I saw it mentioned in another thread. If the paint on your car is intact if you prep that correctly you can get away without priming the car. I have been painting for a while now, I have done a car here and there and I have always primed over the old paint if it was stable enough to do so. So just prepping the surface on some stable paint and not priming is out of my comfort zone. However I want to save some money on this paint job. I picked a tri-coat from PPG which is kind of going to break the bank. Thoughts?

I want to put this paint color and paint job


On this Fiero.


Thanks

Curly

That is a beautiful Pearl Silver. Woo! Would love to see that afterwards.

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Car Threads
86 Fiero 2M4 Silver https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/115701.html
and 86 GT
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/F...ML/085541.html

That is Lambo Balloon White.

If I were spending that much money on paint, I'd damn sure prime it with PPG epoxy primer...
~ Paul
aka "Tha Driver"

Custom Fiberglass Parts

I've always primed them for 2 reasons, #1 Barrier coat, #2 a "Uniform painting surface" ( all exactly prepped the same and it's all the Same Color, alot of paints are somewhat Transparent). If you are just putting a single stage , non metalic , enamel on, not really needed. but doing what you have planned, I'd "for sure" lay down a uniform painting surface.

Yeah I just took a closer look at the car i am going to need to do some body work and fix some chips so I will have to prime it regardless. Which is fine, I feel better about a paint job that is sealed up with a good PPG urethane primer myself. Regardless it is going to look awesome.

quote Originally posted by Curlrup: That is Lambo Balloon White.

That is a beautiful color, have to keep in mind. Paint like this will make your Fiero look newer by a few years.

Steve

[This message has been edited by JumpStart (edited 10-22-2011).]

If a car has good paint or just something like faded, you only need to primer where you do bodywork or sand to the original body material. If its sanded to get off clear delimitation or peeling, id primer at least that panel. I very rarely ever see the need to primer the whole thing as a barrier coat. If it had crappy paint on it, you should have taken it all off anyway. Any sand scratches deeper than 320 should be primered. I DA sand panels like hoods with 320 and spray base and clear right over it with no problems at all. I do it on all kinds of cars including my own. To me putting primer over say a sanded OEM paint job in good condition is a waste of time and money...all it does is add film thickness thats unnecessary.

Lou is right about some colors being pretty transparent. In those cases I just mix up left over paints to approximate that color and put it on first as a cover coat and no resanding is needed. If I do primer something, i ALWAYS resand it before paint over it. Sometimes I will use a light coat of gray primer to do a color change on a car to silver or gold from something like red or blue. I mostly prefer red oxide primer over gray simply because paint bonds better to the oxide primer. Most shops like gray because its a neutral color to paint over (less color coats) and its not as messy in the shop to sand. I dont mind getting covered with red or black primer dust while im working. I also find it easier to see flaws to sand out in the red than in the gray. Gray seems to gumm up paper where red turns to powder. Those are just my observations using them.

[This message has been edited by rogergarrison (edited 10-23-2011).]

Thanks Roger! I have no delaminating clear. In fact I have little to no clear left. All up facing surfaces are down to raw base coat. Down facing surfaces have a very thin film of clear left. There are some chips in the front edge of the hood down to the fibers that will get filled. The usual spider web cracks in the bumpers. So with a white paint could I get away with spot priming it with a grey primer? I would think I would see it through the white base. That is my main concern with priming, not priming, or spot priming.

Thanks

quote Originally posted by Curlrup: I saw it mentioned in another thread. If the paint on your car is intact if you prep that correctly you can get away without priming the car. I have been painting for a while now, I have done a car here and there and I have always primed over the old paint if it was stable enough to do so. So just prepping the surface on some stable paint and not priming is out of my comfort zone. However I want to save some money on this paint job. I picked a tri-coat from PPG which is kind of going to break the bank. Thoughts? Curly

I saved a bit of money and a lot of time by using a white catalized primer sealer on my tricoat paint job.
My color, (Lamborghini Arancio Borealis), called for a white base before the orange pearl midcoat.
We also did some minor bodywork prior to the repaint and even though I may have "cheaped out" just a bit by using "TransStar' brand catalized primer sealer, it worked very well with the R+M midcoat.
Details of my repaint are in this thread:
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/101963.html

(starts approx. 1/3 of the way down the 1rst page)

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[This message has been edited by randye (edited 10-23-2011).]

quote Originally posted by randye: I saved a bit of money and a lot of time by using a white catalized primer sealer on my tricoat paint job. My color, (Lamborghini Arancio Borealis), called for a white base before the orange pearl midcoat. We also did some minor bodywork prior to the repaint and even though I may have "cheaped out" just a bit by using "TransStar' brand catalized primer sealer, it worked very well with the R+M midcoat. Details of my repaint are in this thread: https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/101963.html (starts approx. 1/3 of the way down the 1rst page)

Thanks for the link. I will look into the TransStar as a primer for the body work areas to keep that base white. Thankfully I will have a booth to shoot in this time around. I shot this one in a barn. Came out great but it was a pain in the arse.





That was my experiment in Flip Paint....hence the black base. Looked cool, it was pretty over the top for a Fiero though. If I could do it over I would just go with a Graphite color.

[This message has been edited by Curlrup (edited 10-23-2011).]

quote Originally posted by Curlrup: Thanks for the link. I will look into the TransStar as a primer for the body work areas to keep that base white. Thankfully I will have a booth to shoot in this time around. I shot this one in a barn. Came out great but it was a pain in the arse.

As you can see we painted mine completely outdoors and it came out perfect.
I sure did NOT want to do it that way, but circumstances made it happen and the guy that shot it for me promised to do it all over again at his expense if it wasn't show quality.
We also had a VERY rare day in Florida where we had NO breeze and extremely low humidity. A textbook perfect day that you cannot predict

The car has won 2 "Best Custom Paint", 11 "Best of Show" and approx. 15 "Best in Class" trophies in large car shows in Florida, so I have to believe it looks ok.
If or when I ever do this again, it WILL be in a proper paint booth.
If nothing else it will keep me from having a stomach ulcer until the car is finished ....

[This message has been edited by randye (edited 10-23-2011).]

quote Originally posted by randye: As you can see we painted mine completely outdoors and it came out perfect. I sure did NOT want to do it that way, but circumstances made it happen and the guy that shot it for me promised to do it all over again at his expense if it wasn't show quality. We also had a VERY rare day in Florida where we had NO breeze and extremely low humidity. A textbook perfect day that you cannot predict The car has won 2 "Best Custom Paint", 11 "Best of Show" and approx. 15 "Best in Class" trophies in large car shows in Florida, so I have to believe it looks ok. If or when I ever do this again, it WILL be in a proper paint booth. If nothing else it will keep me from having a stomach ulcer until the car is finished ....

Yeah your car looks amazing. I would also paint outside if I didn't have access to a booth. So you get some dust in it, a big or two. You color sand and buff anyway so no biggy. That's my opinion.

That Lambo silver pearl you have picked out should look amazing on the car.
I would suggest that you paint the mirrors body color also, but leave the side moldings black and of course don't even *think* about putting those horrid stickers back on the doors..
The old axiom: "Less is more" applies here.
Can't wait to see it all shiny and resplendant in it's new color..I'll be watching

quote Originally posted by randye: That Lambo silver pearl you have picked out should look amazing on the car. I would suggest that you paint the mirrors body color also, but leave the side moldings black and of course don't even *think* about putting those horrid stickers back on the doors.. The old axiom: "Less is more" applies here. Can't wait to see it all shiny and resplendant in it's new color..I'll be watching

Door stickers are gone. Luggage Rack is gone. Molding will stay black. Sail panel frames will get a graphite metalic, Rockers will get the same Graphite. I think...still playing with the Graphite pieces in Photoshop.

IF you paint outside, DONT DO IT IN SUNSHINE. Do it in shade or better yet and overcast day. Unless your a LONG way from other stuff, dont spray catalyzed paint outside. You may end up paying neighbors for their cars to be repainted. My dad did that once and got catalyzed specs all over the next door neighbors brand new car.

Yep, catalyzed paint will still bond to surfaces a hundred yards away or more, depending on wind velocity. Catalyzed paints cure chemically, they don't dry, so time is the main consideration.

quote Originally posted by JazzMan: Yep, catalyzed paint will still bond to surfaces a hundred yards away or more, depending on wind velocity. Catalyzed paints cure chemically, they don't dry, so time is the main consideration.

WHO paints a car outdoors in the WIND???

I have long ago, even in a gravel driveway. Sometimes you gotta do what you hafta do. My problem with that job was I didnt get it done till early in the evening and the overnite dew got ruined with the outlines of under body reinforcements showing thru. I had to repaint the hood and decklid. I had a small house just out of town with no garage and nowhere else to do it. Ive also had to paint peoples planes outside if there were no hangers available...just had to wait for a solid overcast day.