My primer sealer says it must be followed by paint with in a certain time period. What happens if I can't make that happen? The amount of time I have for working on my truck gets stretched thin between work, family and other important things. If I can't get my paint on in that small window of time can I scuff it and continue on at a later time? My truck is in my garage in a clean environment and won't move until it's painted and re***embled. I am going to paint it when time allows with summit racing brand single stage paint. Someone I talked to mentioned after the primer sealer is on that I could use comet and scotch brite pads to clean it and rough it up before the paint goes on. Does this sound right? Painting is something totally new to me and I am trying to learn enough to have a decent looking truck.
I believe they mean that there's a short "window" when it can be top coated without sanding. Usually, if you're outside the "window", a quick scuff will do before top coating.
You should read your tech data sheets for the product you're using. Generally sealers and primer sealers have a short window that they must be top coated (base coat/clearcoat or single stage). If not, your data sheet will specify what needs to happen in order to successfully shoot your top coat, usually sand and apply another coat of sealer, or some other acceptable option like scuff and paint. Again, read your data sheet. Why seal? The sealer coat provides a uniform substrate "sealing" the various rounds of priming and blocking. It also provides the desired uniform color that affects the final top coat color, i.e. light color sealers tend to brighten dark colors darken. Some sealers can be tinted the same or very close to the top coat color to help with coverage. And finally some folks view the sealer as insurance against potential compatibility and other paint issues and insist on using them. Why I usually don't seal... It adds a step I believe is not usually need. It must go down smooth, not runs, drips or errors (more work to repair). Scuffing with scratch pads (if recommended on your data sheets) and reshooting sealer or going straight to top coating introduces scratches that could cause problems. I'm use a quality 2K primer that I selected to work with my color coat. After final sanding and blocking, and ensuring that I have no sand throughs or bare spots, I'm confident that the 2K primer will "seal" out and provide a good base for top coating. Dedicated sealers add to cost, although some will argue that it's insurance for a good paint job. Some primers can be reduced and used as a sealer so added cost is nominal. All that said, ask 10 painters a body work or paint question and you'll get 20 different answers and they all may be correct! If you're new to painting, take a cl*** or two at your local community college, attend some free demos or workshops (ask your paint store jobber or local sales rep), hang out with fellow hotroddesrs, and pick up some training videos (PaintUcation series by Kevin Tetz is pretty good). Good luck!
What Stu says. I also don't usually seal. But when I do I always scuff with 400 dry or 600 wet. wipe clean with prep sol tack and paint
I bought the sealer about a year ago. After I had my shed built I moved most of the things from my garage into the shed about 6 months ago. Sometime while things were being moved another can of paint spilled over onto the can of sealer. About the only thing I can make out on the sealer can is instructions for mixing and the recoat time and the DuPont label. I don't remember what the identification of it is and can't see it because of the other paint spilled over it. I didn't get any tech sheets with it and now that I can't read the majority of whats on the can finding the info has been impossible. As far as to use the sealer or not I had two reasons I wanted to use it. Maybe the wrong reasons I don't know. The bed and tailgate of my truck were not in the best shape I have primed and blocked them 4 times. I used ever coat g2 feather fill primer with the catalyst it's now completly solid grey. The same with the doors and fenders solid grey. The hood and the two tone cab didn't require much body work and the hood is in pretty good shape with a lot of green color showing. So being that parts are solid and parts are multi color I thought this is a reason to use sealer. Also because of my busy schedule I don't know when I will have a day or two to actually get to spraying my top coat I thought it might be a good idea to use the sealer just to keep any possible contamination out of the primer.
When I shoot sealer with intentions of providing a seal coat, it's an epoxy product that's been thinned. Most things labeled "primer/ sealer" are primer when mixed as tech sheet says and a sealer when mixed as the tech sheet says, and each mix will be different. Seal coat lays down incredibly smooth and the paint goes down right over it, a wet on wet application. Proper flash times and enough time to clean the gun is enough. That seal coat does a lot, it grabs the surface, it provides a uniform color for underlay, it grabs the paint going over top, and yep it seals everything up. So for me a "seal coat" goes on the same day as paint. If you miss the window and don't sand it, the paint doesn't adhere. If you miss the window the seal coat needs to be sanded, another seal coat and then paint. If you wanted to seal your work for storage, protection all while waiting for the planets to align, no matter what you'll need to sand it before continuing. It's costly and time consuming but you gotta do what you gotta do.
OK thanks. Look on the bottom of the can for code that may identify and date the product. AXALTA (formerly DuPont) should be able to break the code for you.
Sand it and paint it, you will be fine. I have never heard of a sealer that you cannot sand and paint over a year later.
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