body filler

that's completely different than what you just said above. Removing paint with 36-80 grit is not the same thing as 'only apply to metal that's been sanded with 36 grit.' Your initial statement made it seem that anyone who didn't prepare their surface with 36 grit first was doing it completely wrong.

Get out more, expand your horizons, get with the times, read around the forums a bit. Many people here, amateurs and pro's alike, are doing it this method now. The days of having inferior results from applying filler to anything but bare metal are long past.


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Yep the times they are a changing. Though you certainly don't have to have epoxy it sure works well and is recommended by many auto manufacturers and a MUST if filler is being applied over aluminum.

On the 36 grit, I haven't used it in years, 40 is bad enough. Unless you are cutting filer on a HUGE area like a bed side or something 80 is all you need and finishing the filler off in 120/180 before primer is again, the method of the day.

But honestly, Evercoat (my choice for all fillers) recommends against using anything coarser than 80 on any step in the process. Since this recommendation a number of years ago we took all the coarser than 80 grit from the shop and have never looked back.

Evercoat Rage Gold and Evercoat "Metal Glaze" polyester putty are my choice for filler work. By the time you apply primer you should be down to 180 grit and the primer is hardly doing a thing, almost like you are priming over bare metal. If you are asking your primer to fill big scratches or using it to block out imperfections in the filler, you need to step up your game with the filler work so it doesn't need to.

Brian

It will always be standard in the collision world for fillers to go over metal. As long as the insurance companies keep it that way, the filler manufacturers will keep recommending it be done that way....and everyone will keep their mouth shut even though they know applying epoxy first is a better method...and definately gives the customer and longer lasting job. That "longer lasting job" might just be a moot point to other folks out there...but there ARE shops that strive to go above and beyond the "status quo" way of doing things...

And I will always recommend the marson platinum. It performs better than the rage extreme and costs considerably less. Best filler on the market, imo. (platinum) Every bodyman that I've turned onto it has loved it. Converted one of the biggest shops in town to using it after they used rage gold/extreme for years.

Let's look at it realistically on a late model car does the epoxy primer made a REAL difference, not in the least bit.

Most every panel on every car made the last number of decades are zinc coated. If you remove the paint where the filler is being applied as the auto manufacturer recommends and don't grind it off, there is no reason to apply epoxy primer because metal is protected by the corrosion protection that is coating the metal.

Todays professional fillers will stick to that zinc coated metal and be there until the end of time, there is no big magical protection the epoxy primer is going to add.

Now, that being said, it sure as hell wouldn't hurt to put the epoxy first.

With all the things we can complain about (and there are plenty) concerning insurance companies this isn't one of them. There isn't a single insurance company that I know of that gives a crap if you put epoxy down first. When it comes to repairing a panel ALL they care about is how long will it take. Well, if it takes 6 hours to repair a panel and that includes applying epoxy primer they could car less. They may try to beat you down on time but they are going to do that epoxy or no epoxy. The simple fact is if you want to apply epoxy primer you fight for when negotiating the time on the panel. It really doesn't take that long to apply the epoxy to just apply it if you want. It is up to US to set the quality of our repairs, no one can TELL us to do crappy work, we choose to do it.

Brian