how much paint?

dansmith89

Gear Grinder
Sep 29, 2010
15
Albany, OR
Willys Model
Willys Year:
i have never painted a car. im looking to paint a willys pick up. im planning on using just a catalyst primer for now. how much paint actually goes on the vehicle like how much should i purchase
 
Dan,
Back in '97 when I painted my wagon I used Dupont One Step Enamel. I used about 1.5 gallons if I remember correctly and got about three coats on. What I didn't use was a sealer. BIG MISTAKE. I lived in California when I painted it and figured I could do without it to save $$. I then moved to Missouri. WHOOPS! Now I know why I should have used it. The paint went on really easy and turned out quite well for a first time effort I thought. If I paint again I'll use it again.
Steve
 
Several variables. How many coats are you planning? Interior also? Doing two coats on the outside of a vehicle as big as a wagon will use something over a half gallon of paint. Will use most of a quart of thinner also, plus the thinner for cleaning.
 
Also know if this is your first paint job metal flake may not be a great choice. Takes some practice to get used to keeping the distance and direction the gun is pointing consistant to keep the metal flake looking even. And some paints are hard if not impossible to repair, tried to repair a color shifting metal flake once. Repaired spot changed color at a different time so it stood out horribly. Had to repaint whole panel to get it right.
 
well i think to start with i just want (i think its called) a catalyst primer... my dad said that will protect it from rusting while i only have a primer on it, with primer i dont know what the prefered number of layers is but what would you do
 
I'm new to this myself, so if I'm giving some bad info, somebody slap me.

I'm currently under the impression if the metal is not media blasted, the first coat of primer should be an etching primer.
 
retmotor said:
I'm new to this myself, so if I'm giving some bad info, somebody slap me.

I'm currently under the impression if the metal is not media blasted, the first coat of primer should be an etching primer.
Click to expand...

There seems to be a ton of debate about that on the net.
Some of the catalysed primers are suppposed to be direct to metal.
http://www.paintforcars.com/epoxy_primer.html
 
retmotor said:
I'm new to this myself, so if I'm giving some bad info, somebody slap me.

I'm currently under the impression if the metal is not media blasted, the first coat of primer should be an etching primer.
Click to expand...
RODUCT DESCRIPTION:
ProForm Direct to Metal Epoxy Primer Sealer is a universal epoxy primer formulated lead and chromate free. This system exhibits excellent adhesion and corrosion resistance while drying fast and providing superb color holdout to properly prepared steel, galvanized steel, aluminum, fiberglass, some plastics and cured finishes. Direct to Metal Epoxy Primer Sealer is easy to sand and topcoat with all current base coats. DTM epoxy primer sealer will fill sanding scratches up to 220 grit as a primer surfacer (2 to 4 mil film thickness). Paintforcars Direct to Metal Epoxy Primer Sealer may be re-coated as soon as it has flashed, and should be top-coated within 24 hours to avoid any adhesion problems. No induction time is required. The cured product is sandable.

above I copied and posted the description from cnsay link
In the early eighty's I went to school for auto body and got a degree, but I don't do it for a living I do it only as a hobby, well in those twenty to twenty five years technology on paint has long passed me by.
But as I read a lot of the paint questions the basics are still the same so hears what I can tell you

Etching- industry term for chemically preparing bare metal for primer bonding. ALL BARE METAL needs to be etched before putting on primer, unless it is a self etching primer

Look at this sentence I copied and pasted from the above description (excellent adhesion and corrosion resistance while drying fast and providing superb color holdout to properly prepared steel) Notice the properly prepared steel this means that this product is not self etching.
I don't know any thing about the new primers or sealers but in the old days hears how they worked one of the biggest things they thought us about paint is not to remove all the old paint unless absolutely needed to because we can never get the new paint to bond as well as the factory paint. if a car had a lot of paint on it we were taught to put paint remover on it and in about five minutes remove the paint with plastic bondo spreaders, this method will remove the outside layers of paint and leave the factory paint in tact to be sanded.

Primer- Everyone knows what primer is, well no not really, for bare metal and bondo the first coat of primer needs to be water sealing primer because water goes through regular primer and bondo and your metal will rust under the paint and bondo and down the road you will have a big surprise.

Primer filler-This is used after water sealing primer and as the name implies it as a thick filling primer as you are block sanding you will put on many coats of primer filler to fill sand scratches and imperfections.

sealer- a bonding and sealing step to make the new paint bond better and keep the old paint from bleeding through. in the old days we sprayed sealer just before paint let dry then paint.

( DTM epoxy primer sealer will fill sanding scratches up to 220 grit as a primer surfacer (2 to 4 mil film thickness). Paintforcars Direct to Metal Epoxy Primer Sealer may be re-coated as soon as it has flashed, and should be top-coated within 24 hours to avoid any adhesion problems. No induction time is required. The cured product is sandable.) I copied and pasted this from above to point out that it says could be sanded yes, but no real fill properties in this product. It says can be top coated after flash and should be top coated in twenty four hours to avoid adhesion problems when I read this it tells me that this product is nothing more than a sealer an not a self etching primer or filling primer. Jorp
 
Hence my confusion, Chris. Everyone seems to have a different opinion and different experiences.

Thanks for that post, Bob, and welcome to the forum. The post helped me. I do remember buying an "etching" chemical for an old CJ I partially repainted in the 80's.

I was planning on doing the same thing as Dan, and that is prime the rig to keep the rust off while the rest of the work done. So ideally, if we do this we need to:

1. Etch before priming
- with an etching primer
- or with a chemical

2. Prime with an epoxy / catalyst type primer that;
- sticks to bare metal
- is workable (eventually)
- is suitable for under body filler
- and doesn't need to be painted right away

Sound right? (And apologies for the confusion. I hope I didn't take this thread somewhere Dan didn't want it to go.)
 
no i did not know about the etching primer at all. so im glad that got a little off track. the real point of the thread was asking how much paint... really i mean primer should i buy? like a gallon or two or what should be suitable
 
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