Some car addons are valuable, but these dealer options arent. Find out why to steer clear. Lower your insurance rates, Daytime Running Lights, Antilock Brakes, Airbags. Accident Prevention Courses, Driver Education, Good Student Discounts. Epoxy vs. Self Etching Primer for Painting Bare Metal. Visit any automotive forum and you cant help but stumble upon a long running debate on which direct to metal product is better, etch primer or epoxy primer. You will hear all kinds of technical facts, personal experiences as well as flat out unsubstantiated opinion. Then throw in the thousands of products available for the job, each with their own recommendations, and youll find yourself overwhelmed. But after the smoke finally clears the fact remains that both types of primers will give you successful results if used correctly. BRASS CAR SIDES Passenger Car Parts for the Streamliners since 1978. Updated August 6, 2017. When downloading linked pdf files, ignore the harmless number out of. Nearly 300 customers of Nissan of New Rochelle, N. Y. paid extra for VIN etching that never occurred. How to Choose the Best Anti Theft Devices to Protect Your Car. Nothing guarantees your car wont be stolen, but you can improve your odds without spending a fortune. Without Understanding the VIN Number On Your Motorhome, You Wont Really Know What You Have. Every modern Class C Motorhome will have a 17 digit VIN Number. Ive had a number of requests to revisit my old PCB etching technique and update it with things Ive learned since then. This is as much for my benefit as. Add a touch of class to any home, office or commercial site. Sandblast window tinting is the choice of home or business owners who recognise the benefits and. Etching Number On Car Window' title='Etching Number On Car Window' />The route you choose depends on the condition of the metal youre starting with, the time you have to devote to the bodywork and paint process, your budget and a bit of personal preference. Above all else, once you decide on your color, use that companys paint products from the bare metal stage to the final topcoat. Mixing products to save a few bucks will most likely cause adhesion problems no matter which bare metal primer you choose. Self Etching Primer. An etching primer uses an acid to chemically clean and micro etch the metal surface for a better mechanical bite to promote adhesion with the layer of high build primer to follow while also providing a layer of corrosion resistance on the metal. Because it cures quickly, its the method of choice for collision shops. But a key difference with etch primer is that you need to apply your filler or bondo first directly to the metal before spraying it. An example of the application order on bare metal is 1 bodywork including fillerbondo 2 paint prep solvent 3 self etch primer 4 high build primer 5 basecoat 6 clearcoat. Recommendations. If your metal surface is mostly smooth, you dont have areas with rust problems and you dont plan on having to use additional filler or bondo, then self etch is a great option. Any slight imperfections and small sanding scratches will be filled with high build primer in the next step. Adobe Photoshop Cs 8 Filters Download Games. Its also useful for painting small parts or body panels with hard to reach areas that you cant scuff easily with sandpaper or a pad. Self etching primer will get in there and bite into metal for you. Heres an example of self etching primer sprayed over panels with only some minor bodywork done. Youll notice differences in color as it dries over bare metal versus body filler. This 6. 7 convertible Chevelle at Martin Automotive was etched with 2 parts PE9. Corrosion Shield Etching Primer and 3 parts ER9. Corrosion Shield Reducer by Sherwin Williams. Unless you only have a few minor issues to fix, its challenging for us do it yourselfers to carve out enough time to strip the old paint to bare metal, do the repairs, apply bondo and then spray a layer of self etching primer before surface rust begins to form on the body. In this case, a more realistic option may be to use an epoxy primer. Epoxy Primer. As the name implies, epoxy primer gives you excellent adhesion, similar to applying epoxy glue while also sealing the bare metal from environmental elements. Since it relies on forming a mechanical bond with the metal, you have to manually create the bite it needs by sanding the entire surface of the body with 8. Once the epoxy primer is down you no longer have to worry about rust while doing your repairs especially since you can apply body filler right on top of it. Then simply respray the areas you worked on to re seal them. Although it takes longer to cure than self etch primer, restoration shops tend to favor epoxy primers because of they often handle more extensive body repair projects. An example of the application order on bare metal is 1 paint prep solvent 2 epoxy primer 3 bodywork including fillerbondo 4 epoxy primer on repair areas or over entire car again 5 high build primer 6 basecoat 7 clearcoat. Recommendations. If your bare metal body is going to need some work or youre going for a flawless finish, then youre better off using epoxy primer because it gives you a layer that can be sanded and filled as needed. Pay attention to your products recoat window. During the recoat window usually a few days you can add filler and another coat of epoxy primer without first having to scuff the surface. If you let your project sit for a week or more, then youll have to sand scuff the original layer before you pickup where you left off. That does introduce an extra step for weekend warriors but its a small price to pay for being able to work at your own pace and not have to worry about rust.