A question for you proffesional?? body guys..when you skim coat a car to block it out should the fiberglass go on bare metal or over the primer ? I've done it both ways but never knew which way was correct.
I predict you will get a 50/50 answer on this one, and you will be back to your original question..... Me, I prefer to go over bare metal with the filler... but, I'm no expert...... however, I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express one time, and my dog thinks I'm really smart.....FWIW Tom
Sounds like torture - I use Evercoat poly glaze putty - which can go over bare metal or sanded primer/paint.
The question you should ask is which one worked better for me? If neither was any better then the other than it is nox nix, isn't it.
" I'm no expert...... however, I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express one time, and my dog thinks I'm really smart.....FWIW" Tom I never slept at a Holiday Inn Express but I did sleep in my truck in a Walmart parking lot, woke up naked , dead chickens everywhere.<!-- / message -->
If you use epoxy primer first, you will be able to see where you need to use filler better than if you put it on bare metal. The low spots show up better with primer on the bare metal.
Never, never put filler over metal etching primer! Epoxy is ok, adds chemical adhesion to mechanical adhesion, no body filler over build primer, glaze is ok.
I've always used it over bare metal. I suppose if your car is going to sit for a long time, and you want to protect it and not sitting in bare metal, I can see the viewpoint of epoxy priming it and then putting a skim coat on it; which I probably wouldn't do.
The "ultimate" way of doing filler (Rage Gold) is to first put a Medium / wet coat of Epoxy over the very well straightened, and prepped bare metal. S.P.I. makes a very good Epoxy for this, but any good quality Epoxy will do. You can let the S.P.I. Epoxy sit for 2 days and then spread on your filler (Rage Gold) and let it cure thoroughly. I usually wait 6 - 8 before sanding. If your metal is very straight and the filler has been spread very evenly, you can some time not break through the Epoxy and once sanded smooth, I usually then "seal" the filler with one more medium / wet coat of Epoxy. Let that coat of Epoxy cure for at least 2 hours and then put on 3 coats of a High Build Urethane and let the fun begin. Good Luck, VR&C.
I have heard same about not putting filler over etching primer. Not sure if its true or not. So I assume the proper method would be etching primer, regular primer, then filler?
I paint in a production bodyshop and the body men always put filler over bare metal with no problems. That being said, when i recently had to fix something for my personal rig i put down a nice coat of dp90lf before i let them spread mud on my truck. if production is not a concern i would epoxy the bare metal than put down the filler. btw, do not put filler or seam sealers, etc. over etch primer
For Pete sakes I read these type of posts all the time. This is the year of our Lord 2013 and there is still difference of opinion with body fillers. Signed Corn fused?
I do it the same way, in fact all the custom painters i know do it this way. I have a painter friend that has 2 x Pebble Beach trophy's and he uses the same process but doesn't use hi build primer at all, He likes Epoxy primer as he said it seals everything up great and is impervious to moisture.
If after you strighten out the metal and you have dents more than 2" deep, make sure you use a course hair fiberglass filler in the deep dents only.
fiberglass/ kitty hair/fiberglass jelly/ over the patch panel welds...( bare metal )...then plastic, bondo....thats what ive been taught.....no premature failures yet after 3 yrs................
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