Ready for Basecoat, I think? Please confirm.

[Kleekru]

So I’m just looking for confirmation that I’m ok to base coat. First time painter but I’ve been reading a lot on this Forum, great stuff and I don’t know much but so far I really like working with the SPI products.

I’m working on a 1970 bug. I followed the Perfect Paint job…. Strip down to bare metal, epoxy sealer, then body filler, 2k, block until straight with 320 and a seal coat of epoxy.

I have a small garage and a day job so I did all of the above on all the parts first (fenders, doors, deck, hood), then put them in a shed while I did the same to the body (off chassis). The parts have been sitting for about 3 months.

I’m still in the 7 day window for the body epoxy seal coat but clearly out of that window for the loose parts. I’m doing a two tone with white on the bottom, navy on top.
Here’s my plan and questions:

Do I need to sand or scuff the seal coat at all on the body (within the 7 day window)? I believe the answer is no but I found a little orange peel and sanded it out to 320. Is it ok to basecoat over that or will that spot show and now I need to sand everything to 320 or spot it again with epoxy?

For the parts (3 month out from the seal coat), is it enough to hit them with a red scuff pad (400 grit equivalent I believe) then base coat?? Or should I do anything else?

Finally, I’m planning to paint all separately due to space but I’m a little concerned about the 2-tone line across the molding on the door and the body not matching up or that the paint & clear could somehow dry differently if I paint them separately…. Is that a real risk? I don’t really have a choice but I guess I could put the doors on temporarily if needed but I really don’t want to.

Suggestions or comments? @Chris_Hamilton and @Barry … you’ve both been particularly helpful but any and all advice is welcomed!

Thanks all!!

 

[dhutton01]

Base should be applied over a reduced coat of epoxy. The recoat window is short, 2-12 hours or so. You should scuff all epoxy, apply reduced epoxy sealer and then apply your base.

Instructions are in the epoxy datasheet.

Don

 

[Jim C]

yes 7 day window with no scuffing applies to application of epoxy. for basecoat without scuffing no more than 24hrs max. after 48 hours most but not all bases will have a hard time sticking to epoxy sanded or not. i typically shoot a reduced sealer coat of epoxy, let flash like a coat of base, 15 min or so then go right to basecoat. the sealer coat of epoxy should be thin. you should be able to see through it. if it goes on heavy in spots then you need to wait a couple hours.

 

[chevman]

I would sand that unreduced epoxy to get it all perfectly flat, then do reduced epoxy before the base, and to lessen the chance of an accident you might want to spray fewer loose panels at a time.

 

[Kleekru]

ok, seems unanimous. Scuff or another reduced coat of epoxy… the problem is I’m out of epoxy so I’ll scuff it all. Any thoughts about the two tone & painting parts in batches rather than spraying the car as a whole? Thanks all!!

 

[dhutton01]

I thought it was unanimous to scuff and apply a sealer coat of reduced epoxy.

Don

 

[Jim C]

Yes you need to apply a sealer coat of epoxy. Even if you scuff it, basecoat wont stick to it well. You will have bad chipping problems

 

[Kleekru]

Oh crap, so the chemical adhesion here is the important piece? Thanks for the clarification @Jim C. i really didn’t want to buy more, ugh!

 

[Jim C]

Yes the good thing is you wont need alot. Just one piss thin coat before base. Think of it just as an adhesion promoter. A quart ea of primer, act and reducer will do it. Mix 1:1:1

 

[Kleekru]

Thanks all, That must have been wishful reading that my brain somehow completely skipped you all saying I need another seal coat. Ordering a quart.

 

[Kleekru]

I had just enough epoxy left to do the thin coat after scuffing and then applied my first color of base. ….only after I read on the data sheet that after 30 days of sitting in epoxy I should have sanded with 180 then applied a full coat. Man, what a never ending process. Am I screwed? I scuffed with a red scuff pad. Will that be enough. Luckily it is only the doors that will have a problem if any… really hoping the scuff is enough.

 

[dhutton01]

You should be fine imho.

 

[texasking]

No problem. It will stick.