Technical Cleaning oil off new Brookville body

If the weather allows this weekend I plan on cleaning and preparing the roadster body for paint. I was going to wash it with brake clean in a pump sprayer and wipe with blue shop towel. I was then going to sand with 150 and red scotch pads. First coat of primer will be DP 90, followed by PPG single stage paint. Any other tips? Any good ideas on access to the underside while working alone? What are good lifting points?
Thank you

 

Ive used several Brookville 32 roadster bodies and I built a simple framework to bolt into the ****pit area to help keep it from folding up while the doors are open or off. Then you can stand it on the nose with the firewall out to work on the underside

 

Do you have a picture of the frame work that you built. That sounds like a really good idea!

 

With the doors off , firewall out and the deck lid off it really isn’t very heavy , a couple of average guys can handle it

as for primer/paint….the real paint guys can answer

 

Sorry , I don’t have a picture , I’m sure it’s in my shed somewhere? I’ll see later

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/painters-advise-on-prepping-new-brookville-body.1020895/

 

I would pay particular attention to the underside rocker panel area and inside the doors. I bought an "undercoating" gun and used a flexible tube with the spray nozzle in the end of it. It allowed me to fish it through the holes in the backside of the rockers and spray inside before rust could form. Same with the inside of the doors. Not real controllable as far as a great finish, but those are surfaces that if you allow them to rust, you will pay for it later.
Took a little experimenting to get it to spray well, but I'd do the bottom before I worried about the easy to get to surfaces.

 

Is 150 the correct grit paper?
Has anyone used soap and water as the first treatment to get the oil off? Did it flash rust right away?
Thanks

 

Im not a fan of brake cleaner.
We used a PPG metal cleaner (DX series I think) and lots of wax and grease remover.
Cleaned, cleaned, cleaned
We DAd with 80 then epoxied
Read your epoxy tech sheet for the recommended grit for bare steel

 

https://www.myrv14.com/buildlog/20160510/p-196_dplf_epoxy_primer-9-13.pdf

Recommends 80-180.
Red scuff pads are close to a 320 grit.
I’d use the 150 folded up by hand in the hard to DA areas

 

This is the correct answer for about 90% of the questions people ask about paint. It still amazes me that so few people actually read them.

 

I gotta agree with Anthony, use something that is known to be compatible with paint, not brake cleaner.

 

Last year I bought a set of Model A reproduction steel rear fenders. They were covered in a waxy protective coating. I used a Wax and Grease Remover on a cloth. It took all the residue off, then I was able to sand the fender and prime it easily.

Don't use brake clean, use something intended for the task. Wax and Grease remover or equivalent is my recommendation.

 

For years when we were building 32 roadster package cars using Brookville sheet metal we we sprayed the bare metal ch***is, body and hood with Gibbs. Never had any problems. Wonder what my customers used to clean that off before paint?

 

I start with lacquer thinner then move onto wax and grease remover like @anthony myrick said. Just a habit I picked up 40 years ago when I learned this stuff. I feel the thinner is a bit better cleaner to start with

 

We did a few brookville bodies
We had one covered in wd40
We started with wax and grease remover. It didn’t do as good as we wanted. Used the DX cleaner from ppg. Rags were filthy after recleaning where we used the wax and grease remover
Use white rags. Clean until the rags stay white.
Wear gloves
Try thinner as suggested. Then follow with wax and grease remover.

 

Follow Anthony's advice and you will be ahead of the game, forget the brake cleaner. HRP

 

What I do before I spray anything, including primer, is wipe whatever I'm painting with Windex, and the blue paper towels from Lowes. I do this on bare metal, or primed, or painted surfaces. And if you spray it on it will evaporate and wont stay in the cracks.

 

Cleaning the nooks and crannies is the worst. I use lacquer thinner in an old spray gun in a WELL ventilated area to get the oil off the hard to reach areas, and blow dry if you can't wipe. Using a self etching primer in those areas that are impossible to get at for sanding, is probably the best way to "treat" the bare steel after cleaning.

here's a thread on Brookville body prep from 2011.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/bare-metal-prime.610011/#post-6776903
and my 2 cents:
I called Brookville for a friend to see what they have the steel prepped to and they told me it was cold rolled, not phosphated, and if you want it primed, they use a cheap grade of lacquer primer. I told him to order the body not primed and to either use metal conditioner to phosphate the metal or scuff or sand the metal and use a self etching primer followed by a hi build urethane primer. With most of the good primer systems (check the tech sheets for your brand) you can apply self etching primer on the clean, sanded steel and let that flash off for the reccommended time (around 30 minutes to 1 hour) then apply the compatible urethane hi build wet on wet over the flashed etch prime.

A good epoxy (not DPLF) would work also, but would be best applied after using metal conditioner to phosphate the steel.

Read the tech sheets for whichever primer system you consider.

 

The ago old question: is a conversion coating needed for epoxy?
When you dig in tech sheets you might see something like “For best adhesion clean with **X”
Not all epoxies say that.

 

I phoned PPG tech yesterday. I asked about the sx579 and 520 treatment before DP90. They said I could do that. The issue is that you have to spray epoxy the same day. The big challenge is that those treatments need to be rinsed with water. Might cause more issues with getting the water out of all the metal folds and getting primer on in the same day. My plan today is to try a small area with soap and water. I will rinse with hot water and blow off the water. If the small area does not turn into rust, I will clean the rest of the body that way. I then plan on spraying and wiping with lacquer thinner. I will then hand sand with 150 and then wipe again. I am going to see what type of framework I can build to support the body.

 

When you use the product correctly it can have a slight zinc coloring that gets confused with rust.
It isn’t
I used ppg VP on my last year. It’s their epoxy filler. Cost around the same as DP
No conversion coatings are mentioned in the tech sheet I read.

 

Mine didn't, but I'm not in Canada. I primed the body after a couple of months and it was getting some splotches of rust here and there. Again, the biggest issue on mine was the inside of the rocker panels and some of the areas around the dash and windshield. I bought one of those handheld Harbor Freight sandblast guns with a reservoir on top. It worked very well at getting into the folds and difficult sanding places to remove the rust that had begun to appear. I have the fenders sitting in my ba*****t 2 years later with nothing done to them, and they still are fine. I have another decklid panel sitting in the pole barn which never gets below about 50degrees F in the winter and its just fine. If any rust does appear before I prime them, I'll just use the HF gun again. Like I said before, I would take the time to prevent rust inside the rocker panels BECAUSE the backside has open holes and will allow moisture inside them. I ***ume the Roadster is made the same as the Coupe rocker panels.

 

I plan on doing the same thing to get paint everywhere. I will also use some spray in rust protection that creeps into the seams when the paint it cured and I am done with all paint work.

 

Would something like Eastwood's internal frame coating work in hidden areas on the bodies once you could clean those areas out?

https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-internal-frame-coating-14oz-aerosol.html

 

https://ca.ppgrefinish.com/PPG-Refi...7/What-Does-Properly-Prepared-Bare-Metal-Mean

 

https://us.ppgrefinish.com/Training...ures/Metal-Surface-Prep-Bare-Galvanized-Steel

 

Body cavity wax is a better option. You don't want to use it until it is all painted, you will NEVER get it clean to paint otherwise.

 

That looks like a good option. Why is it a better option than the Eastwood product or similar?

 

VP2050 is a two component gray direct to
metal high build primer. VP2050 is fast
drying and easy to sand and may be applied
to over_" properly prepared steel, aluminum,"_
fibergl*** and existing coatings in good
condition.

What Does "Properly Prepared Bare Metal" Mean?


In many of our product data sheets, you may notice this or a similar statement under the Compatible Surfaces or Substrates section:

“May be applied over properly prepared and treated bare metal”. But what does this mean?

This means that your bare metal substrate must be properly sanded and treated with an appropriate direct-to-metal product such as an SX metal treatment, etch primer, or epoxy primer prior to applying anything else. These coatings insure adhesion for subsequent layers over the bare metal as well as provide additional corrosion protection.

This step is especially important when using urethane primers or sealers. Their chemistry typically does not provide adhesion to bare metal – they must only be used over treated bare metal to insure optimum adhesion. So if you happen to sand through to metal, apply a bit of etch primer to insure it sticks!