Technical quick question - Bob Drake panels

Im finally fitting the tail pan on my sedan. Ive had the Drake panel for 10 years, and its as good as the day I recieved it. The primer is very well attached, and ther is no rust at all. My question is,does anyone know what primer it is, can I prime and paint over this, or is it not suitable, and need stripping back. As I said, it doesn't come of easily, either sanding or thinners, and there is no rust.
Thanks

 

Sunday bump, anyone know?

 

I would be more concerned about the fit of the
panel than the paint. I used one on my forty
and it required a lot of modification to make
a decent profile with the trunk lid.

 

I don't know what the coating is ; I would give it the lacquer thinner test. Wipe over it with a wet lacquer thinner rag or cloth and if it wrinkles it's some kind of enamel and it should be stripped. If you sand it dry with 320-400 paper and it "balls' up and clogs the paper, it's probably isn't any kind of "prep coating". If it was me, I would strip it and coat it with an epoxy primer. You need to use a weld thru primer where it attaches to the inner fender well/body and the tool tray on the bottom anyway.

 

Clean it to bare metal, that's the only way you can be sure.

 

Go ahead and fit it. Strip the coating off the perimeter and mating areas first. You will end up having to remove the coating all around the outside edge to make it fit right anyway. They are close but not perfect. None of these old Ford bodies are the same, they require a tailored fit with replacement panels. By the time your done you won’t have any but the areas toward the center of the panel left anyway and you can strip it then.

 

I cannot emphasize this enough.

I hear people all the time, badmouthing X company's repair panels as "junk" because they do not fit. While some are actually junk, the problem is that old Fords do not match old Fords.

Making a repair panel that can fit a couple million slight variants is beyond impossible.

Even not so old Fords don't match not so old Fords. I have a Falcon, with all of its original body panels. The profile of the doors do not match the quarter panels, and the passenger-side door inside does not align to the dashboard. It was made that way.

 

Strip it ,!!! don't take a chance at this stage. Now is the time to be sure that it will hold ,EPOXY IT !!!!!

 

Thanks people, thinners doesn't touch it oddly, it sanded great, no balling up, just regular 'dust', but I think i'll strip it, just being lazy. I'm talking about the inside, as it will be a lot easier to prime it off the car than when its finally attached, and the outside will be easy to strip later. I have stripped and weld thru primed the mating edges.
Panel fit was o.k ish, but as Gimpyshotrods wrote, they're all different anyway. I had to make it slightly narrower and and re radius the top corners where it meets the quarters, and probably replace the top rubber lip (as its not there in the middle, not enough metal used to stamp it?), but overall its pretty good, I could never have made the basic shape myself, so a good place to start.

Thanks for all the help