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I gave up on plastic filler over bare metal after a guy in Fresno handed me a magnet
I have been laying filler straight over bare metal for close to 12 years because that is how the old guy who taught me did it, and I never had a comeback I could pin on it. About 5 months ago a 2016 Silverado came in with a dent in the bed side that I had already worked once, and the filler was lifting at the edge like a scab. I blamed the customer, figured he backed into something again. Then a body man named Ray in Fresno, who I met picking up a hood, walked over with a magnet and stuck it along my repair. It popped right off in two spots. He said the epoxy primer I skipped was doing more work than the filler ever would. I argued with him for 20 minutes, then went home and read the tech sheet on the filler I had been using, and it says bare metal is fine only if you scratch it right before. Mine had sat 3 days. I redid the whole panel with epoxy first and the magnet has not lied to me since. Anyone else here get lazy about the recoat window, or is that just a solo shop problem?
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hannaht2926d ago
That line about "bare metal is fine only if you scratch it right before" is the whole ballgame and it almost never gets said out loud. Here is the thing nobody talks about though. Everyone fights about epoxy versus filler on bare steel and skips the part where your sanding grit is doing half the job. If you scratch bare metal with 36 or 40 grit, those grooves are deeper than the filler can slump into, so it grabs. Hit it with 80 to "smooth it out" and you basically polished the panel. Now the filler is just sitting on top of a surface that has nowhere for it to bite. Your 3 day sit is a factor but the grit may have been too. Next time you strip a panel, try 36 on bare steel and skip the 80 step before filler. It feels way too rough and you will want to keep going over it. Dont. That roughness is the whole point.
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