Paint questions , I guess the right place

Hey guys I have a 1999 frontier I'm painting myself. It had oem paint that is failing badly. Plan is to rip 180 over all the lose spots until all the paint is staying put while sanding, then start stepping up grit size gradually up to 400. Then I'm thinking epoxy primer sealer, and then single stage white.

Concern I have is in order to get the peeling chipping paint gone I'm having to use 180, which in spots is burning through to bare metal. Not everywhere just lightly in spots. Will the sealer be enough to correct for this? I don't want to use a bunch of spot self etch primer and then seal and end up with a bunch of poke a dot looking spots showing through lol school me on this guys

 

If you're willing to put in the sweat equity of prep work, have you considered reaching out to a paint shop to see if they'd do an overall primer layer for you on the cheap? It'd give you the evenness you are after and be a solid base for anything you do after.

 

Check for a vocational high school that has a body shop. Hint: They don't like rust but love prepping and painting. I had a 1981 Lancia Zagato restored and ready for paint prep. Cost me about $600 18 yrs ago. Car show finish when it was done.

 

Not sure I'd trust the current generation of high schoolers with crayons, much less paint... Geez... I'm turning into a grumpy old man.

 

I appreciate the advice but im not really looking to farm the job out to anyone, not necessarily trying to save money either . I just enjoy working on stuff. I've done this twice before but never had peeling paint like this before either. Mainly just trying to ensure I use the correct product to ensure good adhesion.

I think the sealer route will work as it's purpose is intended to seal unknown paint surfaces while priming however I'm just looking for someone smarter than me in this area to tell me I'm doing it right or wrong lol I may call the community College body shop and ask them though, they probably wouldn't mind sharing that with me

 

Ah, that makes sense. Would it be possible to do the spot priming a little thick and sand it back down? Honest question as I have never painted a vehicle.

 

You’ll really want to prep the way you’re doing already. Sounds like you’re trying to be thorough, so you’ll want to spot self etch prime and apply sealer over it. That way you’ll have a uniform finish before base coat. I assume you’ll be fixing small dings and such with bondo anyway, if you’re burning through to the metal, you’re probably gonna create low spots. Those will need to be filled after the self etching primer anyway.

 

In my experience if you sand one area down to bare metal, no matter how well you feather it, it will take a lot of primer and block sanding to at least give you a shot at not seeing that spot. Depending on how many spots are down to bare metal you may just want to take all the paint off.

 

Yea luckily the truck is super straight, so I literally have one ding to fix lol. I really don't plan for much bondo. Hoping after I do the spot prime and sealer , after I sand the sealer coat down for my color coat it should be even enough. This isn't a concours restoration by any means, just a shade tree paint job that looks nice. The first time I ever did this was an 87 s10 blazer that definitely had paint missing. We sanded that thing for 2 weeks feathering out and wet sanding, didn't block it at all, and it came out great. Also I'm just using a single stage white , which in my experience single stage and the color white hide alot of sins lol

 

This is the truck in question. 206k will be my sons first truck and is my house project chore truck


Burn through shots


Picture of peeling im dealing with prior to sanding

 

Do you think the burn through will be enough to require a bondo float coat? If so that's fine just trying to avoid it lol I hate bondo haha

 

Also I am going to be disassembling lights bumpers grille etc to strip everything down the sanded spots in the picture are just test spots to see how the peeling paint was going to react to sanding.

 

I wouldn't. Multiple coats of a filling primer should fill it nicely.

 

Also if I can get an opinion, which grille should I go back with chrome like it had or charcoal? I'm leaning toward the charcoal. The grille it has is broken along with the bumper filler piece so im replacing both. Also replacing all the light housings

 

You beat me to that comment. Now get off my lawn !!!!!

 

Acrylic house paint
Foam roller
Park it for 2 weeks to dry
???
Profit

 

Huh? Lol

 

Did someone say Crayons?

 

@Retired...finally is right. Just a filler primer should be ok. That single stage white is gonna hide a ton. Plus if your youngster is like I was, he’ll make new memories that require ruining the new paint.

 

He better not lol he's also helping do the prep so I'm sure once he has enough time in it he won't want to eff it up lol

 

Good parenting!! Then he can fix it!

 

Yep the 87 s10 I mentioned was my first car. My dad and I painted that one ourselves with the help of a neighbor who did some restorations guiding us. Wanted to recreate the same memories with my son. Means more too now , seeing as my dad just passed in July.

 

Ah damn, sorry to hear that. I learned a lot from my dad too, those memories really last.

 

Found a high to medium fill primer and sealer in one product. And it eliminates need for self etch primer as well. This will make things infinitely easier.

 

Ok well no turning back now lol

 

Everywhere there's gray burn through is where the paint was peeling

 

If you need a quick woosh can primer to hold you over until the gun comes out, I highly recommend Napa Martin Senor self etching primer. It's great stuff and as long as the bare metal is properly cleaned you can leave in on. Reminder that primer doesn't seal the metal from water penetration.

 

Yea the primer I'm using is a 2k primer /sealer. It says in the techspecs I posted that it eliminates the need for self etch primer altogether. Also I'm parking the garage til finished so I should be good.

 

You’ll want to etch any area of bare metal bigger than a baseball. The tech specs say “small burn through areas” and that’s where they’re drawing the line. That fender needs some acid etch fo sho. SEM makes a good spray can one.

 

Ahh good to know. Yea then I'll need to etch prime the logo spot on doors and tailgate, front fender and rear bed corner . Good call