silviaz

Above you mentioned you only need to sand primer if there's an issue with it but with fillers it says the surface needs to be sanded to X grit beforehand. Does that sorta contradict that point as the primer hasn't been sanded yet? At the same time if I sand the primer, there's a good chance I'll expose the bare metal and I'm just chasing my tail at that point. Or I'll just use a sand sponge instead of sandpaper, it seems to be far finer in terms of abrasiveness as opposed to sandpaper. From what I understand, filler is like primer and needs scratches from the sandpaper to help it adhere to the panel. I realised the way I'm doing things is actually a bit counter productive as there's a chance after I put filler I will need to put epoxy primer again as opposed to putting the filler first and potentially no primer if I don't go to bare metal. Will keep this in my mind for the rest of my repairs.

Luckily I didn't put in etch primer as I just found out it's not compatible with my body filler lol. Also just need to sand the panel anywhere between 150-400 grit so I'm in the clear there. It does say to not apply to soft old paint, I assume that means paint that is flaking, peeling,etc

Yep will do, thanks for all the help.

Yep I will use a guide coat after putting filler, I will do it on the whole panel as I'm a beginner so chances I've made quite a few errors. In that photo, I think that was a low spot, I just for example said to pretend it's flat but I will put filler + guide coat after to assess where I'm at. Yep with that picture, the panel is wet as it rained when I took the photo. But all those scratches are completely smooth, I went over it with 240 grit and can't feel it, even with my nail digging into it. I was legit thinking to buy a 2k can and spray primer to see how it turns out but then thought to myself it's going to be a mess doing it haha. Good mention there. Thanks for all that info I think I know what to do next.

Yeah definitely won't. I just thought because this was a quick job, I didn't need more gear even my mask wasn't a proper one but going forward I will use the proper gear. Cheers for that additional info.

Sorry I reuploaded now.

A question. So I've attached some images, the red circled ones are where I put 2-3 coats of epoxy primer to protect it from rust. For the purpose of this example let's pretend I won't put body filler there because it's straight and will put 2k primer 3 coats after it's all done. And the last image the paint looks terrible because my paint/clearcoat was all blistered but the scratches are completely smooth and sanded down (I also plan to prime this entire panel) My question is - If I put 2k primer over all those repairs that you see from all 3 images, do I need to sand it because it might show in the paint or should it be fine as it's all smooth and sanded down?

Ah ok makes sense, thanks for that clarification it helps a lot. My PPE was terrible recently, I sprayed a can of primer on a panel and the wind blew and I didn't have safety goggles and the mist went in my eye. Didn't take the wind into account, good lesson learned though lol. I guess if I want to be extra careful I can always scuff the whole panel before putting primer like the other videos are doing.

Ok I FINALLY found a video lol. This took way longer than it should have as I could have sworn I saw multiple videos like this. I kept finding the completely opposite (the correct way of doing this). I wouldn't be surprised if I f**ked this up somehow. I just realised where I've been getting confused and even with other things I work on. I haven't been doing things the regular way instead I'm going a roundabout way of doing things, like putting epoxy primer first then filler for example instead of putting just filler then primer on top of that, then wondering what happens if I get that primer on the clear coat that I haven't sanded yet. This was a bit of an epiphany 😂 But anyways, here this video. Time stamp, 2:56, some of the primer lands on the paint unscuffed above. You can see from the reflection it looks shiny.

It does, this part circled in red. I assume the OEM bolt might not work well with the poly bushing because the dimensions may be different?

Yep I'll find those and get back to you. To be honest I wasn't aware of data sheets until you mentioned it. I'm still new to this haha, lots to learn. My car is parked outside, it rusted in less than 24 hours lol. Only minor surface rust that was easily removed but I've been worried that it might rust from the inside out and screw me over in the long term (if I decide to keep the shitbox for that long).

Sorry I meant nismo bushes in the J arm, not the actual gktech upper camber control arm.

Thanks for all that information I appreciate it. To answer your questions: - Yep that's what I mean. These guys are professional painters to so I must be missing something. It's a bit hard to explain. - With the primer landing on clearcoat, I make sure that the surrounding clearcoat is scuffed to 240 grit as my epoxy primer says that I only need to sand the area to 240 grit. - Yeah so similar to the first question, assuming that the paint landed on the unscuffed clearcoat because I've seen that happen. - Yep I want to prep the surface in that order. Only reason because epoxy primer will protect it from rust and I need that atm with this crappy Sydney weather. I think I was worried about time, if I try to put the filler down but screw it up somehow and I don't have time to sand it off and reapply it then need to put primer later that it might start to rust again so I wanted to apply the primer as quick as possible to not deal with rust. - I just deleted some answers, I just realised after watching a video and what you said about looking at the data sheet, that I need to read the data sheet on the specific filler I'm using. It's possible now that I put epoxy primer first was a waste of time and need to go to bare metal lol

I did. I went to a suspension guy and he told me because I don't have adjustable camber arms it's the reason why my car veers towards the left if I take my hands off the wheel but if I drive my other every day car and take my hands off the steering wheel it goes completely straight. I think it's common with Skyline's. In order to fix the problem, I likely need gktech camber arms then nismo bushes since I have poly bushes atm, then a wheel alignment after that. With my car if I take my hands off the steering wheel on a really bumpy road before stopping at a light I have to hold my steering wheel somewhat tight otherwise my car will legit just go completely in the other direction quite quickly and I'll slam into something lol instead of stopping straight. I Believe this YouTuber had the same issue and fixed it with gktech arms. At timestmap 6:05 he talks about how the car doesn't veer anymore after installing these arms.

Bit of a similar question, apprently with epoxy primer you can just sand the panel to 240 grit then apply it and put body filler on top. So does that basically mean you almost never have to go to bare metal for simple dents?