Does anyone tint their primer?

I often tint my primer. I paint bicycles and it makes the inevitable chips much less obvious. I add a bit of pure tint (not base) and it works well. Probably not more than 5% though.
 
Once I made a gray for a semi truck bumper out of white and black epoxy mixed plus a little ferrite yellow. I figured it would be about as tough a base as could be under SPI clear. The addition of tint to epoxy needs to be done after activation and needs to be less than 5%, imo.

It turned out pretty good, and I don't have to worry about it chipping.

Maybe it was a waste of time, but I felt OK with it, seeing the result.
 
I use white primer under white cars, black under black cars, etc.. Does make chips less noticeable. Of course I dont do this on all colors etc.. One would think using yellow primer under a yellow base would be ideal also.. Not always the case.., As it will take extra base on many yellows to cover over the yellow primer..

Its all personal preference I guess.. Umpting years ago, I used yellow 2k under everything.. As with any base coat.. As long as you get full hiding of the base it does not matter at all.. However a stone chip on a dark color with a yellow undercoat will scream at you!!!
 
crashtech;8403 said:
Once I made a gray for a semi truck bumper out of white and black epoxy mixed plus a little ferrite yellow. I figured it would be about as tough a base as could be under SPI clear. The addition of tint to epoxy needs to be done after activation and needs to be less than 5%, imo.

It turned out pretty good, and I don't have to worry about it chipping.

Maybe it was a waste of time, but I felt OK with it, seeing the result.
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I've seen people use epoxy as their base color, seen a 70 Chevelle SS being done for Barret Jackson and the builder shot the hood and decklid in white epoxy then masked off where the stripes are, based the body in black BC, peeled off the stripe masking and cleared the whole car. The white epoxy was used as the stripe color, Looked OK
 
i keep white and black in the shop for all my primers then do like a value shade type thing. i just mix to get the right shade of grey to come close to the value of the base i am shooting. i dont tint the primer a color. i believe that has been proven by now to be a waste as far as coverage is concerned. rock chips are another story
 
White and red take several coats to cover the grey so I'm just needing a way to use less base. Rock chips have been mentioned a couple times, how does a color primer make a difference?
 
The chips don't show as bad if the undercoats match the color of the paint. Example: a white paint job done with all white undercoats is going to show stone chips less than if the undercoats were black or grey. Some of the paint manufacturers have colored primers like Akzo's color build primers and sealers where you can make blue or red or any colored primer to help match the paint color. But if you're using SPI clear and epoxy for the undercoat chipping isn't much of a concern anyway-very durable system.
 
Funny thing.. At Ford plant where Super Dutys are built.. They have only 3 primer shades for the exterior.. Taupe (tan) This is for Gold, Red, Bronze, etc .. White ( this is for white, silver, yellow, baby blue etc ) Smoke ( medium gray color) This is for charcoal, dark blue, dark green, black etc..

Now the interior of the jambs, under hood etc.. They all get same colored primer as the base coat
 
Forgive my ignorance, but if you are repairing chips don't you guys sand those out? If you prime then isn't the primer put on all the damage, sanded smooth so no damage is seen so its one flat surface? Then chips shouldn't be an issue. Bondo, those color combos are what I'm looking for. I guess I'll play with tinting. I don't mix more than 3oz of primer so I won't be using a lot of toner. As always, I REALLY appreciate all your help.
 
I don't tint primer. I will use white epoxy as a sealer on most lighter colors. On darker colors, I use black epoxy. I have found that often painting over a similar color takes more materials to get full coverage. Like if you are painting over a red with a different shade of red, the first color wants to come thru, so it will take more coats. Give me a white background and it covers good right away.

I learned that the hard way. About 35 years ago I had to repaint our house to sell it. The house was white, so I went to Sears and bought the best paint they had. It was "guaranteed one coat coverage", so it would be a quick job on a 1 1/2 story house. It took 5 coats to cover that white. Cost Sears a bunch of extra paint and me a bunch of time on a ladder.

Aaron
 
As a mobile painter, I can't use epoxy. I am actually breaking convention with my peers in wanting to use real primer and not rattle can. I've seen shrinkage and it bothers me to no end. I think silver,red and white cover horribly.
 
AAE;8456 said:
As a mobile painter, I can't use epoxy. I am actually breaking convention with my peers in wanting to use real primer and not rattle can. I've seen shrinkage and it bothers me to no end. I think silver,red and white cover horribly.
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I'm in the same boat as far as using 2K primer for mobile repair, for white colors I use the white 2K sealer 4:1 as a primer, sometimes I even tint it closer to the white basecoat that I will be spraying, works like a charm, very fast coverage that way.

For reds sometimes I use the SPI red basecoat and try to tint it closer to the shade of red I'm spraying, that saves me a crap load of Spies red toners and spraying time as well.

Silvers I just stick with the regular 2K gray stuff, some coarse silvers take some time to achieve full coverage but nothing I can do about that.

Just my .02 cents.
 
Guys I do like JimC already suggested..

If you keep black and white primers in your shop or mobile unit.. You can mix those to achieve the correct value shade for most everything you spray.. I only buy yellow if I have something that will require that color for stone chipping only..

Stone chips are really the only reason to concern yourself with matching primers.. Other than the few where it can be done with your standard colored 2k primers like.. white, black, gray, yellow...I use the value shades of gray like everyone else does
 
aae, we are not talking about color making a difference when repairing stone chips. we are talking about getting stone chips in the finish. if the primer color is similar to the paint color they wont be as noticable.
 
See, if you guys would type slower I can keep up with you. That makes sense now. I guess I will get a quart of black and white to compliment the grey. Thanks guys!
 
I think I learned a lesson on this topic. For a spot repair on the hood of my wife's Ford Fusion, I sprayed Prospray metallic fire red over black epoxy. It took about 6 coats to cover, and now that the hood is cleared, I can slightly tell that the repair area is a little darker than the rest of the hood.

I sprayed the bumper a week ago and used gray epoxy. It covered in 3 coats, and looks great.

I ran out of gray and thought black would work for such a small area. I thought I would need an extra coat, maybe. I guess I was wrong?
 
Strum if you can see the blended area, you may have not went far enough with the base.. If you only shot 3 coats of base before and 6 this time, that alone could cause a shade difference, even if you had used gray for both.. Each successive coat will make it darker until full hiding is reached..

Always remember.. Once you reach full hiding.. It will not matter how many coats you put on.. The color will be the color regardless!! But until you reach that full hiding, there will be a difference in each coat
 
So, are you saying that I probably did not have full coverage with 3 coats over the gray? I thought what I sprayed over the gray matched the car best, and what I sprayed over the black looked too dark.

I am just trying to learn from the expereince. Overall, it looks pretty good (my wife can't see the blend, and she knows where the repair was).
 
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