking spot tony! .....z

 

[tony barnhill]

assuming i make it to mg2008,
i cant wait to compare my home
paint job with a professional one :wink:
save me a parking spot tony! .....z

hehehe.....You're assuming I'm gonna make it! I'm leaving Monday o-dark-thirty in the morning.....I just hope the car is in red primer tomorrow so they can start sanding Monday (though I'll not be able to run my hands over the finished tub before they put the paint on it - first time for everything!)....they'll paint while I'm gone...guarantee I'll find something they need to redo before we bring it home mid-April which means I'll probably not get the tub home until May!!

Anybody wanna have an 'assemble the Midget' party?

 

[sqbsprite]

Tony,
Just curious- did you take off the front fenders and clean and prime the insides next to the A post? This area usually hides problems until it is too late.

 

[tony barnhill]

Steve - No, I didn't have any rust evident on the outside of them except for a tiny bit in the bottom of the passenger "A-post about the size of a small aspirin....so, we did something different as I didn't really want to take the fenders off unless/until necessary.

We cut the bottom of the passenger A-post off - just the face where there was rust, not the edges - a little piece about 2"wide x 6"high; everything looked clean through that little hole.....but, to look inside, here's what we did: on the inside of the tub right above the sill, we cut out an opening about 4" high by a foot long to get to the backside & better see what was inside...everything was real clean in there so we vacuumed it out, primed it & painted it (we did that on both sides just in case)....no rust or trash was captured in there on either side - everything looked as it should be.....so, we welded the panels we'd cut back in place.

Rather unorthodox, I know, but I just didn't want to get into removing front fenders because then I would've taken the tub down to bare metal & it's in too good shape for that.