Welcome back Dan, now get to work - paint question

[SuperBuickGuy]

I followed the instructions and didn't like the result. My FJ40 is naked and I followed the instructions to put a crust on the metal (phosphoric acid bath). I painted it with epoxy primer, and had no end to trouble with runs - even though I did a mist coat first (which ran). It was like the paint simply wasn't adhering to the metal. I didn't follow the instructions and painted the epoxy straight over the bare metal - and that stuff is on forever. The paint on the hood (Phosphoric acided) took 2 days to dry, the stuff on the firewall was dry in 3 hours.

I did the same kind of phosphoric bath on the frame, and the KBS coating loved that and has adhered very well to it.

What gives? I'm very tempted to simply blow on a good coat of epoxy on the body and call it a day - but will it flake off later? I plan on putting ceramic sound deadener on the inside and a rubberized (type) coating on the underside - so I'm concerned that if the epoxy starts flaking off, a great deal of money and time will have been wasted - but honestly, at this moment, I'm more concerned about the hood keeping paint on it because even now (4 days later) I wouldn't consider it fully cured.

[DanStokes]

I haven't had that particular issue but rather than the phosphoric acid treatment I spray self-etching primer as a base coat over any naked metal and so far no issues. Best suggestion I have is to strip the offending pieces again (I know it's a pain, but.....), neutralize the heck out of the surfaces in question (IPA is one option but check with your paint store guy), and shoot a good base of a 2-part self-etching primer. I've used DuPont, PPG, and ShopLine (the new name for Omni) and all have stuck like crazy and overcoated well. If I have scratches to fill I'll use either a high-build primer or just plain old lacquer primer (cheap) then use thinned epoxy primer as a sealer - it works GREAT! I hear that they have a high build epoxy primer now that sands well but I haven't tried it yet.

Sorry this is giving you a fit - done there, been that and it's really frustrating. Paint chemistry can be a total mystery. I just went thru this with a table top I built and my final fix was to route off the top and make a new one, followed by ShopLine clear coat, which worked great.

Dan

[Barry Donovan]

self etching..
that is the answer.

one could find the grabber chemical in that paint, and go your own way...

[SuperBuickGuy]

I talked to one of my friends (who lives in Cali now) that used to live here in Washington and he described, perfectly, the issue, result, and cure. The short answer for Beags is spray the epoxy on bare metal. In Washington, we have too much moisture in the air, and the acid bath didn't have enough time to dry in my 2nd etch situation. The frame dried for more than a week in really low-humid conditions. Not so with the hood and fillers.
His suggestion is like yours, strip them and start over. I'm glad I didn't do the tub - and fortunately(ish), I already am heading back to the stripper for the other bits I didn't take before, so I'll simply take the hood and fillers with me when I go back.

I learned.... thanks Dan, thanks Keith (cali friend).