I disagree that you always need to sand down to bare metal on older cars

Overheard a guy at the NAPA counter last week telling a newbie you have to strip every panel on a '70s car before shooting primer. I've had good luck with a careful scuff and epoxy sealer on solid original paint, and it saved me 8 hours on a '76 Trans Am last month. Anyone else had that sealer actually hold up long term?

2 comments

2 Comments

west.anna14d ago

That "careful scuff and epoxy sealer" line is interesting because most guys I know who've tried it say it's a coin flip at best past a year or two. What kind of prep did you do around the trim and roof seams to keep the epoxy from lifting later on? That's usually where those shortcuts fail for me.

patb1214d ago

Oh man, timing is wild. I was actually just scraping old sealer off my buddy's van last weekend and we had this exact same argument about roof seams. His trick was to use a heat gun on the trim first, get it a little soft before laying down the epoxy. Worked for him but I've seen that stuff bubble up in the sun on my own truck, so who knows.