Looks good. Im in the process of bare metal rotisserie job on mine(delete 72). If you cant spray with etch within the same day , you MUST wipe bare metal over with thinners using a clean rag.Then dont touch at all after,as the moisture from your fingers will cause rust.
Like Ron said Silver engine bay , black motor , black rails. NO orange paint..
But its your car.

Having just done a spray painting course at night school here's the way they teach.

1. Strip to bare metal and sand with 120 and optionally then with 180.
2. Metal condition with phosphoric based acid, wash off with water and dry it thoroughly with air and clean rags. Dont touch. If you do touch it thinners wont get the oil off. You have to acid wash again or you will get finger print marks in your top coat from where it is rusting again.
3. Prime with expoy primer - do not use etch primer as phosphoric acid does the etching (never etch an etch). Epoxy primer is the only primer that doesnt absorb moisture. All other primers let moisture through.
4. Prime with high build primer (this can be done wet on wet but check your paint system technical data sheets), block back, wash with grease and wax remover, run over with tack rag and top coat. Usually top coats should be applied within 24 hours of sanding - again check data sheets. Dont wipe back and forth too much with tack rag as it will cause static build up that will attract dust.

If you want to use etch primer followed by normal primer (instead of acid wash) then you need to get your top coat on quickly to minimise moisture absorbtion.

Attached is a pic from my MGA project. I bought this from a bloke who left it in primer. The whole thing has rusted and has to go back to bare metal.

Hope that helps.





OK after posting just opened your attachment. You have a 2 pack epoxy primer and they told us you cant use etch primer under epoxy primer and must go the acid wash route. I would suggest you talk to Wattle tech people to make sure you prepar it correctly. The other thing is that you can get epoxy primer as 2 pack or single pack and you must be consistent with the whole paint system. Ie you cant put 2 pack paint over single pack epoxy primer. Also the nasty's in 2 pack are absorbed through the skin and eyes and normal filters dont stop them, so cover up fully and get a positive pressure breathing system when using 2 pac.

Thanks to both Gts

It is an issue trying to get the whole bay metal at once ( by gee that etch primer bites hard ),i would prefer to stage it but im not risking acid on fresh epoxy , so its all at once

I gotta admit im nervous washing acid with water ( start oxidising again straight away? ) but ive got a nice pressure blaster which should get the damn acid right off , follow with air and / or ( metho? as per bottle of acid instruction i guess )and off course no touching ( thanks for that )

Ive got a nice mask and eye protection on the way from a very good paint shop that im buying from go to whoa , so i don't conflict systems

i should have something to show for the effort late this afternoon

The water is needed to neutralise the acid.

The way to use metal conditioner is to have a bucket of water handy. Dip a scotchbrite pad in the water, put the conditioner on the pad (I use a sauce bottle to squeeze it on) then rub the panel. Then wash it off with wet rag - this is to neutralise the acid. Then dry it. Once finsihed the metal will have a yellow or purple tinge to it. A long as you dry it properly it will be fine. Get some good rubber gloves and wear safety spec of course.

Here's another pic from the mg. This was a test to see how much I could clean it up without sanding. This is what it looked like using only metal conditioner. Notice how its yellow now. Took about 1 week to see rust starting again.

You can do it as you strip in stages and then just do the whole bay once more just before painting.




I forgot. Dont let it dry. If it dries go over it again and wash off while still wet.

solid 8 hrs in the bay today

The etch is extremely difficult to remove as it seems to have bonded with the underlying rust , the stripper i orginally hit it with had little to no effect ( im not sure if stripper has a tin life or not )its under 12 months old

3/4 ready - the fiddly bits under the bonnet hinges and bottom of heater bubble are super tough work even with 60 grit norton metalite paper with a file behind it

it has really worn me down this one ( GT hats off to u if the car you bought in primer has been etched as well )

At the end of the day i acid wiped and pressure washed ( DO NoT DO THIS )

all i ended up with was instant golden hue and had to re acid and

damp wipe / then damp metho wipe / then damp thinners wipe

tough lesson , its really turned me off going to metal on the other panels as im in a high humidty climate and you can watch the metal turn as your working on another section[8~2]

gtv6 just read your post ...

so the golden hue i flipped about is ok?

Should i still pressure wash .. keep in mind their are LOTS of crevices acid can seep into even though im careful applying so i thought i was on winner with the water wash ..

confused now

Im a bit confused about this etch stuff as well . I have spoked 2 separate crash suppliers to the trade also spoken to area sales manger of ppg and they all say same thing.. Etch prime in the ppg range is the same stuff as 2 pak or acrylic used for bare metal.
Maybe other brands are different.[?]

Bummer, yes the yellow tinge is good, it means the conditioner has worked. No need to pressure spray, youre not trying to remove the acid just neutralise it. Be sure to blow hard to get at places with air to dry them. To remove rust/old paint in hard to get at areas I use the clean and strip disks, keep them moving as they heat the panel up real fast.

Be carefull when talking to crash repair guys as they work different to restorers. eg many crash repairers say to bog over bare metal, restorers say never bog over bare metal as the heat causes condensation which will rust later. Makes sense. How many times have you seen bog fall out or crack due to rust under it? The restorers (who taught me) say to only bog over epoxy primer.

When talking to reps make sure you tell them which system you want to use, metal condition followed by epoxy primer, or etch primer followed by normal primer. They are 2 different methods. The way we were taught was based on ppg products.

To strip rust I sand with 80, then 120 then metal condition. I use 40 to remove bog and 36 on a 7" sander (or clean and strip disk) to remove tough rust.

Again mg pics (still doing capri mechanical first)of before and after sanding procedure (not metal conditioned yet)




Before



After

So to summarise the method I was taught and use is.
Strip
Sand
metal condition
epoxy primer
bog
more epoxy primer if bogging takes you past allowable time
high build primer
guide coat then block back
colour coat
clear coat

Thanks GT ,

My arsenal of tools to rid the etch prime over the rust include:

60g metalite ( clothback tough norton paper)

60g dry cut

Strip discs for grinder

Wire brushes of various sizes to suit drill and grinder

palm sander

6 inch DA air sander

Threw the stripper over my shoulder after it wouldn't take on the fiddly bits

and finally i also use what's left of my finger tips on a file on hard to get at areas [88]

> HB Gt , im using the epinamel ( 2k ) straight onto the cleaned / treated metal as it gives a large window ( 3 - 6 months ) of un - topcoated time to allow bogging etc , its marine grade

I originally used etch prime and by gee ive learen't my lesson about walking away from that stuff and leaving it unsealed

i covered the bay up with a couple of heavy sheets to keep the night air off and it has done the trick , no evidence of the R word

another day in the bay and she's ready for the 2 kay

Even though you cant see any new rust I would still go over the whole with with metal conditioner again right before painting. For the sake of an extra 45 mins better to be safe than sorry - but that's just me.