The first thing I want is a layer of epoxy primer upon which to lay my bodywork. We go over the car and prep any bare metal, especially any new welds. We don’t want to let the evil rust spirits a chance to sneak back in. We spray metal cleaner onto the bare metal and scrub with scotch brite until it is clean and shiny, with no discoloration. The cleaner gets rinsed off. Then the bare metal get sprayed with metal conditioner, which will give it a light blue tinge. This color change lets you know that the stuff has done its work. Again we rinse it off well, until water flows off in a clean sheet, telling us we have nothing left on the panel that is not supposed to be there.
Now the whole thing gets scrubbed down with yet another scotch-brite pad, this time with a product called Ting. This is a specialty cleanser for paint work that contains pumice and TSP, along with other yummy stuff. This will leave a clean surface ready to accept primer.
The car gets moved into the booth and wiped dry with lint-free towels. If anything needs to be kept free of paint, it gets masked off with special paper that will absorb paint, but not allow it to pass through.
The plan is to lock all that good clean metal and paint down while we do the rest of the bodywork. We do this by applying epoxy primer. This is a two-part product that sticks like nobody’s business and is a perfect surface material upon which to lay filler, surfacer or paint.
This gets sprayed on as a single full-wet coat, and gets to dry overnight.
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