seal it. better adhesion, uniformity, peace of mind. tint the sealer (if possible) as close to your color as you can, you'll use less paint, less time, less $$$. have at it.
I agree with Ed... Get the sealer that the paint company who made your paint recommends - do not mix brands!! Most sealers will not only give color uniformity and improve adhesion of your color, but they will often act as a barrier to anything that would have otherwise became a problem if you apply color over what is there now. I am talking about stuff like sand scratch swelling, lifting, a halo appearing around a repair area... Most sealers will prevent that type of thing, to be sure ask the guy you bought your paint from or call the tech line for the paint company you are using to be sure their sealer will do this. Do the homework now - it sucks to have to do this kind of thing over....
Absolutely seal it. I don't know why a lot of guys tend to skip over this step, but for less headaches in the long run, "Just do it".
You can even get a sealer that is ready to spray----meaning that no catalyst has to be applied. It is fairly cheap extra insurance and to me is well worth it.
I agree that a sealer is very important. Learned that on my first full paint job. Cost me a lot of extra work and money. I now have a project that was originally black, I have used black primers in the prep and plan to paint it gloss black for the tinal coat. Would it be needed in this case to use a black sealer?
I got the sealer yesterday and today I will do the under hood then do the rest of the jams first,Thanks
One more question if I don't have time to color over do I have to reseal the next day or just scotchbrite it and shoot color then.Doing this in my garage.
I have wet sanded it with 600 after sitting for a while. This also helps reduce work when its time to cut and buff the clear coat later.
I use House Of Kolor and they have a 3 hour max time limit. I see no good reason to wait any longer anyway. I shoot sealer, wait an hour, check for dust or dirt in the sealer and proceed with base.
You're better off to wait until you spray color, especially if it's a non-sanding sealer. I couldn't imagine having to scotchbrite a firewall. I'm kinda lazy like that. You can seal with many different products. A reduced epoxy primer makes a great sealer. Some allow as much as 5-7 days and still be non-sanding when used this way, but 72hrs is the limit in my book. I like to seal with epoxy 1 day, spray color the next. dustyolbodyman is right, as in it prevents excess solvent penetration. In plain english, it sucks when that happens.
Shot under hood yesterday and turned out fine just 2 good coats of black and then 2 coats clear.Before on underside of body had to do 4 coat black to cover gray primer.The place i bought primer didn't have dark primer and still had hard time covering it
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