Picture of the Sheet Metal ready for what step next? Help?

I have sanded it smooth and removed all the old paint off the 48 Power Wagon sheet metal. What is the next step befor priming? Do I treat the bare metal first? What would be a good base primer and finish primer? I wanted to use a Enamal Paint for the finel coat. I am new to this and could use some hints. Thanks, Mark H.

I have had excellent resutlts by using an etching primer over the bare metal. Let the phosphoric acid in the primer do it's thing and after drying you can then spray the epoxy primer in a medium coat. Let this dry and then start the blocking with your long board or air file.

As the high and low spots become visible you will need to apply more e-prime the the low areas and gradually bring them up to level with the surrounding areas.

Sand between coats but try not to sand through the ectching primer. Should that happen just shoot a very light coat of etching primer over the bare areas and let dry. Follow with more e-prime and contiue that blocking process.

Do NOT apply top coats (paint) over self etching primer. SEP is not designed to hold paint, only to clean the metal and provide a good solid base for primer-fillers.

Since you are "going the extra mile" in taking everything down to bare metal, I will suggest what I think is the very best way to prepare sheet metal for painting the final topcoat. Others will have different views but the following is what has worked very well for me.

Since you have obviously not primed the bare metal right away after stripping any coatings, I would certainly recommend a chemical metal treatment prior to priming. This consists of phosphoric acid cleaning and conditioning, a two step process. Such a treatment will take care of any flash rusting and prepare the metal for best adhesion of the primer. It is a somewhat messy process but the materials are not expensive. You have everything down in separate pieces, so this method should be easy to do. In the PPG lineup, DX579 is the cleaner and DX520 is the companion conditioner. DuPont has equivalent products (5717S and 5718S).

Immediately after this metal treatment I recommend a two part epoxy primer such as PPG OMNI MP170/MP175. You will not find a better metal primer than epoxy.

Some will say you can skip these steps and use an "etch" or "wash" primer directly and go right to the topcoat. I remain unconvinced that this faster way of doing things is as good, but some swear by it. If you consider an etch primer make sure you know the specific limitations (may be different between manufacturers) on the use of it.

I don't know what grade of sandpaper you may have used on the parts but it was probably coarser than 400. If so, you should put a couple of coats of a primer-surfacer on top of the epoxy and sand with 400 or so prior to putting on your final finish coats of color. This will give you the smoothest and best appearing finish. Exactly which primer-surfacer you choose will depend on your personal respiratory safety equipment. The so-called 2K surfacers are best but they should only be used with supplied-air since they contain isocyanates (as do topcoat enamels if you add a hardener). Assuming only standard cartridge respirators, I would recommend a 1K lacquer type of surfacer such as PPG OMNI MP181. DuPont's 131S, "Fill and Sand" would be in this same category.

Whatever products you choose, get the manufacturer's technical data sheets and follow all instructions, particularly on reducers, times and temperatures. For the key auto-paint manufacturers, such information is available on-line from their web sites. You should be aware there are time constraints with most epoxy primers. They are unique to each manufacturer and will be spelled out on the applicable tech data sheet.

Rod