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Experienced painters advice please! Advice on painting a frame

10K views 25 replies 11 participants last post by  El Campo 
#1 ·
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.
 
#3 ·
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
 
#4 ·
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.
 
#6 ·
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. :rolleyes:

Brian
 
#9 ·
Here's an idea

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.
 
#10 ·
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 .
 
#11 · (Edited)
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 :drunk: !!! I guess if they were designed to last they wouldn't be selling as many cars & trucks LOL :D 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!! :D

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
 
#12 ·
hell jester in the navy we either painted it with grey epoxy or saluted it :thumbup:

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 .
 
#13 · (Edited)
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.... :confused: and my patience with argumentative people is wearing thin.
 
#14 ·
shine said:
hell jester in the navy we either painted it with grey epoxy or saluted it :thumbup:

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 :thumbup:

Chris
 
#15 · (Edited)
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 :pain:
 

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#17 ·
El Campo said:
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.
I think most any of the epoxy's or urethane's will work very well. The or A big problem in high humidity environments is rust from the inside. A frame has a lot of tooling and access holes that let water and humidity in. For full protection things have to painted inside as well.

You can by the equipment http://www.chemicar.com/tools_spraygun_under.php but its pricey for a one or two time use. What I do is to use a paint pot from Harbor Freight and make a spray tip from copper tube that fits to a length of paint hose. Then put it into the frame all the way to the opposite end. Run up pressure in the pot regulate the output with a valve (pre tested for pattern and amount) then pull the hose back out of the frame or rocker panel or other places you just can't get into with a spray gun.

It's messy to be sure but nobody's gonna look inside the frame but you and then probably only once. First time I did this was 50 years ago with real Rustoleum, Damp Red Primer to my 61 Ford Starliner coupe when I was stationed in Guam. Had a crushed coral driveway, the paint drained out of the frame and rocker panels for days, it looked like the most gruesome murder in history happened in that driveway. No more rust problems, however.

Bogie
 
#18 ·
shine said:
hell jester in the navy we either painted it with grey epoxy or saluted it :thumbup:

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 .
LOL Shine I too Have Sprayed many a coat of epoxy on some F-14's and H-3's, corrosion doesn't blay well with Aluminum so Epoxy was the only thing that held up. most of our epoxy was made by DEFT paints. Still have a little , and its what I sprayed the 94 frame for my 77 coupe with.. no paint will last if you are driving on gravels roads and dusty areas for over 50% of the time, plus you have to factor in alot of folks nowadays don't know how to wash a car, long as the outside is close to clean they think its good, never giving thought to nooks and crannies and the underside, Hell why do you think touchless car washes are so popular cause people are idiots.
 
#19 ·
there was a part a part b mix for everything. you ever have the honor of roping a stairwell ? most mind numbing thing i have ever done. but epoxy is and has always been the #1 resin in corrosion protection . zinc for adhesion on the birds then epoxy outside. after patching a few dozen holes .
 
#20 ·
Barry's epoxy has chromates in it I dont think zinc is but heck I dont even know what a chromite is...But I DO know rust buckets and I wouldnt use POR15 on any of my rust buckets either but Osphos no good for airplanes or any aluminum...BTW,WHY do they call it aircraft stripper if it cant be used on an airplane . :confused: :confused:
 
#21 ·
So I have been looking for a urethane SS paint to use. Since I am going to be putting some of the best epoxy out there on the frame is it ok to use the Summit (Kirker if I understand right) paint or what would be best? These are the prices I got for a gallon (will be spraying everything on the truck that needs to be black with the same paint):

DuPont ChromaOne $380
Nason Fulthane $150
PPG Shopline $185 with all the reducers, etc
PPG Concept? $507 with all the reducers
Summit $100 with all the reducers

I am not trying to halfa$$ anything here and will shell out the money if it is really necessary but what do you all think!! And I will most certainly be getting the exterior of the vehicle done with the expensive stuff no matter how well the frame turns out.
 
#23 ·
Yep, I am thinking for a frame that is the perfect choice. It is a real urethane from a major supplier that is used on trucks all over the country.

Brian
 
#26 ·
Just wanted to update everyone on what I decided to do. Called SPI and ordered my primer. They recommended that I spray black epoxy under the black and white under the hugger orange. While I was talking to them I asked what they recommended for color and they said to try ProSpray. I know that shine and some of you others on here use that and seem to like it. So called Chad up in Michigan I believe it is and ordered a gallon of SS jet black for the frame and a quart of hugger orange for my A arms and trailing arms. Not too bad of price. For all the color and activator plus reducer was around 350 bucks. This over some epoxy should last a VERY long time. I will post up pictures when more progress is made. The frame is 98 percent done and ready for blasting and paint.
 
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