Hey DrHerb, Spray on - Wipe off. Had a tranny line leak and puked it on the fan, spraid it all the fender. Got the Windex out and cleaned it off. I love going to shows and see the others with a trailer full of goodies and I get out, grab a towel and my Windex and watch the shit their pants!!!! It works!!
I only wanted to offer ONE more suggestion (and OTHER guys may have a take on this, too). It was an OLD trick, shown to me by an OLD guy who'd painted cars all his life, okay? let me preface this by saying that the last cars I painted, I used acrylic enamel.
OOPS! Posted THAT too fast! So, anywho. Once you've got the paint on the car & take off any masking tape (you know how to do that right, I'm sure), have a BEER. When you're done with the beer & bullshitting, back the car out of the garage & one guy starts running the water hose CONSTANTLY while the other guy just rubs his hand (with some presssure) over every bit of the car ('s-why it take TWO guys!). Now, this may sound silly to osme people who would just like to sit and keep drinking the BEER, eh? My WHOLE POINT is that this ol' guy was RIGHT. Hand-rubbing the paint with a constant stream of water really makes the paint (primer or top coat) SMOOTHER than it would have been otherwise. My honest opinion is that it's just helping the paint to create a more smooth, contiguous surface -- better tha juts letting it dry. NOW! I know the guys who want the "flat" look of just the primer will protest . . . and you are RIGHT, to some extent. BUT, it's YOUR choice. That has been addressed previously in this thread by guys/girls who like the look of WD-40 !!! (matter of fact, THAT is a d--ty trick people USE at HORSE SHOWS, too!!! LOL. I KNOW ore, but that's all I'm gonna say!)
Yo! In case I left anybody wondering, my POINT was: Primer or top coat, the smoother the paint surface, the nicer the car will look, dry. I like a bunch of the ideas that are here, ALL in one spot! But they have to do with WHAT to put on after you wash the car. Good. 's-all good.
One other point: If ya don't wanna spray anything on your paint, the ol' chamois skin works well. Look, if there isn't any big daubs of water there to gry up & leave the invitible "water-spot" (really calcium & other dissolved minerals), THEN there can't be any water spot to the naked eye. This seems pretty fundamental, as I'm old-skool. You can spend some extra time and chamois your car (while it's STILL wet; after it dries, there's no point, as the water spots are THERE.) If you can't afford a chamois (or yer old one is worn out), just use a cotton towel. You juts keep a bucket of CLEAN water there to keep rinsing and wringing your towel, so you don't put dirt/minerals BACK on your paint. Just my old-fashioned 2-CENTS !
No one has said the obvious. If it gets too rough looking, just tape it off and shoot some more primer.
I wash my dark gray primed '32 with plain old car wash soap, water and one of those bathroom sponges that are smooth on one side and green and coarse fiber on the other side. I take the coarse side and a lot of soap and wet sand the primer each time I bathe it. It gets rid of all that junky faded to white look it develops. Afterwards I go over the primer with a terrycloth and a bottle of Prep-Sol to set rid of the remaining oil spots in the primer. Comes out like a fresh paint job every time.
This is the traditional technique that was used by the NYPD to wash and "wax" the limos the big shots rode in. (Dates back to the 30s and 40s.) My old man told me about it. You mix kerosene and water 50:50. Shake it up, and wipe it on with a cloth. Yes, you do the chrome, too. And the tires. Done. The kero evaporates but leaves a slight film on the car that leaves it very shiny. It also retards rust. Here's a picture of an old Chrysler I once owned. The paint was as faded as paint on an old Chrysler can fade. It actually looked OK after the kero/water wash. Note: those bumpers were painted silver; they also got the kero'water touch. This will leave a primered car with a soft sheen that in a few days goes back to the pure flat appearance of the primer. Rain will bead on a car done this way.
Mr. Clean Auto Dry...works pretty well...used it on my light grey primered '55...no, not the one in the avatar.
why sweat it? its just primer... if it gets dirty wash it!when it fades or wears down to nothing reprime it.....
My 63 BelAir has 2K black primer sealer on it. I wash it with car wash soap, rinse it off and dry it. To refresh the primer/sealer I go over it with wax and tar remover. Looks as if it was just painted. Gary
I suppose it depends on what you use for primer. If it is just common primer then rust is always going to be a concern, it is porous and the water will soak through it. Epoxy primer sealers is a different animal altogether, it seals up like finish paint does. There are also some flat paints that get used that are a finish product. So I gu8ess it just depends one what you have used for primer.
thanks that makes perfect sense. It's a little embarrassing that I didn't think of it myself. I have a mix of epoxy primer and regular ole rattle can primer. I will avoid water.. Maybe a little Prep Sol to remove the bugs???
If you plan to paint it in the next year or two I would not even worry about it. You'll no doubt get surface rust but a quick scuffing with do away with that. I lived in a small town in Oregon for my first 3 years of high school, and was around that town for a long time before that. There was a '56 chevy that was red led for as long as I can remember, the guy finally decided that he liked the color so much that he just scuffed it and cleared over it. Primer is not like fine china it will take more of a beating than we give it credit for. Yes it is not a finish product and should never be treated that way but it is not totally fragile either.
I had a satin black mustang and I cleaned it with dish soap and then just blow dried it off. You don't want wax soap on satin or flat paint.
Any time I have ever had anything flat or primered I have just taken it to the wand wash and let fly. Flat paint on a hot day can be a problem as it will spot real quick but if you wash early or late you are usually OK unless you love in Phoenix. The whole idea behind the flat paint craze was ease of care.
Old thread, there's a bunch of guys in the Waco Tx area that will tell you that I resprayed the primer every few weeks to keep it fresh in the mid 70's. It always looked funky after a few weeks of daily driving.
On my old Model T I would give it a quick water wash off and then Lemon Pledge. The ladies really liked it!
Turtle wax makes a detail spray for black cars. Works well on my 63 BelAir with 2k primer/sealer. Gary
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