[El Campo]

Am in the process of repainting the frame on my truck and was wondering about what paint to use. I am sandblasting it (frame is boxed and have some experience with sandblasting so am not worried about warping it) and then plan on using SPI epoxy primer on it. If I understand SPI website correctly for the most corrosion protection Barry says to use 3 coats of primer instead of the usual 2. Living in South Texas this is a big concern for me as things rust inside my insulated concrete floored shop even as the humidity is more often 100% than below. After that I was wondering about what paint to use. I plan on painting the engine, control arms and trailing arms hugger orange so will be using Chromabase on these parts (as I understand that orange does not cover well and fades more easily in Nason and these parts are easily seen from the outside of truck). For the frame itself though I was wondering about using the Nason Fulbase Urethane BC/CC in Jet Black. It is about 100 bucks versus 270 (for the Chromabase) for a gallon. Will this be good enough for a frame or will it peel, rust through etc? This is going to be a very nice driver (hopefully) and some local car shows but not a trailer queen. O yes and then I will be clearing it with SPI clear also. Any help or recommendations about anything would be greatly appreciated!!! Am not interested in painting with any rust convertor or POR 15 incidentally, have had poor luck with those.

[shine]

if you epoxy it your good to go with any paint. i would use a single stage.

[MARTINSR]

The cool thing about epoxy primer is you spray it, then within the "re-coat window" you spray your SS urethane or what ever top coat you are using, done deal. No sanding, nothing, it is THE way to do a frame, no doubt about it.

Brian

[El Campo]

Thank you gentlemen for your advice. Are you saying to not even clear over the SS? Any recommendations as to which brand to use? DuPont is the easiest to get in my town. I know that many swear by POR 15 but even when I had bone dry metal and brushed it on it did not hold up the way I expected. I have dry air and when I read the POR 15 tech sheet it is kind of shady about applying on sandblasted metal. Never REALLY says that it is the way to go on that. And since I have had less than satisfactory results with it why not use something that has held up on other vehicles for more years than POR has even been around? Plus I want to be able to touch the paint up later on down the road if something happens and there is no GOOD way to do that with POR that I am aware of.

[shine]

for chassis i just leave it in epoxy. if i take it further i will use a ss and no i would not clear it.

[MARTINSR]

I'm for painting a SS urethane over the epoxy. And yes, no way on the clear, there is no need what so ever for it. But we are talking about a SS topcoat paint here, not a basecoat without clear. Just to clarify this.

Brian

[deadbodyman]

Originally Posted by shine

for chassis i just leave it in epoxy. if i take it further i will use a ss and no i would not clear it.

SAME HERE.....

[shine]

use the epoxy , leave the por15 for rust buckets .

[bobz_rodz]

I painted my frame in 1995 with a product call Imron, It is now 2012, my truck sits outside 90 % of the time and I drive it in all weather conditions, and I have no rust on the frame at ALL. I live in St. Louis and we see all weather and they salt the crap out of the roads, and its very humid in the summer. If you can find Imron buy it. Spray in a WELL ventilated area, I am here to say this is the way to go.

[shine]

epoxy is and has always been the go to resin for corrosion resistance. used by industry and the military. it is also on the upper tier of resins in quality.
covering up rust with por15 is simply the cheap and quick way to hide it. it does nothing to stop rust . just like the undercoats of the 50's/60's is simply hides it until it eats through and falls off. we have just as much corrosion here on the gulf as you do in the north. so your point is mute. properly prepared metal coated with quality epoxy will outlast por15 any day. if it were so great you would see top end shops using it instead of epoxy which is not the case .

[painted jester]

They use rock salt , and a sand and brine mix here (The brine comes from the oil rigs) they even put brine on the roads in the summer to keep down dust!!!, epoxy doesn't last on a daily driver. At the oil rigs we used zinc chromate primer ( like on ocean ships,) under the black seemed to last forever (Very very toxic dont use it at home) but its hard and chips easy.

On hot rods that dont see bad weather epoxy would be fine. Even the same paint & prep you paint the cars with is fine and lasts for years, but they dont see bad weather. If you could dip a new frame in epoxy and cover every square inch in and out it would probably last forever, even here! I like epoxy and use it a lot .
A friend of mine works for a research & development Co. that tests steel and materials for the big three and others! they actually have tanks of salt and other concoctions and if the metal lasts too long they change the metal so it wont last as long, they design the materials to corrode at a designed average period !!! I guess if they were designed to last they wouldn't be selling as many cars & trucks LOL there are 10 year old trucks here with huge holes rusted through the frames, cab corners gone, door skins flaping all makes & models!!

I lived in San Diego and surrounding area for years you could spray bird spit on a frame and it would last longer then anything up here!!

I still use zinc chromate once and a while, used it in the marine corps too! The stuff will kill rust in its tracks!!

Jester

[shine]

hell jester in the navy we either painted it with grey epoxy or saluted it

i did shoot a lot of zinc on the aircraft . only thing i ever seen that would stay on an aircraft . but the main reason was it was applied thin and was a corrosion inhibitor . aluminum just disappears in salt air.
but it is pretty much gone in the refinish business now. it was big back in the 80's on the factory repaints . blast with acrylic , etch prime and go .

[dinger]

Stich, take a week off. I'm done, you've been warned, it's time for you to give us a vacation.

This thread has been split, the shinola has been sent to the dumpola. I work tooo hard for my pay as a moderator.... and my patience with argumentative people is wearing thin.

[painted jester]

Originally Posted by shine

hell jester in the navy we either painted it with grey epoxy or saluted it

i did shoot a lot of zinc on the aircraft . only thing i ever seen that would stay on an aircraft . but the main reason was it was applied thin and was a corrosion inhibitor . aluminum just disappears in salt air.
but it is pretty much gone in the refinish business now. it was big back in the 80's on the factory repaints . blast with acrylic , etch prime and go .

Shine: LOL I wrote for over an hour and couldnt post it, it said forum was closed boy am I mad !! Hey its good to meet another vet

Chris

[El Campo]

All right it is settled! I am going to do like you all suggested and forget the clear and go with the SPI epoxy and then SS over it. You guys are awesome! Thanks for all the good advice. I've never used the SPI yet but am really excited to as I have heard such good things about it. I will post pictures of the progress. Here is a picture of the POR 15 s$%* after just 4 years outside (the truck sat outside, the frame was under the truck obviously) . This is after I tore the truck back down again. Oh and in case I hadn't mentioned earlier this truck will never sit outside again and will probably never even see rain again BUT unfortunately our shop is down a mile long gravel road so it will see gravel